Citizens Commission of Inquiry

The National Committee for a Citizens Commission of Inquiry on U.S. War Crimes in Vietnam (CCI) was founded in New York by Ralph Schoenman in November 1969 to document American atrocities throughout Indochina. The formation of the organization was prompted by the disclosure of the My Lai Massacre on November 12, 1969 by Seymour Hersh, writing for the New York Times. The group was the first to bring to public attention the testimony of American Vietnam War veterans who had witnessed or participated in atrocities.

Schoenman had previously worked on the International War Crimes Tribunal founded by Bertrand Russell. Schoenman left CCI in the hands of two New Left anti-war activists, Tod Ensign and Jeremy Rifkin. They were joined in early 1970 by several Vietnam War veterans, including Robert Bowie Johnson, a West Point graduate and former infantry captain, and Michael Uhl, a retired 1st lieutenant in military intelligence.

CCI's first press conference was in Toronto, Canada, March 4, 1970. Ensign and Rifkin convened three more press conferences in the following two months: Springfield, Massachusetts (April 6, 1970); New York City, New York and Los Angeles, California (April 14); and Boston, Massachusetts (May 7, 1970). Uhl then traveled to Sweden and Australia to brief reporters that American Vietnam war veterans had first-hand evidence of atrocities they had either witnessed or committed themselves. CCI continued to mount press conferences in other cities, culminating in a three-day National Veterans Inquiry, held in Washington, D.C. on December 1, 2 and 3.

The testimony offered by veterans at these CCI events provided documentation that American atrocities in Vietnam were not uncommon. This evidence was a counterpoint to the U.S. Army command’s assertion that the My Lai Massacre was an exception. The Citizens Commission of Inquiry leaders asserted that atrocities committed by American soldiers were a result of military field policies like “search-and-destroy,” "free-fire zones" and “forced urbanization,” the saturation bombing of villages believed to be controlled by enemy forces.

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