It took more than a year for word of the My Lai massacre to reach Washington. Last week the Army punished two of the men it considered responsible for that delay. Major General Samuel W. Koster, commander of the Americal Division at the time of My Lai, was demoted one grade to Brigadier General. He and his assistant division commander, Brigadier General George H. Young Jr., were stripped of their Distinguished Service Medals and given letters of censure. That, in effect, ended their military careers.
Before My Lai, Koster had an outstanding military record. He had commanded an infantry battalion...