There is nothing of value to be found in the work of Gareth Porter on the Vietnam War. His work has been widely criticized by both scholars and journalists, seeing his work as propaganda in nature. Vietnam War scholars, such as Dr. Robert Buzzanco, has rightfully pointed out the bizarre arguments that Porter has produced regarding the war and the low quality of his scholarship. (see, for example, Buzzanco's book review of Porter's Perils of Dominance; Imbalance of Scholarship: Gareth Porter’s Vietnam War by Robert Buzzanco in Diplomatic History, Vol.30, No.5 (November 2006).)

But let's take a closer look.

Porter first claims that the Hue massacre was a myth, based on the argument that the documents proving the massacre were forged by the South Vietnamese and later the Americans used these forged documents to manipulate the media into believing the fact that this massacre took place. This is the central argument, which Porter tries to reinforce by pointing out that there are discrepancies in the first reports of the massacre in terms of the numbers of graves as well as executed.

The problems with these arguments, all made in 1975, is the fact that we today have verified documents from North Vietnam on this matter. Some of these documents as well as contemporary American reports on the massacre are available online through the Vietnam Center and Archive at the Texas Tech University, unfortunately their virtual archive seems to be down at the moment. We have eye witness accounts. We have former North Vietnamese soldiers such as Bui Tin admitting to the fact that there were executions in Hue. Even the post-war official history of the Vietnam War published in Vietnam admits to executions in Hue. Porter also commits many errors in his article which does not cast his arguments in a favourable light. The fact that the reports which Porter argues has discrepancies were all preliminary reports and would thus have naturally been incomplete.

An actual issue with the Hue massacre is the fact that there are no reliable numbers as to the amount of people executed. While there is no serious scholar who would deny that it took place, there is no agreement amongst Vietnam War scholars as to how many actually died. The reasons for the massacre is also widely disputed, ranging from civilians being rounded up and executed en masse to hasty executions as the battle of Hue was turning on the North Vietnamese. These are questions that current and future researchers will hopefully one day give an adequate answer to.