If the report of rifles is accurate, it could prove to be significant as Kerrey and others continue sorting out whether Kerrey's unit killed only innocent civilians in Thanh Phong village or whether some of them were working with the Viet Cong. Two reports and a congratulatory note to Kerrey all mention the capture of the carbines, but they had not been mentioned in any of the recent news reports on the incident. As former Sen. Bob Kerrey faces accusations of leading a massacre of innocent Vietnamese villagers, so much hinges on the reliability of individual memories. But psychologists, historians and Vietnam War veterans say even the most vivid battle memories are obscured by time, stress and, sometimes, the guilt of having killed or survived. The passage of three decades dulls and distorts perceptions.
Psychological blocks prevent a stitching together of details.
Some veterans embellish or mentally edit their experiences, and then become so trapped in their lies that they come to believe their own fabrications. And Vietnam, where the Viet Cong enemy could be indistinguishable from ordinary civilians, was a new kind of battleground. Vietnam as a counterguerrilla war was very different from the world wars and even Korea. You never knew where anything might come from. Shatan said his interviews with hundreds of veterans make clear the difficulties they have in recalling traumatic events.