Todd Greentree was a junior officer for the Embassy in El Salvador and was one of the Americans to personally survey the situation by talking with army officials and the local population. He was convinced, as it is listed in his reports, that something bad had occurred in El Mozote and the surrounding areas but there was no definite on exactly what happened, only assumptions he can make based on the cautious behavior of the locals and the uncooperative officials (108). The author’s purpose in The Massacre at El Mozote is to highlight the problem of the misinformation effect triggered by a variety of influential sources. To emphasize, sources found to be mostly credible, such as the media, the government, influential figures and leaders, etc.