Nearly a year after the Associated Press published an investigative report detailing a civilian massacre by United States troops at the outset of the Korean War, a Harvard professor will report to the Department of Defense that he believes the Army did a thorough investigation of the incident.

Charles Warren Professor of History Ernest R. May said yesterday that when Defense Secretary William S. Cohen concludes the investigation of the event, May will make his findings official.

"What I plan to say to Cohen is that the Army has done a very thorough, careful job searching out such facts as you can retrieve in a situation such as this," he said.

May was appointed last November to a panel charged with advising Cohen about the government's investigation of the alleged civilian shootings. Panel members met with military officials and viewed pertinent documents to determine if the Army responded appropriately to the claims made by veterans in the AP story.

"They've done a vacuum cleaner job of doing research," May said. "In my own judgement, it's gone about as far as it can go. It happened a long time ago, under circumstances which were chaotic. It's clear that American troops were in the area and they were not well led."

Drawing on the testimony of American veterans, the AP reported in September 1999 that in late July 1950, U.S. troops killed a large number of South Korean refugees, including many women and children, in a town called No Gun Ri.

Several national media outlets--including The New York Times and U.S. News and World Report--have questioned the accuracy of some of the AP's claims.

The AP reporters, who have acknowledged that one of their sources was not actually at No Gun Ri as he originally claimed, have said they stand behind their story. They won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative work.