The My Lai Massacre
Dixon Shapiro
My topic was on the My Lai Massacre, which is perhaps one of
the most infamous events of the Vietnam War. To begin with, My Lai was a
village with approximately 700 residents, located about 100 miles southeast of
the United States’ Danang base, and the Massacre occurred on March 16th,
1968. Before this event happened, however, we must realize that the U.S.
soldiers’ morale was low, and had almost reached rock-bottom after the Tet
Offensive, led by the North Vietnamese soldier, on January 31st,
1968. A lot of U.S. soldiers lost their lives, from that battle, or sustained
heavy injuries; the Charlie Company of the 11th Brigade lost about
28 soldiers to death or injuries, and were down to about 100 men.
After the Tet Offensive, said Charlie Company went on a
search and destroy mission to the My Lai village; they had been told that there
were members of the Vietcong in the approximate location of the village, since
the village was in an area where they were very active. When the Charlie
Company arrived at My Lai, they only saw women, children, and elderly men, but
no Vietcong. They didn’t even see anyone who could have been of military age.
There was also no resistance when they arrived at the village. Then the
Massacre started; the soldiers began rounding up and murdering the civilians
for about three hours. Some of them even raped and tortured these civilians. Lieutenant
William L. Calley, who led the unit, was even said to have dragged dozens of
people, including young children, into a ditch before shooting them with a
machine gun.
After the Massacre, the majority of the Charlie Company and
higher ranking officers commanding them, decided to cover up the event. They
did this by making sure the majority of the official reports claimed that they
killed about 128 Vietcong, and about 28 civilians. This went on until November,
1969, where the truth about the My Lai Massacre became public.
This event was very important to the war efforts, as it
caused morale to plummet even further. The soldiers also started to wonder what
else their superiors were concealing, and whether or not this war was worth fighting
for. In the USA, the brutality of the Massacre and the efforts of the higher
ranking officers to cover it up increased antiwar sentiments.
Here is my source: The My Lai Massacre
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| The My Lai Massacre |
Thats a terrible thing that happened to kill 300-500 mostly innocent civilians and try and cover it up like they did is just awful.
ReplyDeleteThis is an atrocity. It amazes me fewer people tried to stop this massacre. If it were not for Hugh Thompson Jr. and his helicopter crew that tried to stop this from happening, we may have never even known about this.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing that the United States military would attempt to cover up such a tragedy. When I think of the United States, I think of a country that always has moral obligations close to heart. Many Americans at this time likely felt the same way; as though any war that America would involve itself in would be for a just cause. Incidents such as this one likely caused the public opinion to sway in the sense that they couldn't trust their government or military to be a beacon of good, or to hold themselves up to ideal standards.
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