Similar atrocities occurred in neighboring El Salvador, where US trained troops stabbed de-capitated, raped and machine gunned 767 civilians in the village of El Mozote in late 1981, including 358 children under age 13. Congress ended up funneling almost $6 billion to this tiny country making it the largest recipient of US foreign aid per capita in the world. Wealthy landlords were running the right-wing death squads that murdered thousands of suspected leftists. The death toll from the war reached 70,000.
Freelance journalist S. Hersh in nov. 1969 broke the news that a year and a half earlier US forces had massacred up to 500 civilians in the village of My Lai nicknamed Pinkville for its strong enemy sympathies. Babies, pregnant women and old people had been scalped and mutilated as command of the situation broke down. Not a single shot had been clearly fired at US forces. Indicative of the growing dehumanization of this time, and resembling US attitudes towards the Japanese in WW2 65% of Americans told pollsters they were not bothered by the news of massacre. The only officer found guilty was given a partial pardon by Nixon public opinion strongly in favor.
— But I am just a no one.
— You're not no one — Ichirou said. — That is why I am here. You understand.
Indeed, I have found that it is usually in unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.
— These exhibits you're after, Mr. Rezendes, they're very sensitive records.
— With all due respect, Your Honor, that's not the question. The records are public.
— Maybe so, but tell me, where is the editorial responsibility in publishing records of this nature?
— Well, where's the editorial responsibility in not publishing them?
No man should ever confess to a crime he did not commit.
— Taking a life, that's not important. Her not having one, that is?
— Yes. Now you understand.
— Were it possible, I would have told him before now.
— So you knew all about Voisin?
— Of course. The Court is France. Without evidence, the King cannot act.
— Must I remind you that they are killing infants?
— Perhaps, by letting a few die, thousands more are saved. I shall inform him about the poison when the time is right, and everyone shall know. In the meantime, I beg you, leave Court.
— Never! I am a woman, and the life of even a single child means everything to me.