Marshall Poe is widely known as the Editor-in-Chief of the New Books Network; his voice greets listeners before each episode.  But he’s also an accomplished historian, whose 2023 book The Reality of the My Lai Massacre and the Myth of the Vietnam War explains how the events of March 16, 1968 were generalized by reporters, psychologists, activists, and filmmakers to create a number of myths about the war that now seem unshakable.  Early in our conversation, he states, “What you think about the My Lai Massacre is probably wrong.”  He adds, “This has something to do with the way it has been presented in popular culture, but also with the way it was presented at the time.”  To many people, the Massacre was a spontaneous event, conducted by war-weary G.I.s who were walking through the jungle and “snapped” because that’s simply what the war “did” to people.  As Poe explains in his book and our conversation, that’s not what happened at all.  

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