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In the early days of the Korean War, US forces deliberately attacked and killed hundreds of South Korean civilians, mostly women and children, in the town of No Gun Ri.

The massacre was kept quiet for almost 50 years, until a series of Pulitzer-prize-winning reports by the AP — reports which themselves came under attack by some media outlets.

But once the story of No Gun Ri broke, the Pentagon was pressured to look into it. To no one's surprise (except the victims' families and the soldiers who participated in the killings) the 16-month investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing:

The Pentagon concluded that the No Gun Ri shootings, which lasted three days, were "an unfortunate tragedy" — "not a deliberate killing." It suggested panicky soldiers, acting without orders, opened fire because they feared that an approaching line of families, baggage, and farm animals concealed enemy troops.

It was a lie.

A letter has just surfaced that proves not only that the killings were deliberate, as some of the US soldiers involved have claimed, but that the soldiers were acting under orders:

"If refugees do appear from north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot," wrote Ambassador John J. Muccio, in his message to Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk.

The letter reported on decisions made at a high-level meeting in South Korea on July 25, 1950, the night before the 7th US Cavalry Regiment shot the refugees at No Gun Ri.

My Lai. Wounded Knee. Haditha. No Gun Ri. Americans can no longer claim we are above the cold-blooded brutality that we accuse our enemies of. Only one question remains: How many other of these war crimes are still being covered up?