Need help with a quote

Well this is kinda political so I figured this would be a good place for my question.  My friend and I have spent almost all day on line looking up who said what and what year they said it for a class she has, We haven't been able to get this one...........

"To save the village we had to destroy it"

Now the pages we've found it on say that an unknown American trooper said it and they say that Peter Arnett made it up and a few of them say that Walter Concrite (or however that is spelled) quoted it from an American Major. None of the pages say what year it was exactly from either. Do any of you know who really said it and what year?

Well!  I found one that told me it was said by Peter Arnet about a Vietnamese villiage duing the war.

No exact dates so far that I can find.

1968.

Supposedly Peter Arnett was quoting a military officer about the town Bet Tre. I searched to see when this battle happened and it happened in 1968, so it's likely that Peter Arnett said it in the same year. Click here for the Google cache of the page I found the year on.