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app or on Apple Podcasts. American Scandal uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some

elements including dialogue might be invented, but everything is based on historical events. Some elements, including dialogue, might be invented, but everything is based on

historical research. A listener note, this episode contains descriptions of violence and may not

be suitable for all audiences.

Thank you. It's late November, 1969 in New York City.

Inside a television studio at CBS News, two men sit quietly as all around them crew members get cameras and microphones ready.

One of the men is Mike Wallace, a veteran broadcaster wearing a sharp suit and a no-nonsense expression.

But the pale young man sitting across from him is very different.

Wearing glasses and a pattern sweater, Paul Meadlow is a 22-year-old from Indiana, who served as a U.S. Army private in Vietnam. He fidgets in his seats squinting under the bright stage lights.

He's nervous, not just because he's about to be broadcast on TV across the nation, but because he has a secret to tell.

The crew get in their places, and the director counts Wallace in, giving him the signal

that the cameras are rolling.

We're speaking today with Paul Meadlow, who served in Charlie Company, 11th Infantry Brigade.

Paul, I want to ask you plainly, were you present at Milai on March 16, 1968? Yes, sir. Can you describe

what your unit was instructed to do that day? We were told to search the village for the

Viet Cong and ensure there were none left. And what did you encounter upon entering the village?

There were a lot of people. They weren't supposed to be there. Our intelligence reports said that all civilians would be gone to the market that morning. So what did you do with them? We gathered them up, and these were old men, women, children. Is that right? We didn't know who was the enemy and who wasn't. They could have been VC sympathizers, so we all huddled them up. What happened then? Lieutenant Callie came over and said,

you know what to do with them, don't you? I thought he meant to guard them, but he came back later and

asked why they weren't dead yet. He started shooting, told me to start shooting too. Did you comply?

Yes, I fired my weapon. At whom? At the villagers, the old men, women and children.

...