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The My Lai massacre (pronounced "Me Lie") was a massacre by US American soldiers of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children, on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. It prompted widespread outrage around the world and reduced public support for the war in the United States.1 Background
During the Vietnam War, the Quang Ngai Province of South Vietnam was suspected of being a haven for guerrillas of the People's Liberation Armed Forces and other cadres of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, also known as the " Viet Cong" or "VC". Informally renamed Pinkville by the U.S. military, the province was frequently bombed and shelled. By 1968 almost all homes in the province had been destroyed or damaged. Soldiers were encouraged by higher command to exaggerate body counts in order to give the impression of military success. According to University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor Doug Linder, GIs joked that "anything that's dead and isn't white is a VC" for body count purposes. There is no doubt that many civilians had been killed in the province, fueling existing Anti-American sentiment in the region.
Insurgents were sometimes housed and sheltered by civilians in the area, and American soldiers were frustrated with the perceived complicity of the local people. Together with their inability to close with an elusive enemy, pervasive fear of ambush, and suspicion that the war was being lost, this resentment made violent reprisals against civilians more likely.
2 The massacre
Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, Americal Division arrived in December of 1967. Having lost a well-liked sergeant to a trap days earlier, the soldiers were angry. They were told enemy guerrillas were hiding in My Lai, one of the nine hamlets grouped near the village of Song My.
The soldiers found no insurgents in the village on the morning of March 16, 1968, although they had been psychologically prepared for a major attack. While under the command of Lt. William CalleyWilliam Calley (born June 8, 1943) was an officer involved in the March 1968 My Lai Massacre. He graduated high school in Miami, Florida, and went to Palm Beach Jr. College in Lake Worth, Fla. He later became a conductor for the Florida East Coast Railroa, the soldiers killed hundreds of civilians – primarily old men, women, children, and babies. Some were tortured or raped. Dozens were herded into a ditch and executed with automatic weapons. The precise number reported killed varies from source to source, with 347 and 504 being the most commonly cited figures. According to a South Vietnamese army lieutenant to his superiors, it was an "atrocious" incident of revenge.
A US Army scout helicopterA helicopter is an aircraft which is lifted and propelled by one or more large horizontal rotors ( propellers). Helicopters are classified as rotary-wing aircraft to distinguish them from conventional fixed-wing aircraft. The word helicopter is derived fr crew famously halted the massacre by landing between the American troops and the remaining Vietnamese hiding in a bunker. The 24-year-old pilot, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr.Hugh Thompson was a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. He is chiefly known for his role during the My Lai massacre, during which he was flying a reconnaissance mission. When he understood that US troopers were committing blatant war crimes, Warrant, confronted the leaders of the troops and told them he would open fire on them if they continued their attack on civilians.
While the other two members of the helicopter crew — Spc. Lawrence Colburn and Spc. Glenn Andreotta — brandished their heavy weapons at the men who had participated in the atrocity, Thompson directed an evacuation of the village. The crewmembers have been credited with saving at least 11 lives, but were long thereafter reviled as traitors. It was not until exactly thirty years later, following a television report concerning the incident, that the three were awarded the Soldier's MedalThe Soldier's Medal is a medal of the United States. It was introduced by a law passed by U. Congress on July 2, 1926. The criteria for the medal are: "The Soldier's Medal is awarded to any person of the Armed Forces of the United States or of a friendly, the army's highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy.
