This is not, as advertised, an opinion piece, but rather a thoroughly researched and ably reported description of what happened that terrible day. It puts to rest the idea that these men committed atrocities under the onus of battle conditions. The slaughter was almost casually committed; only Thompson's heroic intervention, his willingness to fire on his own troops, prevented a worse crime. Thompson deserves as much credit as his so-called superiors deserve our unending contempt.
6
Much more information from this report should be included in Captain Medina's obituary; quite an eye-opener.
4
Interesting that Medina died in the area of Peshtigo-Marinette WI. I never knew that he had moved there. I will say that Pestigo is similar to Paraguay in the sense that it is off the beaten path, the interesting Peshtigo Fire history aside.
This explains why so many Viet Nam soldiers returned damaged and haunted.
9
As a former Military Man, I do not Judge anyone's actions in combat. War is an ugly and disgusting business. However as I approach retirement I have become much more reflective in the way I have lived and the actions that I have taken. The men who committed these acts must answer for themselves as they reflect on thier approaching old age and death. I do not take the moral high ground here but I can imagine the surviving members of this unit have some pretty ugly ghosts to deal with at this stage in thier lives.
16
What became of each officer in the "Chain of Command " ?
3
One of them became Secretary of State. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell#Vietnam_War
2
As a child of the early 1970s, my thoughts on war, politics, media and more were influenced by the conflict in Vietnam. This winter, I had the opportunity to spend a month in the country and was startled by my emotional response. For a generation of Americans — even ones too young to have been there in person — it's a legacy that's impossible to forget or deny.
I wrote about my experiences as an American in Vietnam in 2018 on my blog: http://www.twolostamericans.com/to-be-an-american-in-vietnam-2018/
7
A lot of people have expressed interest in body counts. Lt Gen. Ewell and Maj. Gen Ira Hunt put out table for 9th ID's Body Count Ratio.
Ratio of Allied to Enemy Dead Skill Level of Unit
1 to 50 and above Highly skilled US unit
1 to 25 Very good in heavy jungle
Fairly good US unit in open terrain
Very good ARVN unit in open "
1 to 15 Low but acceptable for US unit
1 to 10 Historical US unit average
1 to 6 Historical ARVN average
4
America's napalm genocide in Indochina makes the holocaust look like a mini-course in civics. It represents the ultimate in evil and depravity. Americans simply can't deal with that reality.
13
Come on, not everyone is John.Wayne in the movies.
When I came to Nam in 66 I came across a loose leaf binder in a drawer of an unused desk, something called What Not To Do.
It described various engagements in which mistakes by officers led to whole companies or platoons being killed. Like one where a young officer spotted what looked like a Viet Cong on a hill, had hid men charge and all were wiped out. Some Custer stuff.
Fog of War. All of us Vets know this.
Dirk Borgarde, the actor was based in England in WWII Dept picking targets for RAF. After the war, he found out one of the targets that he thought was a German Headquarters in Normandy was a scool and it was a school day and all the children were killed because of him.
Fog of War.
Ye Who Shall Judge....and all that.
6
As I recall, John Kerry witnessed many such events while serving in Vietnam and later testified before Congress. Some involved felt he had betrayed them. They, of course, were the betrayers.
24
I had a friend who has been a helicopter gunship gunner and told me they would just shoot people for "fun" when they returned to base after a mission. It was unexceptional and routine. Another older friend told me that as a carrier-based fighter pilot in WWII, they would routinely blast clearly marked Japanese hospital ships in the Pacific. And this was our "finest generation" or whatever they're called. We're not exceptional and neither was My Lai. Until we stop romanticizing soldiering and especially until we stop thanking them for their "service" instead of denying the medical care we caused them to need, stories like this will just be aiding and abetting these atrocities.
27
"Black Hearts," is a book by Jim Frederil that describes a similar story in Iraq. The same weak leadership combined with the loss of experienced NCOs led to the brutal rape and murder of an Iraqi family. While the ring-leader was clearly a sociopath, it was a lack of leadership and supervision that allowed the crime to take place.
One major difference is that all the surviving perpetrators received sentences between 90 years to life.
17
The truth about May Lai: Four Hours in MY LAI, anatomy of a massacre https://youtu.be/1NwnnLnvQYA
Nick Turse, author of "Kill Anything That Moves--
The Real American War in Vietnam": May Li was nothing less than "the predictable consequence of official orders to “kill anything that moves.” The Pentagon produced “a My Lai a month”.
Turse reveals fo workings of a military machine that resulted in millions of innocent civilians killed and wounded-what one soldier called “a My Lai a month.”
The U.S. needs to understand that May Lai
Based on classified documents and first-person interviews, a startling history of the American war on Vietnamese civilians Winner of the Ridenhour Prize for Reportorial Distinction Americans have long been taught that events such as the notorious My Lai massacre were isolated incidents in the Vietnam War, carried out by just a few “bad apples.” But as award-winning journalist and historian Nick Turse demonstrates in this groundbreaking investigation, violence against Vietnamese noncombatants was not at all exceptional during the conflict. Rather, it was pervasive and systematic, Devastating and definitive, Kill Anything That Moves finally brings us face-to-face with the truth of a war that haunts America to this day.
16
Would appreciate a former or current army person letting me/us know how many troops are in a 'company'. As in " Capt. Ernest Medina led his infantry company"... Thanks.
3
Squad 10-12 men
Platoon (3xsquads) :30-40 men
Company (3 x platoons) 100-140 or so.
Usually, Infantry Company consisted of 3 rifle platoons and a weapons platoon. The weapons platoon consisted of 2 small mortars (81mm) with crews and 2 heavy machine guns (.50 cal) with crews. This is a variable metric and many companies in Vietnam were not at full strength.
4
No written account conveys the moment like Hugh Thompson's own voice. This interview is remarkable—the man was salt of the earth & a hero (as were others): https://simplecast.com/s/06ce85c2
Our fixation on My Lai is unwittingly part of our collective denial: we treat the massacre as an aberration. The only aberrant thing is that it was reported. But our My Lai racist war crimes were ubiquitous—mass rape, murder, wanton cruelty, torture, indiscriminate bombing, raping of children, murder of children (some 50 of the My Lai victims were three or younger), and more occurred regularly & on a vast scale, with total lives lost estimated at some 2.7 million. In sum, My Lai has become a kind of optical device for looking away from our larger war crimes.
Nick Turse's book "Kill Anything That Moves" is a definitive eye-opener: it makes one shudder to learn how little we have been told about our war crimes. Note also the book's origins: Turse was researching PTSD when he stumbled upon endless accounts of PTSD as a result of having committed or observed war crimes against innocent Vietnamese; i.e., our major exposé began with research on what these crimes did to our own citizens.
All with command responsibility evaded liability & many went on to illustrious careers—names like Colin Powell.
Lastly, "The Memory of Justice" is a sobering documentary companion to Turse's book, on how often war criminals evade liability, even Nazis. Our CIA torturers also walked: we have learned nothing.
19
Reasons why the current nominee to head CIA is so sick. She should be prosecuted not elevated.
3
The war was useless, the troops knew it, and they took their anger out against the helpless villagers.
What a mistake to kill people at the order of your government!
What if they gave a war and no one came?
Think for yourself?
10
If the Cold War was necessary then it was essential that we win it. I think it's undeniable that we won it. Those who flew the Berlin airlift and fought the hot wars in Korea and Vietnam are the heroes of the Cold War but, as usual, the politicians took the bows.
And now, having won the Cold War, we have Russia, not the USSR; a militant, ultra-nationalist, Tsar-like dictator instead of a Soviet Premier, in cahoots with a reactionary Church, and a new Cold War. Funny - I can't tell the difference.
1
When I arrived in Nam in 66, there was very little drug use among the soldiers. I was in the MP's so I had some knowledge of that. By the time I left a year later, it was becoming a problem.
One thing that shocked me. Being a liberal from Greenwich Village with Blacks as friends, I couldn't get over how Black soldiers would call the Vietnamese gooks. Insult them when being served lunch, at the NCO club when having drinks and such.
I guess now that they could do to others what was done to them....
8
Most people just do what they're told. Horrific crimes or praying to Jesus - it doesn't matter.
12
On to 2018: Imagine Cadet-Bone-Spurs (trained through five successful deferments to evade fighting in Vietnam) now instructed by Generalissimo Trumpy McTrump-Face. Does anybody have any doubts about the potential for atrocities that could be committed under order by the present White House occupant? This generalissimo is yearning to use nuclear weapons as soon as he can and there is not one reasonable / courageous mind left in this diminished cabinet to dare be opposed to the Orange Man!
14
William Calley did not serve one day in prison.
He was under "house arrest" and not at Fort Leavenworth or even in the confinement facility at Fort Benning.
There are American service members now in prison at Fort Leavenworth for war crimes.
How many North Vietnamese soldiers were imprison for the civilians they murdered?
How many Taliban are in prison for those they beheaded?
And why aren't George Bush and Dick Cheney in prison as a war criminal for starting a war in Iraq?s
Vietnam Veteran
15
G. W. Bush and Cheney also authorized torture. That is a violation of the Constitution, the Geneva Convention and the Convention against Torture. They defamed low ranking NCOs, charged them with crimes, sent them to prison, gave them dishonorable discharges for doing what the C-in-C wanted them to do, lied repeatedly that "we don't torture" and then boasted they would do it again. Those are war criminals.
8
My father served in the Army in the Ryuku Islands campaign (Okinawa) the last big battle in the Pacific in WWII. All he said about My Lai was "that was nothing compared to what was going on in WWII." War can bring out the worst in people.
16
fascinating to see no discussion or mention of the extreme racism of the occupying american forces that saw all vietnamese, regardless of their allegiance, as sub-human. also fascinating to see how many "educated/informed" nytimes readers who are profess to know nothing about this specific american war crime despite the enormous amount of historical publicity and documentation available on american forces raping children and killing old women. michael herr wrote dispatches over 40 years ago, and yet, americans are still sending undereducated, naive, and often sociopathic young men overseas to kill/rape/torture people. also try googling "tiger force" for more well documented stories about the young american soldiersand what they did in vietnam.
12
Hugh Thompson put his reputation, honor, and life at risk to stop unrepentant sadists from gleefully murdering hundreds of unarmed women, children, and old men, and he deserved our nation's highest accolade, the Medal of Honor, and recognition as one of the few true heroes to emerge from the horror of Vietnam. Instead he was disdained and rejected by the entire chain of command of our military and our leaders in Congress and the White House. Meanwhile, psychopaths like Capt. Ernest Medina were rewarded and got off scot-free.
Capt. Ernest Medina is a mass murderer who, like Lt. Calley, should have spent the rest of his life in prison atoning for his crimes, but unlike the hundreds of victims who were brutally tortured and murdered in bloodbaths at his behest, Medina continues to live a good life and still enjoys his freedom to this day.
Bringing criminals like Medina to justice today, is as important as holding Nazis accountable for their conduct in World War 2. If we ignore the lessons of these senseless, heinous murders in Vietnam, we are doomed to repeat horrific crimes against humanity and continue moving our nation toward darkness. We already have by allowing henchmen and henchwomen who have perpetrated torture and murder under the auspices of our government to rise to positions of power and continue their sadistic subversion of our nation's cause for freedom and democracy.
As Americans, we should all be ashamed by these terrible crimes perpetrated in our name.
18
This article is what I expect from too many white people. It covers a disgrace. Therefore the involvement of blacks is highlighted and insisted upon. White people rarely find occasion to mention blacks in descriptions of triumphs. And of course the truth here is that the chain of command was white, period. But the author manages to try to shame blacks too. Disgusting business as usual
2
Herbert Carter, who was black, shot himself in the foot in reaction to the massacre. He was one of a handful of soldiers out of three companies (not two as the article implies) who didn't participate in the killing. Most blacks, such as Hodges, participated alongside their white counterparts unapologetically. Generally, people obey orders regardless of color or sex. At times, they are more vehement in their cruelty in an effort to belong to the new group. For example, Gina Haspel our current CIA nominee, is female and was an overly enthusiastic administrator of a torture program. "Bloody Gina" they called her because she was so sadistic.
13
The My Lai massacre was a turning point in my life. I was a teenager in Iowa when it became public and it shattered my illusions about the exceptional status of America and its armed forces. I remember hiring out as farm labor and eating lunch one day at the house of the farmer who hired me. There were a couple more teens like me and several older farmers sitting around eating sandwiches and drinking coffee---we were probably baling hay, for what it's worth. My Lai came up in the conversation and the older guys excused it by saying things like, "Hell, you can't tell who's the enemy and who's friend over their. I don't blame them." I remember being furious and saying somethilng like, "Women, babies and old men? Are you kidding me?" The room got quiet. No one argued with me and no one supported me. My life had suddenly taken a different path.
22
I was a recent college graduate in 1970, the summer before Calley’s trial began that November. I drove to my hometown, a small city in Western Kentucky to visit with my parents and take in a festival on the riverfront. My dear mother, who knew me so well, said, “You will see some things tonight that will upset you!” The “Rally for Calley” signs were everywhere. Of course, that same sentiment was sweeping the country, and was the sole reason Nixon took steps to change Calley’s confinement to house arrest and ensure that he served no time in prison.
Next to the horror of the atrocity, that no one was ever punished for it or otherwise held accountable (e.g., Medina’s superiors) fed America’s cynicism. The only person treated harshly by his government and vilified by his fellow Americans was Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, the Army helicopter pilot who spotted the bodies from the air and rescued the ones still alive.
10
In 1972, I had the honor of getting to know a Marine who had just returned from his second tour in Vietnam, now with inoperable shrapnel wounds. He helped me understand what was actually happening behind the distressing headlines. From time to time, he'd share what it was like to be there, stealthily on patrol in the jungle and warily passing through villages. Not only might Vietcong fighters be hiding in a village, ready to ambush the patrol. Women and old men weren't necessarily civilians: any adult could be Vietcong, and children were pressed into service as well. But villagers had to be treated as civilians until they initiated an attack. The tension and stress are unimaginable to those of us who have never served in a war.
What happened at My Lai, and elsewhere, is horrific and unacceptable. Yet, given the leadership breakdown, and understanding a smidgen of the stresses these men experienced daily, how ordinary American soldiers could justify to themselves killing all the adults in a village - while abhorrent - becomes plausible. The rest of their atrocities are beyond comprehension.
2
Is it irony that 50 years later, the Vietnamese (real people, not the dictatorship) wish that the Americans had won? Maybe it's not irony- just another inconvenient fact that CNN doesn't want to cover?
The Vietnamese see South Korean TV dramas now and they yearn for the comforts and freedoms that the South Koreans have. They know it's a former enemy and client state of the USA but they still want what they have. Heck, the South Korean troops were far more brutal than the Yanks ever were but, it doesn't stop this generation of Viet's from coveting nonetheless.
The Vietnamese also look at their own nation's relationship with China and detest being under the thumb of such a powerful and aggressive neighbor. Who can blame them for that ?
If you think about it, South Korea came about regardless of the brutal strafing of civilians by US fighter pilots who were commanded to shoot civilians heading South and yet, the nation now offers a higher standard of living than many places on earth.
# Nobody is ever going to look at Venezuela, North Korea or Cuba and wish for the socialism those hell holes have.
Oh, maybe some professor from Columbia might along with soy drinkers in the village but real people don't want to reside in such dumps.
Hmm, when refugees country shop, they don't choose to go to Vietnam.
1
If I follow your logic, any number of deaths is justified if it brings about economic prosperity. Is that right? I wonder how many of those who perished, or who remember them, would agree.
A Columbia professor, whether or not he drinks soy, is a real person. People are no realer with less education or empathy.
Finally, I'm not so sure you're an authority on popular sentiment in Vietnam. If the Saigon government was so popular, why couldn't it defeat the underfunded rural Vietcong? If Ho Chi Min was so terrible, why was he so effective? He was not Stalin; he was not a vicious mass murderer. He kept up a war for independence until first France and the the United States lost interest.
I guess there still are some still walking around who think Vietnam was some crucial battle in the war against communism. The rest of us realize it was a mistake from the first. The United States should have sided with Ho in evicting the French, and been proud to see the back of colonialism.
14
Nah mate. All refugees want to go to Australia, especially if they're black cause they know how well you guys will treat them. Just like you treatb the indigenous people you stole the country from.
I remember one old fulla who was asked if he objected to celebrations of Australia Day. He said, "No, not if they come as they did originally, in chains.
And I know this is hard for you cause it requires putting down the Forster's and reading--but South Korea was never at war with the US. The US went to war to defend the South from the North.
Oh and the rationale for the Vietnam War was the "Domino Theory". The US was afraid that communism was so appealing it would takeover south east asia and even Australia cause it was assumed thqat all those peoples including yours were equally susceptible.
3
Going by your excellent philosophy, a foreign power would be justified to saturate America with millions of tons of bombs, to defoliate it from end to end with toxic chemicals that produce countless grotequely deformed babies, drive Americans by bombing and artillery en masse into the cities so as to get control of them, treat prisoners savagely and put them in tiny "tiger cages', keep in power a parcel of crooks, and in sum subject Americans to destruction to the extent of a tenth of the population - if eventually there was greater consumer prosperity. All me to congratulate you on your robust way of thought.
2
Calley was given a slap on the wrist, then pardoned.
Hugh Thompson was berated in the halls of Congress and his home was subjected to terroristic attacks and threats.
America lost its soul in Vietnam.
14
This was 1968, not 1967. Those of us who were in Vietnam during that horrible year need to remember what occurred that day.
5
The sad truth is that in so many wars, atrocities are committed unless the authorities make it a point to ensure that the rank and file behave honorably.
While ordinary Americans are outraged by this My Lai massacre because of the graphics , it is also sad that we don't see them in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Palestine . Thousands of civilians are dying regularly but out of sight so therefore out of mind.
7
It is the same designed MACVN strategy of moving the ":sea" i.e., the civilian population to get the "fish." Those our government and military have deemed our opponents.
us army 1969-1971/california jd
1
So, American soldiers got away with murdering 504 innocent civilians, women, infants, children, old men, peasant farmers, and raping many of the women.
What can we conclude but that men are savages, that the military and its training makes men even more savage and brutal, that men and especially white men can get away with murder, that there is no justice for those murdered by the military?
My Lai was not the only massacre or atrocity, nor have the atrocities stopped. The USA has more than 800 military bases in some 70 countries and wherever the military establishes itself, prostitution, rape, sexual assault and violence follow. Wherever the US military has gone, the sexual degradation of native and local women followed.
In George W. Bush's "shock and awe" war on Iraq, one recalls the story of the little boy, Ali, whose entire family was killed in the bombings, and Ali was left as only a head and torso, his arms and legs lost to the bombs.
The military is about killing, they teach killing, they train men to kill, they laud and glorify war and killing and make statues and memorials to the killers. And they call this civilization.
13
The entire war was an atrocity committed against a nation on the other side of the world, a nation that had done nothing to us. And the perpetrators--from the White House on down--went free, except for Calley, who served 3.5 years of house arrest.
7
America’s political and military elite, pumped up in arrogance on the myth of American exceptionalism, drove these young men, and so many of their comrades in arms, to become mass murderers and rapists.
The karma of psychological damage that these troops brought home did enormous damage to our whole country, more poisonous than the outright destruction that we wreaked on Viet Nam itself, where their wounds were eased toward cure in the surety that they had fought a just war for their homeland.
The sadistic evil of My Lai (and all the similar military actions that have not been publicized), the rapid descent of ordinary American boys into such obscene blood-lust, is a harsh lesson that our country needs to keep constantly in mind. Every time our political leaders, like Trump, often draft dodgers themselves, start to beat the drums of war to goad our young people into foreign military action, remember My Lai.
[18.0316.1447]
8
Although accurate, this review does not touch upon the most important aspects. What happened afterwards? The concept of an "illegal" order. The role of mental illness in Lt. Calley. And so much more.
The NYT should supplement and expand. This type of review minimizes the glory of the American military, which was to make these massacres rare but not extinct events
1
Perhaps the lessons learned at My Lai can guide the modern cyber warrior, during an engagement with an enemy who can't be seen, felt or touched.
According to PBS Home Video (2010), Lt. William Calley (at his trial) said:
“If I have committed a crime, the only crime that I have committed is in judgment of my values. Apparently, I valued my troops lives more than I did the enemy. When my troops were getting massacred and mauled by an enemy I couldn't see, I couldn't feel and I couldn't touch. That was my enemy out there. And when it became between me and that enemy, I had to value the lives of my troops. And I feel that is the only crime I have committed. ”(@ 1:11:41)
Cite:
PBS Home Video. My Lai : One of the Vietnam War's Darkest Chapters. American Experience, 2010. 90 Min DVD ISBN: 978-1-60883-210-1
2
It would be both inaccurate and inappropriate to paint all military personnel with the same broad brush of the terrible human ugliness that occurred in My Lai. But the fact remains that even right up to the present, these atrocities, these brutal abuses, killings and rapes continue. There is a laundry list of such events to be found in the history of just the last 10 years in the Middle East, as there is in our mercenary meddling in other "third world" countries over the past century. Horrific, sadistically inflicted suffering and death.
Sometimes, it is from emotional and psychological stress, as with My Lai. Sometimes, however, this is intentional, methods taught by the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, GA (for example), teaches soldiers and covert operatives, as a way to subdue populaces for the benefit of American "interests" (that is to say, corporate profits which are managed politically in Washington).
This is a failing of human tribalism... some of it may be orchestrated at a distance, but when the moments happen, it is real people, in the trenches, in a kind of "Lord of the Flies" primal response, who go off the rails and forget their humanity. Who do not resist abhorrent orders. As long as this behavior is condoned in at least some echelons of our military and our government, it will continue in the coming decades, especially as water and food resources become the wars of tomorrow.
4
you might read Nick Turse's book, Kill Anything That Moves. It documents the fact that My Lai was not an isolated incident, but My Lai and all the other civilian killings were the result of MACVN policies from the highest levels of our government and military and that West Pointers careers were on the line.
Our troops on the ground were just disposables to the careerists.
Warrant officer Thompson was an exceptional human being, as well as Ronald Ridenhour, not present at the massacre, but instrumental in forcing its existence to be recognized.
us army 1969-1971/california jd
3
On April 1, 1971, only a day after Calley was sentenced in prison at Fort Leavenworth, President Nixon ordered him transferred from Leavenworth prison to house arrest. He spent only one day in prison.
5
Many reports on My Lai leave out important details, this does not. This is an excellent report, commendable for it's unbiased tone.
I am reminded of the wisdom of the last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz, who personally prosecuted 22 SS Einsatzgruppen commanders that followed the Wehrmacht as it rolled into Russia in Operation Barbarossa. These SS groups needlessly shot over a million unarmed civilians behind the German advance. In his 60 Minutes interview with Leslie Stahl Ferencz said what he learned was, "War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. All wars, and all decent people."
Fundamentally, soldiers are men trained to revert to being animals that kill, and are then kept in check by their superiors. Unattended uniformed men with guns traditionally cause mayhem and do every heinous thing a civilian would not think of doing. That's what soldiering is - professional murder. The myths invented today about our enlistee military are for public consumption to make evil palatable, it's lipstick on a pig.
12
It is important to note that this report, accurately horrifying as it is, conceals some of the worst of the atrocities perpetrated by our troops on these innocent and helpless villagers.
For the account of a survivor, Pham Thanh Cong, who was 11 years old when he was left for dead among his murdered family, go to the BBC Witness episode broadcast this morning “Surviving the My Lai Massacre”.
[180316.1513]
4
the people responsible for this horror are presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. i'm not sure I get the point of your article. war is bad? good men do terrible things? duh.
1
No, the point isn't that war is terrible or that good men do bad things. The point is that negligent and corrupt leadership invites war crimes and successfully avoids punishment.
We should not be surprised that men under stress sometimes make terrible decisions. New York City police have been known to shoot unarmed civilians to death, and they weren't in a war zone.
But we should be outraged and ashamed that those crimes go unpunished, that those up the chain of command who always claim full responsibility nevertheless evade it. And we can learn from the continuing saga, in places like Abu Ghraib, that the command continues to evade responsibility. When the chips are down, it's always the noncom's fault, if anyone's.
6
My mother-in-law was in Malaysia during WWII. A long time ago I was angry about reports of widespread rape of Muslims during the Bosnian civil war. She told me "all armies rape. The Japanese raped. Then the British raped." I was shocked because I'd only heard about the Japanese abusing civilians. She backed down a little bit and told me "The Japanese were worse than the British but the British raped too. And the Indian soldiers were as bad as the Japanese. All armies rape."
I always remember this when I hear people insisting that American soldiers didn't rape Vietnamese civilians.
9
Medina and Calley were incompetent and both should have been relieved of duty long before the massacre. Both should have been convicted of murder, afterwards. Henderson and Koster should both have been discharged from the Army, as unfit to command anything. Troops who behave as described are no longer fit to function effectively in combat. Historically, soldiers who start to rape and loot and pillage are not only acting criminally they lack the ability to fight together and can easily be massacred in an attack by disciplined enemy forces. The entire event was an atrocity and a disgrace, and it was handled dishonorably.
7
These things happened in Iraq, also. Read about the Haditha Massacre. Also, Erik Prince should be in prison or at least any companies affiliated with him should not be allowed to have deals with the government.
4
americans cannot face the fact that there exists such a thing as war crimes, and that our soldiers behaved as badly as nazis. the excuse that war is always like this is in itself criminal as in enables the crimes. my generation fought against the war, understood these were crimes, and that the crime began with our presidents and carried down to those who carried out their orders. how many vietnamese died? and then, how many died in this fashion? unless we can account for and oppose the crimes we will continue to rationalize these actions down to the present, with a president only all too willing to carry our "american exceptionalism."
7
On order of President Nixon Calley was transferred from custody to house arrest with his girlfriend for three years before being released.
4
Almost lost in the narrative details is a salient, shocking assertion: that indiscriminate rape of Vietnamese women had become standard procedure, at least for Charlie Company. May God have mercy ...
8
Really painful to read. I understand how the Germans must feel 70 years later.
5
Fighting a war - especially a meaningless murderous one in which officers and soldiers have no “patriotic” reason, no personsl feeling that we’’re doing this for ... for ... uh ...
... Means atrocities will occur with terrible frequency.
I am sure that, fighting for their country , freedom from corrupt governments backed by the most powerful military on the planet led some members of the NLF to commit atrocities too - for all armies have those who do.
But the US forces, the evidence shows the rate of war crimes surpassed the level of Islamic militants who, not even understanding their own faith, and use rape as a weapon. Why? They have been misled about what al Islam means, but they believe they are fighting FOR something - not just because they were drafted.
1
The My Lai Massacre was not an aberration. It is the real face of American Imperialism.
M
10
Pilots like John Mcain but especially B-52 commanders often killed hundreds of civilians at a time. Remote control killing does not dilute the crime. The United States has not been in a legal war since 1945. Thankfully Russia and China, who lost millions of citizens in WW2 realize that armies are obsolete, and use computers and economics to place their proxieson the seats of power and remove billions of dollars.
This article only echoes the thought distortion that a bullet or a single man is more or less moral than carpet bombing a city or county.
4
China and Russia/USSR haven't deployed troops with the intention of violence? Really?
1
Although this is entitled "the truth about my lai" as if this were news, there's no news here. This truth is indeed the truth, as far as we know, because we have all known this since about 1971 if not much much earlier. If the point is to tell a new generation that the Viet Nam war was no more than a series of murders wrapped in the sham of the domino theory, it would be better to just say so. We've all known the war was an immoral travesty justified by events that never happened, and that the U.S. Army is nothing special as far as soldiers are concerned. I suppose this should be retold from time to time. But in that case it merits more than a small piece in a series of stories seemingly lamenting the faux nostalgia of lost times.
3
The CUPP Marines of Golf Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Marines, assigned squads of 15 Marines to protect various vils by constant patrolling in and around the vils, setting at least one ambush on a trail into the vil at night and training the young and old males to defend their vil. One of their hardest jobs was discovering and disrupting the Communist infrastructure in the vil.
In 1989, I returned to the CUPP Marines' area of operation with press credentials and a handler assigned by Foreign Ministry. The People's Committee decided who I could interview and attended every interview. The villagers crowded into the hootches and audibly reacted to what they heard. The interviewees seemed eager to please the people's committee in their 15-minutes of village fame. Nevertheless, almost every villager seemed to be part of the infrastructure--rice collector, Viet Cong recruiter, messenger, makers of mines and boobytraps, those who placed and set mines and boobytraps, spies who reported where the Marines were and what they were doing. It's possible that most of the women and children murdered in My Lai were part of the Viet Cong infrastructure.
That is not to excuse anyone at My Lai. I'm pointing out that there are no war criminals above 5,000 feet although the US firebombed Japanese cities and terror bombed Dresden to destroy civilian morale.
2
Possibly the large participation rate you discovered in your visit demonstrates we had no business intervening in the first place, making the US guility of a war crime, a war of aggression.
us army 1969-1971/califonria jd
3
Civilians had no choice. They were given assignments by the VC. Some were hard core but others followed orders to avoid public execution as a lesson to others.
2
Abu Ghraib shows us that much the same is likely still happening.
3
I disagree about about the supposed fairness of adding moral relativism to the story. Every evil act must be judged by itself. Thankfully, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson took decisive action instead of rationalizing what he saw happening before his eyes.
3
And then there is Richard Nixon who interfered in the Paris Peace talks and prolonged the war to beat Johnson.
I consider this to be much worse than Watergate.
But the first US mistake goes back to WWII. Ho Chi Minh helped the US by fighting the Japanese. When he asked the help of the US for independence from the French, the US sided with France.
Then France abandoned Vietnam and left the US with their mess.
And finally, Wall St. went to Vietnam in the 1990's and helped them create a real estate bubble.
5
It seems to me that this story has been told and repeated perhaps a thousand times. There's nothing new here. The Vietnam war was terrible and many many American men were sent to their deaths there. I grew up with that, I know that, perhaps the Facebook generation has no clue but I want to put it in the past. Enough already.
1
This is an interesting but incomplete report about the massacre. Medina was put on trial and denying that he had ordered Calley to murder civilians was found not guilty. However, his trial did have some circumstances worthy of examination. After World War ll, war crimes trials of Japanese soldiers were conducted and a number of them were executed. Of interest was the trial of General Yamashita, who commanded troops in the Philippines and was executed, not because he knew of their atrocities or had ordered them but because he should have known and, thus, order them stopped. This definition of command responsibility, that it was the duty of an officer to know if the men under his command were out of control, was to be come part of the Army manual. At Medina's trial it was established that Medina neither knew of Calley's actions nor had he ordered them. The trial judge ruled that in the absence of actual knowledge of the murders, Medina could not be convicted. The trial judge, although an expert on the laws of war, never used the Yamashita rule that Medina, as the officer in charge, should have known. The mistake, if it was one, meant the doctrine of command responsibility could not be applied to those officers above Medina, which meant that the responsibility and any other trials ended at Medina's level. Thus Barker, Henderson and Koster, to say nothing of Westmoreland or even McNamara, could never be brought to trial for failure to control people like Calley.
6
Medina was there, he participated in the killing, he ordered that the troops kill anything that moves. The officers above Medina participated in a deliberate cover up and the trial itself was part of the cover up. You need to read more about My Lai.
5
Dear AGM, you miss the point. Legally, the My Lai affair stopped at Medina, because the trial judge misread, if that is the word, the Army manual's rules. So, suppose he read the rule correctly that Medina should have known that Calley was out of control, even if he did not have actual knowledge of the murders. Medina would have been convicted under that rule. Then with that precedent, charges could have been filed against the next in command, Barker, and on up the command chain. Get it? Who knows where that might have ended? Read the Peers report which gives a clear explanation of command responsibility, as well as an analysis of the degree to which the military concealed the crime. As for Calley, he was a scapegoat, but a guilty one, something large parts of the American people refused to acknowledge, even today.
2
My Lai is obviously a War Crime, but the problem is that when you start a War you are in the high way to War Crimes. How many civilians were killed in post-combat operations in Vietnam? How many people were tortured and killed under interrogation? How many perished because of un-targeted carpet bombing? How may died because cancer following agent orange deforestation efforts?
Criminal of wars should be persecuted, but the the problem is that, as for the current IRAQ and Afghanistan wars, the number of people involved in crimes during a is massive and goes all the way up the chain of command. We are still waiting to see G.W.Bush indicted for authorizing torture ...
8
I lived through this scandal, although I didn’t have direct knowledge. I was in Viet Nam in 1970, so I have indirect familiarity of the zeitgeist. I was still in the service when it became a news story.
The individuals involved should have been given life time sentences. Of course, no one was. And, the “fundamental decency of this American people” was proven to be a joke, a fraud, by the fact that most of them defended Calley, Medina and all the others - except for Hugh Thompson. They weren’t even dissuaded by that famous picture showing 20 or 30 bodies of small children, babies, old men, old women lying in a mass killing site/ditch.
All the threadbare excuses were latched onto and used to rationalize these kinds of war crimes. Have we learned any real lessons? Don’t be ridiculous.
7
It's unfortunate that Donald Trump had bone spurs that kept him from being drafted and serving in the military. Undoubtedly if he had gone to Vietnam, he would have Made America Great and the whole debacle of American intervention there would have been different, Charlie Company would have all received honors, and no one would be reflecting on fake news like what happened at My Lai. We can rest securely in the knowledge that at last Donald Trump has his chance at last to Make America Great Again, that henceforth anything like My Lai will simply be wiped away, called fake news.
7
As long as there have been wars, there have been war crimes. Anyone who thinks that My Lai was the only instance where Americans did such things is missing the point. Americans, South Koreans, ARVN, NVA, Viet Cong, everyone got in on the "action." Truth is not only the first casualty of war, it is often the last one as well.
6
This is an example of how leaderships careless remarks, actions, and or outright bias produces war crimes. This is also an example of why D Trump's careless remarks, actions,and or bias is so dangerous to America. White Supremest, Alt Righters, and other nasty people get the impression that their hate actions are condoned and maybe even being asked for. Leadership sets the tone for the actions of the rank and file. This is true for the military, corporations such as WFC, and for our country as a whole.
5
A smiling Air Force general I saw on TV said, "We are not a police force. Our job is not to keep the peace. Our specialties are destroying property and killing people, so if you need property destroyed and people dead, call us in. That is what we are trained for and what we do."
3
After Kelly was sentenced President Nixon ordered that Kelly be immediately released from prison under house arrest pending his appeal. Three years later, after losing his appeal Kelly's sentence was eventually commuted to time served----from his house. Kelly was only one of many Vietnam War criminals.
By Nixon's extraordinary act regarding a convicted war criminal--a man convicted by military tribunal, Nixon sent the wrong message to our forces. Medina was acquitted.
3
After viewing the photos of MyLai in the Saigon Atrocities Museum, I didn't go past it and left the museum. The Viet Nam tour guide said to me, what happened is understandable. The American soldiers were young, they were scared, their friends had been killed. You can't completely blame them.
4
Christopher J. Levesque is still perpetuating a myth, still suggesting that My Lai was the result of troops going rogue. There was another massacre in an adjacent hamlet, Co Luy, on the same day perpetrated by Bravo company where 92 people were killed.
Captain Medina did not tell his men to kill any one who resisted. He said in plain English, "Kill anything that moves." Medina participated in the killing of civilians himself.
A more thorough accounting of American atrocities in Vietnam, including My Lai can be read in two books:
'Kill Anything That Moves' by Nick Turse, 2013
'The Deaths of Others' by John Tirman, 2011
I don't understand how people can continue to perpetrate an official lie when there is ample proof and research that proves otherwise. Are they trying to curry favor with the military, the powers that be? Do they think it's a patriotic duty to lie to the American citizens?
5
Your first sentence sums it up.
us army 1969-1971/california jd
1
We Americans have never learned from history and therefor doomed to repeat it. 16 years in the Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires, tell me what have we learned.
1
In this pit of darkness the shining light is Hugh Thompson, who among other things kept civilians from being murdered, air-lifted many to safety, and when back at base caused such a racket that the search and destroy mission was called off. Later on he would testify against the responsible soldiers at trial. For his efforts Thompson was ostracized, threatened and attacked , not just by the military , many American prejudiced by the emotions of the on going war, considered him a Vietcong sympathizer. Through it all Thompson stayed firm, and true to doing the right thing just as he had done in Vietnam. 30 years after the event Thompson was awarded the medals and proper respect a hero deserves. But in actuality he needed no medals or recognition, the righteous and those who fight on the side of the angels against evil no matter where they find it are blessed in their own mind and soul in ways no man can enumerate. These are the men who by their action under pressure reaffirm the human race in the eyes of man and God.
7
I support what Thompson did completely.
The award of medal was great, but it should have the medal of honor.
However, in my view, medals are something the ruling class gives the poor.
Instead of or in addition to the medal, they should have given the Calvinist standard of american morals, money.
us army 1969-1971/california jd
3
Several officers and several enlisted men should have been convicted, Enlisted soldiers know an order to kill civilians is not a legal order.
2
On June 9th 1967 the Senior Class of Murray High School graduated 110 children prepared to become adults.
Bill was drafted into the US Army, Charlie enlisted in the Marines & Tom was also an Army draftee.
None of them was alive a year later.
Charlie stepped on a land mine as Point Man for his patrol. Tom died in the Medi-Vac Huey enroute to a field hospital from injuries suffered in a fire fight.
Bill was the radio Man for Charlie Company & on March 16th 1968, just 8 months after leaving High School & exactly 50 yrs ago today, Bill was having reception problems due to the dense wet jungle overhead and a radio which was 10 yrs old when it was deployed from inventory. The Lt. of his company, also named "William" Calley was as green as grass & as authoritative as his commander Capt. Ernest Medina, by all accounts they were reactionary "Blood & Guts" officers, gung ho but lacking the experience of the "grunts" they commanded. Bil was order out into an open field in order to transmit the company's "sit-rep" & while 100 yrds away from the rest of the patrol he was shot by a VC sniper. Severval of his compatriots attempted to rescue Bill but all were ordered back by Calley, they claimed he could have been retrieved & returned to the company. Instead Calley took the "safe action" & to not risk anyone for the sake of a radio or a wounded man! The Grunts boiled over & wanted to frag Calley on the spot.... they would have self respect today if they had.
I was Bill Weber's schoolmate.
9
I was struck as I read this by how little we know about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps in 50 years we will learn those truths.
4
I will speculate that My Lai was NOT the worst instance that occurred, but merely the worst instance that was exposed.
Lessons re-confirmed for the umpteenth time (we never actually learn lessons):
1) Anyone, and I mean ANYONE can be a part of a mob capable of, and engage in mass atrocity. Americans are NOT exceptional in any way, shape, or form. What hubris to think that we are. Let's face it, American troops in this event were in effect acting as a mob.
2) Atrocities such as My Lai have been committed by all sides in every single war since the beginning of time, and on up until a minute ago. Somewhere this instant an atrocity is in progress.
3) Consequences for leaders in events such as My Lai are exceedingly rare. I can only come up with Nuremburg at the moment. Even there, a handful of 'leaders' are singled out, but it took thousands of people to keep the vast death infrastructure humming along. It took the entire mass infrastructure of the US military machine to make these My Lai events possible. My Lai was NOT the ONLY event.
Details such as demographics, experience, whatever is irrelevant. Details only become important if we are actually going learn something. We didn't learn anything, thus the details are just noise.
4
We need to tell the story of My Lai over and over. It is the truth of war and the truth is the only thing that can prevent it. Unfortunately, our current president has no idea and he has a big button.
5
Prior to his promotion to Brigadier General and Assistant Division Commander of the American Division in Vietnam, George Young, was the commander of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division stationed in Schweifurt, Germany. I was his Brigade Intelligence Staff Officer or S2. A soldier brought me a classified document he had found in a trash can. I reported this to the documents originator at HQ 3rd Division to prevent potential compromise of its contents. COL Young was notified that I had reported this to Division without first informing him. He chewed me out for putting the security of classified information before his reputation. I believe this was a pattern that repeated itself with his role in the coverup after My Lai.
8
Yes, your experience captures the career problem concise and clear.
us army 1969-1971/california jd
2
The first exclusive photos of My Lai were published by the Cleveland Plain Dealer in a 1969. A college student by day, I was bartending nights at my dads bar, The Rockwell Inn in Cleveland, the goto watering hole for Plain Dealer reporters and pressmen among many other loyal thirsty patrons. The cameraman, Ron Haeberle, was a soldier from Cleveland who gave the exclusive to Joe Ezsterhas, one of our customers. At the time I was 19 and lucked out on the draft: number 365. So I didn’t go to Vietnam. I’m thankful for that. But I had a lot friends who did. Some did not come back. Anyways, here’s a link to another story about the exclusive story that ran in the PD in 1969:
http://www.cleveland.com/plain-dealer-library/index.ssf/2009/11/plain_de...
5
Pacifica radio- Amy Goodman had a very good story about this today, interviews of ex-soldiers who were involved in similar incidents at the same time. NPR had little or just fluff.
4
Let's also remember the heroes in the helicopter: Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, gunner Lawrence Colburn and crew chief Glenn Andreotta who died only a few weeks after stopping the massacre. May their names live forever.
10
Colburn died of cancer Dec. 13 at his home near Atlanta, Ga. He was 67.
3
Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr. (April 15, 1943 – January 6, 2006)
3
My Lai was only one of countless American atrocities in Vietnam. Read Nick Trurse's "Kill Anything That Moves" to get a frightening idea of the sheer scale of U.S. destruction of Vietnamese society with millions of toms of bombs, massive chemical defoliation, napalm, driving the peasants into the city slums so as to be able to control them, above all, killing anything that moves in arbitrarily designated "free fire zones". Millions perished at American hands in a population of only 40 million.
8
Lieutenant Calley was not released from "prison" in 1974. He was basically under house arrest. This was a serious war crime that went largely unpunished. A stain an America that we will never wash away. Today we slaughter civilians instead with air strikes or drones.
10
Wasn't future general Colin Powell also an upper level cog in the cover up?
4
The essential second act of My Lai is recounted by J. Houston Gordon in this remarkable column from a recent edition of the Memphis Commercial Appeal:
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/03/09/5...
1
How many civilians were killed by US bombing in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia? One million? Two million? The entire episode was a war crime. There should have been Nuremberg-type trials of the entire American political and military leadership. Maybe then the bloody trail of US imperialism that continued after Vietnam, from El Salvador to Iraq, could have been prevented.
6
It is a mistake to portray My Lai as something uniquely horrible. It was not. Those things happened a lot of times and it was only by chance that this one came to light.
3
Mr Thompson’s report of this instance was not a chance affair but the of the heroic actions of an honorable officer and American patriot.
5
I am struck by some comments that reflect a perception of the conduct of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, e.g.:
"The said truth about My Lai is that there were thousands of these events in Vietnam. This was the only one that truly got the attention of the press."
"My Lai proves that we are not as exceptional as we like to think and why some of my friends who served in Vietnam never talk about it."
In "The Drunkard's Walk", a book recommended by the late Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow analyzes probability and randomness. He explains that the probability that a 40-per-year homerun hitter (Roger Maris) would explode for 61 home runs within the 70 years following Babe Ruth's record was more than 50%. Probability might also explain why a 16 seed finally beat a 1 seed in the NCAA tourney.
War is an atrocity that puts soldiers into a Hunger Games kill or be killed situation. Each soldier will have his own experiences and his own reactions, but there is also a group dynamic. The probability that some random assemblage of 27 soldiers would react as Lt. Calley and his platoon did would not seem unlikely.
The flaw with these comments and the perceptions they reflect is the notion that the behavior of Charlie Company was something other than an aberration way outside of any norm. I served in combat in Vietnam 1968-69. I never heard even a rumor of anything like My Lai. Generally soldiers served honorably - and this was not exceptional.
2
As a 1st Lt in the Army, my college roommate was simultaneously put up for court martial and a silver star for his actions in a 5 min. Firefight.
1
The long story of the Vietnam War is the failure of command. My Lai is but one chapter in that long story. The failure of command is particularly evident in the cover-up. Lt. Calley and his company commander, Capt. Medina, lied about their actions. Senior officers supported the the cover-up.
I can understand the impulse of officers to protect and defend the soldiers who are carrying out their orders. Cover-ups are nothing more than adopting dishonesty as policy. It may work for a short time, or even a long time, but in the long run truth will out.
The great failure of command in Vietnam is that the most senior officers adopted deception and dishonesty as official policy. For a while they fooled their civilian leaders. In the end they fooled themselves. In doing so they perpetuated a war that should never have been fought.
9
Protect and defend their own. The same can be said about silence in other "brotherhood" - police, priests...
5
Thanks for this piece. It illustrates how the 'culture' of the division is established at the top.
So there is the war crime, an event followed by a coverup. Sound familiar? The ambitions of the senior officers led them to cover up to assure more metals and pins for their uniforms/service records at the expense of these grunts. And the coverup insulated them from their involvement in the dynamics. Command abused their power and the grunts were their lackeys.
The grunts were set up because their unit did not have the experience or strength when they arrived in VN. The heavy casualties is evidence. The command leadership set them up as pawns because command knew this unit was a weak force.
And it gets worse. The command then needed a scapegoat to take the blame for the massacre, and Calley was their man. Not Captain Medina, not anyone higher up. The command leadership sanitized their own roles, practiced deniability, and perfected their lies.
A military tribunal should have brought company and division leadership forward to account for their actions and coverup. War is all about killing. This is so for all soldiers of all countries, for all wars and conflicts. This opinion piece made me ill-- because these men did the dirty work for me as a citizen back home and because I did not know the backstory to the My Lai massacre. Thanks to Thompson and Colburn for their morals and ethics. Truth needs witnesses, and they came forth.
"War is over if you want it."
7
This post is about obeying Geneva Conventions unconditionally!
I am a survivor of the 1956 invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Military. I was an engineering student at the Technical University in Budapest.
I first worked on a makeshift ambulance.
Eventually, I took the kit of a Hungarian wounded and stayed behind. The last legitimate Hungarian government was a signatory of the Geneva Conventions and we had to obey them. Unfortunately, the Soviets did not and the GRU did battlefield interrogations with an AK bayonet! I was an ROTC Sargent Major and it was very difficult to keep Prisoners safe as per our orders. We kept them in a downtown prison and they all survived unlike us who were immediately executed after the GRU finished interrogating any captured Hungarians. I survived because I was farther into the town center than the area around the Kilian barracks that was first flooded with some kind of gas. When you see a chocking mother and her baby being shot after escaping the basement of a crumbling house you go home. The civilians told us that the Russians made a radio broadcast and gave us 6 hours to give up and walk across their lines. I will never forget the face of a Russian kid peering over the edge of his APC. He actually smiled at me. He was freshly shaved. I am absolutely sure that he felt the same way about his own government like we.
6
It all comes down to the sordid strategy to search and destroy. This modis operandi has not been adequately explained and was never, ever going to work. So the only goal that the ground troops were expected to achieve was a complete farce. That is, turning our military into a giant killing machine having to achieve high "enemy body counts" and burning villages to the ground. Never had the US ever officially declared that ordinary soldiers were to follow, en masse the policy of trying to completely kill the enemy in order to win a war, a war which didn't try to occupy and pacify the enemy's territories. Rather it was to somehow wipe out, to kill an entire nation. It was just an impossibly nonsensical military goal.
Out of this one story of a massacre we cannot look away or rationalize the idea that somehow our Army, Air Force, and Navy would defeat the enemy simply by killing everyone. If the official policy is that no one can tell the difference between friend or foe then by definition the whole country side needs to be destroyed. Completely, along with huge numbers of dead people we believed were at least sympathizers on up.
This strategy will always create My Lai massacres. It's actually just part of the genocide. When nobody is left to fire back then we win. Really!? This has never worked historically and just turns young men into killers for the sake killing.
Not all soldiers can handle this mission as evidenced by W.O. Thompson and his men, along with many others.
6
Drafting 17 and 18 year old boys (and now girls) into the military and turning them into killing machines is cruel and disgusting. Young males are particularly susceptible to engaging in violent and destructive group behavior to prove their masculinity especially when older males establish the behavior as an expectation of the group.
Shame on the adults in this country. War will end when the age of conscription is 30 and its conducted via a lottery. But the catch 22 is that this will only happen when the almost exclusively male gatekeepers of the military and political defense system are as likely as any random 18 year old to be given an assault weapon and commanded to kill or rape a 10 year old.
While military officers in civilian posts are less likely to support troops on the ground for this very reason, even they seem unable to unequivocally take a stand for resolving conflict peaceably. The military industrial complex is a human invention and humans can dismantle it but it will require those benefiting from the most from it to begin the process. We need real leaders and we need military leaders to start publicly denouncing the use of violence to resolve conflict, before it is too late to do so.
3
And Americans criticize other countries about human rights violations?
We're one of the most hypocritical countries on earth, that's for sure.
6
An awful chapter in human cruelty. With impunity to date (mostly). It is mighty difficult to imagine a new war concocted by Trump and not see a repeat of inhumanity. Who are we?
4
I never understood why Calley only served three years in prison, and I still don't. He should have received a life sentence
I never understood why more people didn't go to prison, and I still don't. Everyone found to have participated in the cover-up should have been tried as accessory to murder after the fact and been sentenced as murderers.
I do, however, understand completely why the United States has gotten such an awful reputation in the international community.
6
It was a war crime all the way of the chain of command, out of the military and into the civilian government. No wonder they did not convict anyone but Calley, and he just got house arrest. After all, they were just dinks, sorta like dogs but different.
us army 1969-1971/california jd
1
War brings out the worse in people. Especially when there is a failure of proper checks by the normal channels of authority. Often senior officers would be focused on the mission than civilian deaths. Today we call them collateral damage to mitigate the tragedy. Even drone attacks in Pakistan killed thousands of civilians and is callously dismissed as collateral damage.
We now have embedded journalists because the horrors of war is too hard to endure by normal folks uninvolved in it. Perhaps we will never have another My Lai, not because it doesnt' happen but it is not reported.
America loves war but has no stomach of losses so she employs high tech weapons like drones, cruise missiles, smart bombs etc so that we don't have to witness the horrific destruction it entails.
7
Most of the U.S. military action in Vietnam was an atrocity and tragedy (seemingly) based on the lies and deceit of Lyndon Johnson, his Cabinet, Congress, and our military leadership. But American Citizen's obsession and worship of chauvinistic militarism was the true cause. Like George W., and Donald J., many who enthusiastically embrace war have no idea of its reality on-the-ground, nor its long-term consequences. They just want to appear masculine and strong for the immediate sound-bite. Where have all the flowers gone ? . . . When will WE ever learn ?
5
So the tragedy will "live in infamy." We are fortunate that our former enemy, in which we had such a counter productive military strategy of 'Search and Destroy', has chosen to forgive us as we have forgiven them. Obviously we accomplished similar endings with Germany, Japan, and Italy. But the fact remains that our conduct is shameful. Not because of our troops but the pure lack of competent leadership from Four Star Gen. Westmoreland. He lied to Johnson, who was not innocent by any means, it's just such a failure of US Military strategy that the whole concept was a complete void of intelligence. I'm sympathetic to both sides of the average, ordinary soldier. Our military leadership under Westmoreland is just disgraceful. We should all be ashamed at some level of proportional involvement. My Lai was probably not even the worst attrocsity committed. Wars always have these terrible moments. There is no alternative to this rule.
R.I.P.
3
How many more massacres have occurred at the hands of our troops in the sundry needless wars we wage? How often have our military leaders lied and covered up to both conceal the truth and advance their own careers? How many of our hidden war criminals have been awarded medals and hailed as heroes? How many billions of dollars has corporate America received from taxpayers to provide the materials of war? How much have they, in turn, poured into the coffers of politicians to champion their contract proposals? I submit that it has been and continues to be pervasive, shameful, corrupt and fundamentally systemic.
5
Thank you for reminding us of this sad, stupid story, which the right wing media did so much to cover up and distort. They even kept trying to champion Calley's cause after he apologized for his crimes. At least the story did get out, though justice was never served.
War doesn't just turn people into criminals; its instigation is sometimes an expression of criminality. 30 some years after My Lai, our country slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, for no demonstrable reason except the profit of military contractors, in our country's illegal invasion of Iraq. Half of the country still believes that the invasion was a good faith mistake (or even that it was justified). The press, apparently embarrassed by its collusion, has done little to disillusion them, and politicians showed no interest in prosecuting anyone.
My Lai was not exceptional for the lack of justice, but for the token justice that was served.
8
Remember, those same corporate capitalist made a hero out the constitution violating marine colonel Oliver North.
us army 1969-1971/california jd
1
I too, like one of my fellow readers, was in junior high when these events happened. I recall it then being described as our country's worst atrocity.
I too, like other fellow readers, found the article powerful and mesmerizing.
What struck me most was how subordinates, with the exception of private Meadlo, were unable to resist Lt. Calley's unlawful directives.
Additionally, the desire of leaders to put a feather in one's hat, to advance one's career, blinded one to the immorality.
Those in the helicopters were able to see the bigger picture and recognize the slaughter.
Despite the patent slaughter, many chose to participate in cover up.
Could this historical event be a metaphor for what we see in today's presidency?
We have a "strong" authoritarian president who believe that rules encumber his ability to get things done. He has anger and hatred for those he sees as different than him. He is unable to judge individuals based upon merit. Those who are different are the reason he and his country men are miserable. He asks his followers to share his hatred.
He chooses to fire those who are disloyal to him, who advise him to be moderate and follow norms of civility.
He threatens and silences those who continue to speak up.
Republicans seem to go along with everything our President does, so long as they get their tax cuts.
Am I the only one who sees the similarities?
7
Definitely this was the worst atrocity American troops committed in Vietnam, and probably worse than any atrocity American troops have ever committed since, or at least I'd hope so.
Might have been fair to point out in the article that this massacre was absolutely unnoticeable to the slaughter carried out by the Vietcong on their own countrymen, or the following genocide in Cambodia triggered by the war. Yes, this was horrible, but America wasn't nearly as vicious or indiscriminately homicidal as the opposition.
Sorry, meant "unnoticeable compared to the slaughter carried out by the Vietcong".
But of course, nobody liked this comment. Everybody here wants to see America as the monstrous bad guy, regardless of how bad the other side might have been. If y'all want to hate yourselves, feel free, but I don't feel any guilt at all over this massacre. I wasn't alive at the time.
And if y'all want to ignore the genocidal slaughters of the winners of the Vietnam war, and the similar ones in Cambodia and Laos, you can do that too. I suppose it's because the victims weren't killed by America, so they don't matter.
Many Americans then, and increasingly since, are inclined to a nearly delusional conception of our citizens as ethically and morally superior. We’re not. My infantry company committed no atrocities and took part in no actions even remotely resembling My Lai. But we were definitely involved in combat sweeps and searches of hamlets. My first was sufficient to convince me that war was no Hollywood movie. Try to sell that to the American people. Do readers have any idea of how many Iraqis Afghans and others in the Middle East have had their lives destroyed by the U.S.?
We even learned nothing. And judging by who was Karen President, and why, we’re not interested in learning.
By the way, Calley wasn’t really punished. Nixon pardoned him. We don’t mind punishing other nation’s war crimes, but God help anyone who tries to judge us.
16
Once upon a time, long, long ago (actually two and a half centuries ago) one of the most liberal countries in the world attempted to impose it's will half way across the world. It didn't work then, and it is unlikely to work in the future, when people fight for freedom.
But George (the third of that name) managed to define how not to fight an insurgent war. Also, he managed to have a new, and unique method of government defined as well clear and unique rights declared in what we now call THE Constitution.
So out of such terrible wars great lessons may be learned.
But it certainly is foolish, when the leader of another country holds the United States of America up as his model of government, and idealizes George Washington, for us to fight him and his country for the benefit of another (France).
7
Most people who see your words won’t understand them Eugene. But thanks anyway.
It was wrong for Americans not to welcome their soldiers home for their service. In war, atrocities do happen. Always have and always will. To conflate My Lai and suggest that all draftees and military service people were also as guilty, is flawed reasoning and simplistic. The soldiers who fought in Vietnam were victims twice. Once for being drafted into an un just war and then victims of their countrymen who spurned them for putting their lives at risk in a far off county that many of us had the luxury to view on tv in our living rooms.
1
What I remember is the Vietnam Vets who were made unwelcome in the American Legion and other veteran's clubs when they expressed the view that they had fought in the wrong war. One needs only remember what happened when one of those ran for President, being a decorated veteran of the Vietnam war didn't protect John Kerry from those pseudo-patriots.
22
Right... and were the massacres reported today you would likely dismiss them as "fake news" and call the truth-tellers unAmerican? Our troops were welcomed home despite propaganda claiming otherwise, despite that is was widely known - even amongst our troops - that it was a shameful, needless war in which every loss of life on all sides was unjustified. Only when we are told the truth sans sanitation, and we are willing to face such truth, are we truly a free nation.
2
In my view, such incidents to which you refer are generally urban legend material. Many veterans went on to success and were welcome in the business communities, as employees, owners and even Congress. It is true, they were not welcomed home like soldiers after World War II, but it was similar to forgotten Korean War reception.
One other thing that different, the educational benefit was reduced from World War II, thanks to the efforts of those parsimonious Republican financial hawks.
us army 1969-1971/california jd
2
This story leaves out one of the worst details of the massacre: 200 children were put into a ditch and machine gunned. Also, public opinion at the time supported Calley. Altogether, revolting.
15
Mr. Levesque--- What is the actual purpose of writing this op ed now on this horrendous event?
What about the men who refused to do the killing?
What % of the group were they?
Why did they refuse?
How were they different from the men who did the massacre?
What happened to them later?
Were they psychologically scarred vs the men who killed the villagers?
That's what would be worth reading, instead of this repugnant regurgitation of cruelty and brutality.
I once read in a book "How Could This Happen: Explaining the Holocaust", telling how a group of Nazi soldiers were ordered to machine gun a row of civilians. Some did so with enthusiasm, some reluctantly but did it anyway, but some were emotionally upset, revolted and refused.
That's what we need an op ed about for both Nazis and American soldiers.
8
This is not an op-ed piece
It is part of a long-running series on the Vietnam War circa 1967.
2
Professor Paust at the Houston Law Center was a prosecutor of Calley's trial.
2
Hundreds died. All of them women, old men and children. Not a single shot was fired at the soldiers. Yet only Lieutenant Calley was convicted. Medina and others were acquitted. On this 50th anniversary, this stain has not been erased. Thanks Christopher J. Levesque.
18
When one is fully confronted with the horrors of war, then avoiding war using every available tool of diplomacy, and soft power, becomes a higher calling...
... and YES... this is about president bone spurs....
... who is everything a president should not be...
7
Hugh Thompson was the only one to act with honor that day, shielding civilians with his little helicopter.
11
Don't forget that two crewmen were with him on that day to provide cover while Thompson recovered the injured. Glenn
Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn should also be acknowledged and remembered as well as the crews of two Huey gunships who served as back-up to Thompson's bubble helicopter.
Also of distinguished note are Ronald Habearle, the war photographer who captured visual proof of the atrocities that were committed and Michael Bernhardt who testified against his platoon and Lieutenant Calley.
Am I the only one that feels this story kind of just stopped in the middle and didn't get a sense from it of exactly why only one man was punished after all?
7
Hugh Thompson showed compassion, courage, leadership. He and his crew were the ones to stop the massacre. They deserve wide recognition for their actions.
11
The incredible irony that the village was called My Lai. The truth always comes out. The murdered will not stay silent.
3
Hugh Thompson should have been awarded the Medal of Honor.
9
For doing the right thing?
Thank you very much to Mr. Levesque for this detailed and well-written account, and thank you to the NYTimes for publishing it. I had heard the name of this massacre but did not know what happened. Reading this made me sick to my stomach -- all of these horrific atrocities happening while I, literally, was drinking Kool-Aid safe at home in the US. I am outraged and ashamed.
8
The late Major High Thompson, described in this article, remains one of America's greatest war heroes. Along with his door gunner, Lawrence Colburn, they stood down Calley and his soldiers, and stopped a massacre in its tracks. On this 50th anniversary of My Lai, let's take the time to remember and honor these two great men. For those interested, here's a video interview with Thompson:
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-39567002/my-lai-massacre-hero...
63
Thank you for sharing this.
2
The third hero is left out in the majority of comments: Glenn Andreotta, the helicopter crew chief. In Hugh Thompson's own words, quoted from Wikipedia:
Glenn Andreotta—if there was a hero, I don’t like that word, but if there was a hero at My Lai—it was Glenn Andreotta, because he saw movement in that ditch, and he fixed in on this one little kid and went down into that ditch. I would not want to go in that ditch. It’s not pretty. It was very bad. I can imagine what was going through his mind down there, because there was more than one still alive—people grabbing hold of his pants, wanting help. “I can’t help you. You’re too bad [off].” He found this one kid and brought the kid back up and handed it to Larry, and we laid it across Larry and my lap and took him out of there. I remember thinking Glenn Andreotta put himself where nobody in their right mind would want to be, and he was driven by something. I haven’t got the aircraft on the ground real stable. He bolted out of that aircraft into this ditch. Now he was a hero. Glenn Andreotta gave his life for his country about three weeks later. That’s the kind of guy he was, and he was a hero that day.
6
Lieutenant Calley was 25 that day at My Lai. A rookie, a beginner as an officer.
Most of the solders were 19 or 20, still boys.
In Vietnam we sent boys to do a man's job. And then when they messed it up, we judged them as we would judge men.
My Lai is on all Americans who supported that war----NOT on the young, scared, pimple-faced, horny, needing-their-mommies boys.
3
True, it's on all supporters of the war... but it's also on those who committed the atrocities despite any blemishes of their complexions or their ages.
3
Sorry, but don't we "send boys to do a man's job" in every war? How old were the boys of the Great War? How old were the boys of the 'greatest generation'? The perpetrators of Mai Lai dehumanized their victims in order to rationalize murder - an act as old as war itself. A 20 year-old understands the difference between right and wrong --- as evidenced by those who didn't participate or tried to intervene. Pimples have nothing to do with it and being "horny" doesn't rationalize mass-rape. Thanks.
However we can agree on one thing --- the human deprivation and degradation of that war is on all those who cheered the likes of Westmoreland on - while waving the flag of course.
3
Jack: the average age of a soldier in Vietnam was 22. In WWII it was 26.
That is a huge developmental difference. And what it means is that the median age for Vietnam was even lower.
These were scared, drafted boys. In a war that nobody understood. They had poor leadership because nobody knew what the purpose of the war was.
You have to realize that you are saying that those boys were evil. They weren't. They were my classmates in school. They were just ordinary kids in a totally messed up situation who believed that their friends had been attacked.
Maybe you should have been there. I worked with Vietnam vets with PTSD for 20 years. Stop being so self-righteous.
A couple of additional thoughts:
Before and after Calley's court martial he received the support of many Americans, including politicians, as being the victim of circumstances and only doing his duty. Hence the very short period of incarceration.
As we learned later with our experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, our military is ill-equipped to fight a war against insurgents operating within an indigenous population. Put aside murder of that population and destruction of their homes, when our troops regularly refer to them as "gooks" or "slants" or "rag heads," real progress in combatting insurgency is impossible.
We can't denigrate the indigenous population in which insurgents operate and expect to win.
9
Gen. Sherman nailed it, didn't he?
"War is Hell."
Vietnam Vet 66-67
7
I was introduced to the concept of Jus ad Bellum (the Justness of the War) vs Jus in Bello (Just or Unjust actions by soldiers during a campaign) in a class with Stanley Hoffman. While the US should or shouldn't have been in Vietnam in the first place, the stress "in Bello" for these soldiers was unendurable. That their generals and the executive branch didn't understand the realities on the ground is well known. People who did not walk in the boots of those soldiers are not capable of judging them or their actions.
As a German-American scout from Patton's command once scolded me as I was "playing war" with my friends, "War is Hell." To judge people in Hell from your armchair is repugnant.
Only constant vigilance by cautious leaders can prevent future massacres.
4
So no individual in combat is ever accountable for their individual actions?
8
Not at all, but many readers suppose that they would have behaved in a contemporary, ethical manner. I don't believe Calley was punished enough. The first question is who is to blame for the situation, the second is to determine individual guilt. These questions were dealt with effectively for German soldiers on trial at Nuremburg, but emotional reactions to war crimes in Vietnam have often been leveled at individual soldiers committing atrocities, not at, say, General Westmoreland and other strategists who put the soldiers on the ground. My anger is at well-intentioned, civilian moralists whose standards of ethical behavior are unrealistic in combat situations.
1
Sorry, but all pithy Latin phrases aside, I do judge any soldier that fires his weapon into huddled women and children and I do judge any soldier that rapes and I find your comments to be an insult to the vast majority of servicemen who act honorably in performing their duty. Over and out.
2
I served in the Army during the same period in which the massacre took place, though not in Vietnam. The morale and commitment of the Army in general during that period was in tatters. It was well understood by everyone that telling the truth was a bad career move. As a public information staffer, I covered many retirements of career officers who had begun their service toward the end of or just after WW2. Many were saddened and bewildered by what had become of the institution to which they had devoted their lives.
The "body count" metric led to far more killings than those at My Lai. What people I knew who had served in country said was the near-universal thinking of troops was that "if it's dead, it's a V.C." So men, women, children, dogs, and cows all counted toward the body count that was reflected in officer efficiency reports.
Racism was also surely part of the picture. As one buddy, recently returned from Vietnam, told me in Okinawa "The trouble up here is that, if a gook does something you don't like, you can't shoot him." Racial relations between black and white servicemen in Okinawa were very bad; the only point of agreement seemed to be contempt for the "local nationals." I can only imagine that those feelings were far harsher in Vietnam, where the "LNs" were shooting at us.
12
My father, dead only 4 years, could never understand why I didn’t laugh at the story of his war crime.
He was an occupier of Japan immediately after surrender, learning days after Hiroshima and Nagasaki burned that his Ranger battalion would have been the first to hit the beach if there had been no surrender.
When the going price for a starving whore was a pack of cigarettes, he was sent out by his buddies with a case to bring one back.
Of course since the going rate was a pack, not 12, they figured they had paid to gang-rape her.
At least they let her keep the smokes, and leave otherwise unharmed.
“And she wasn’t even worth it,” he said, shocked that instead of a chuckle, my response was one of horror and sadness....
...That he could do such a thing - and consider it just another proper post-war economic transaction.
14
Perhaps this article will cause a few Ramboists to stop and reflect upon about how sure they might be that their diehard and oft-recycled beliefs, that the Vietnam war was lost because America held back and didn't "support the troops" enough, can hold up against the historical record.
12
One can look for all the explanations in the world for incidents such as this, but it boils down to the fact that war is about killing, and the idea of "humane" or "just war theory" is largely a farce designed to allow some to cleanse their souls and minds from having to kill, and perhaps murder (etc.), other human beings. (It also is designed to be justification for collateral damage, etc.)
A violent environment invites violence to blossom; no one should believe any different. So either the "management", or chain-of-command, if one prefers, can control a massive number of individuals tasked to kill, or they cannot. Generally (read history), they cannot. Imagine how difficult it must be to ask individuals to moderate their emotions, their fears as well as pleasures. Can killing become pleasurable in some sense? I'm sure, or perhaps it just becomes more of a relief that in killing, one is not killed.
Obviously, the fix is No War. Since that's not bound to happen, then there should be extreme oversight, and yep, there aways has been (civilian observers, etc.). Obviously, it is not enough, but the People need to demand it, demand more of it, or let Congress know they won't foot the bill.
Especially since the USA has not fought a "war" since WWII that was legitimate in much of any way.
As to My Lai, we should have had a nice big firing squad all the way up the chain of command. That would then be a lesson remembered for a long, long time.
As it should.
23
There is no need to explain why or how it happened, all we need to know is that men behaved horribly. Of course the men were stressed, it would be great for men to never be stressed by violence, but the behavior was criminal and they should all have been punished. I hope the perpetrators have remorse and regret, and forgive themselves.
4
Many Americans are shocked and appalled by the actions of our troops at My Lai. There is a bigger picture to consider here. "The company had lost half of its strength in just two months. Lieutenant Calley’s First Platoon was down to 27 of its original 45 men." Counterinsurgency warfare is brutal....just take a look at the actions of Russia in Syria. The Russians bomb hospitals, refugee centers, you name it, and it has driven opposition forces out of the area and firmly established Syrian government control. I am not advocating for wholesale slaughter of civilians, however, if we are going to place American troops in harm's way, we give no quarter to an enemy who gives us none, we deploy overwhelming force and get the fight over quickly with as few American lives lost as possible. Our soldiers deserve nothing less. Had we used the Powell Doctrine in 1965, My Lai would never have occurred.
4
Or, perhaps, we never should have been there in the first place.
8
You are simply perpetuating tired myths and canards that have long been disproven. Short of using tactical nuclear weapons --- which he actually requested for consideration --- Westmoreland got everything he demanded but later, to rationalize his failure, he started the myth of "having one hand tied behind his back" - which you so aptly parrot.
8
Yes, you are advocating for the wholesale slaughter of civilians and justifying it.
10
I am wondering if we have forgotten the contribution of Seymour Hersh to our knowledge of this atrocity. Hersh was an investigative journalist who brought My Lai to our consciousness. He was reviled by many for telling us the hard truths and any discussion of My Lai should, it seems to me, bear witness to his courageous journalism. We could use more of that today when truth is categorically referred to as "fake news" by powers who cannot handle the truth.
12
Remember Abu Ghraib?
Seymour Hersch also wrote a book on Abu Ghraib.
While My Lai will always be synonymous with war massacres, the article barely acknowledges the war crime atrocities of rape and murder committed by 2nd platoon Charlie Company.
Read or watch 'Four Hours in My Lai '
by Micheal Bilton and Kevin Sim, especially chapters 4 and 5 which revealed how sociopathic some of our soldiers had degenerated into.
1
One salient point that reflects the nature of the war and a rebuke to those who claimed we never lost a battle is contained in this fine article as the author states that Medina's company had lost half its strength in 2 months without engaging in any large scale action due to booby traps, snipers and mines. This scenario played out hundreds or even thousands of times during the war. At the same time as My Lai, Gen Ewell of 9th ID was busy "taming" the Delta with statistical analysis and production quotas for enemy KIA's, even tracking medals received by men, companies, battalions under his command as a unit of efficiency.
Finally, the "body count" index had played into Calley's thought process before My Lai in regards to the death of Weber. Calley wrote in his story that:
"Weber's dead. A boy in 2nd platoon has no legs. I had to due it.
I wrote in after action report [ about a US artillery barrage that
hit no one ], VC body count 6." Actually no VC were killed.
In Gallup Poll #795 of 3,625 Americans surveyed from 12/12/69 to 12/15/69 22% said soldiers should be punished, 45% should be not and 27% chose option "no opinion". That is something to ponder.
3
This was a time in the war when a large part of our young men, like Clinton, Bush and Trump were draft dodging. Deferments were granted for graduate school and the standards for both officers and enlisted men were lowered. Project 100,000. The platoon members do not deserve sympathy for obeying obviously illegal orders. Hugh Thompson was the sole bright spot.
3
Every time I hear someone complain about the veterans of Viet Nam not getting a warm welcome home, I think about this horrendous slaughter. Those who criticize the public reaction need to remember how awful this was, and how it affected the attitude toward the war, and the military. As the article shows, for career military, the deaths of innocents could be just part of the climb up the ladder of success. The American public did not welcome the soldiers because of collective shame about what this war had done to Viet Nam. No one felt like patting anyone on the back. For a lot of Viet Nam vets even now, there is deep shame. Being told "Thank you for your service". will not fix that.
11
As we reflect on a horrific incident of My Lai, fifty years later, we need to recognize that conditions exist even today, that will allow another My Lai to occur, by American soldiers no less in the future. The reason is that we have a fetish for uniform, whether it is the blue colored one of a policeman or a military green of our armed services. They deserve our respect, but not our blind devotion. We need to recognize their service and sacrifice, but also punish them for their crimes. Our infatuation with uniform prevents us from taking a balanced approach. With a commander-in-chief who avoided Vietnam war under false pretenses but looks up to military commanders like a puppy to his masters the situation is even worse. The US under a POTUS, who attacks the press every day, makes false statements every time he breathes, undermines due process, demands a military parade, and applauds killings of drug dealers without due process has a very high likelihood of another My Lai, and even higher likelihood that it would not even be detected.
38
The military and police are expected to make other people comply who don’t want to comply. Neither are given the option to just walk away. Instead they are expected to use whatever force is necessary to do their duty. They are praised by those who they satisfy and are resented by those who are forced to submit. The power that they have can bring out cruel inclinations in some which can be controlled if they have learned to discipline themselves and want to do so. Poor leadership and institutions can let people in stress lose control.
3
"Thank you for your service." I am sorry, but when I hear that contrite phrase, I always think of My Lai and Lt. Calley and his platoon and superiors. I doubt from other accounts that My Lai was an outlier.
Given that the armed services is now made up of All Volunteers, will there be any Hugh Thompson's to speak up. Remember as the President stated to the widow of the killed soldier Niger: "That is what he signed up for."
Also, with the new national culture of lying and obfuscating the truth by the "Commander in Chief," would Lt. Calley even been found guilty today?
9
The media has a reason to alter the truth about the atrocities committed during the Vietnam war. They knew about such atrocities but did not report them to the American public. For example, to expose the lie that My Lai was an aberration resulting from poor discipline is the fact that Bravo company carried out a massacre of an adjacent hamlet on the same day killing 97 innocent non-combatant civilians. There is a memorial in Co Luy today naming all of the villagers killed by American troops. This was a separate operation from the massacre perpetrated by Charlie company.
9
Those who took an active role in this atrocity know who they are. They will carry this stain on humanity to the grave. Many, however, have already done the honorable thing and died. I am a Vietnam veteran who acted honorably in this less than honorable war. And, yes, I carried a rifle every day of my tour there. When I visit my local VA Medical Center, I have to wonder who among those who are there were involved in this despicable act and the many others that took place in this dark time in our history. "Thank you for your service," indeed.
8
If My Lai was standard operating procedure in Vietnam, then why didn't anyone tell Hugh Thompson?
My Lai was an appalling crime. It can't be excused or mitigated by the pretending that Calley was just following orders.
You want to know why no higher-ups were prosecuted for murder? It's simple. None of them were ordered My Lai. (That in no way exonerates them from failure of leadership, mismanagement, incompetence, etc.)
Even Calley did not argue that he was following standard operating procedures. His original defense was the villagers were killed by an accidental airstrike. When that defense was discredited, Calley claimed he was following the orders of his immediate superior, Captain Ernest Medina. Medina was acquitted of all charges relating to the incident at a separate trial. Medina denied that he had ever given such orders and stated that he had meant enemy soldiers, while Calley assumed that his order to "kill the enemy" meant to kill everyone.
Calley was unrepentant: "I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job that day. That was the mission I was given. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women, and children. They were all classified as the same, and that's the classification that we dealt with over there, just as the enemy. I felt then and I still do that I acted as I was directed, and I carried out the order that I was given and I do not feel wrong in doing so."
Enough with the conspiracy theories. They got the right man.
24
Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson's statement that Capt. Ernest Medina shot and killed an unarmed civilian should have been enough to convict him. During trial Medina successfully argued that he 'thought' the civilian had a bomb/grenade. Obviously they did not.
Lt. Calley was not the only responsible officer for the massacre.
5
I was a draftee in Saigon when it was being investigated. I ran the 525 Military Intelligence unit's 2nd Generation IBM 1800 plotting computer that carried data on enemy incidents in Vietnam. Every day we walked by a large map with stickpins of sniper firings, etc on the wall. When Calley's trial was going on, I was getting the LA Times by mail and followed the trial. We got a request to print a plotted map showing all enemy actions around My Lai for 2 weeks before and after the incident. I think the map was used by the prosecution or defense to determine if there were incidents to justify his actions. I could have easily printed extra copies of the large plot, with small icons for each type of incident like sniper, grenade attacks, etc, but foolishly did not. That plotted incident map is probably in court records for the court martial.
2
I was 9 at the time and I remember seeing footage and photos reporting on the massacre... Like so many things that occurred in the news at that time, My Lai was something I have not wanted to revisit since it happened. Thanks you for reporting on it again and putting it in perspective after so many years.
4
Since WWII and Eisenhower's Farewell Address - the United States military and Executive branch, especially Republicans have made blunders at every turn. Probably every issue we have today is a direct result of past American military misuse. And now we've turned it all over to Trump?
9
Medina and Calley should both have been convicted of murder and dishonorably discharged. The atrocities on that day in My Lai were different in degree rather than in kind under these men's leadership. Troops who engage in these behaviors are not monsters who got into uniform, they were soldiers who lost their control over themselves in the extreme conditions of warfare because their leaders allowed it to develop. The officers right up to the generals allowed this to develop, so they all had a hand in this atrocity, but the company and platoon leaders made this happen.
The extent of Calley's participation was never fully reported in the press reports at the time. Had they been, I don't that the support that he received as well as the pardon never would have happened.
17
Professor Levesque attributes the massacre to a failure of leadership coupled with the unit's heavy losses in the period preceding the killings. I would suggest that two additional factors played some role.
The racism that infected a significant proportion of the troops in Vietnam discouraged them from treating the people of the country as individuals. Combine this attitude with the facts that the Vietcong did not wear conventional uniforms and civilians did sometimes participate in attacks on American soldiers, and the result is a toxic mix that encouraged GIs to regard all Vietnamese as potential enemies.
The US government sent very young men, culturally ignorant of the people they would encounter, into into an unconventional war zone without proper training for such an environment. Calley and his men should have been severely punished for their war crimes, but the responsibility for what happened spread into the highest echelons of the American government.
18
By the beginning of 1968, the Army had been substantially stripped of its experienced NCO corps. Shake and Bake buck sergeants were beginning to proliferate in place of NCOs who had risen in the ranks because they knew their jobs and their military responsibilities — these crucial leaders had been killed and gravely wounded in droves.
Much the same was happening with an officer corps where lieutenants were rapidly killed or wounded and evacuated from the theater of war or quickly promoted to fill more responsible positions. Officers commissioned out of OCS without prior NCO experience mostly brought meager know how to a vicious battlefield against a brutal enemy.
In short crucial leadership at the point of the spear was badly weakened. Clearly Mi Lai happened in great measure because of this hollowing out the key element of combat operations.
No excuses for Medina or Calley, their actions and disastrous leadership were unconscionable and utterly inexcusable. The same was certainly true of self serving careerists above them in the 23d, and higher still. That there was little or no accountability up to the very highest levels is indicative of how the war was routinely conducted.
That is all the more objectionable for its impact on the many tens of thousands who served honorably and bravely.
I know with absolute certainty -- I was there.
35
Thank you for your honesty and sharing your experience. Do you think we should have addressed Mylai in a different way? In such a complicated situation, how do we show accountability, while not punishing those who served honorably? And how do we find justice today? I know these are large questions, but I think My Lai is such an important example of how things can go terribly wrong, and I want to hear from those who are brave enough to raise their voices today. When people say "thank you for your service"--- I consider your service as much as the war you fought in, as the words you spoke above. Thank you.
1
Another sad thing about the My Lai massacre. When the "event" became public and the Court Marshals were taking place, the great "silent majority" of the American public stood behind Lt. Calley.
So much so that President Nixon was able to effectively pardon him after serving a short time in Military prison and then being confined to house arrest.
The same was true of the "silent majority" in regards to the Ohio National Guard after the "event" at Kent State University.
It's been said that the Vietnam war was the beginning of today's culture wars. These are only a couple of examples.
47
.
To focus on My Lai is to miss the big picture. What did we do? Well, we sent young men into a country far, far from home. Was it a war zone? Well, yes. But it was also home (home!) to the civilian populace. Just where might these non-combatants go to avoid getting shot at? After all, their villages were all most had ever known - families, social structures, schools & rice paddies.
Most of these indigenous people spoke no English ... nor did our soldiers speak theirs. And these civilians also looked exactly like the enemy, the Viet Cong. What could possibly go wrong?
For our boys - most of whom just wanted to return home alive - survival meant not being too trusting of anyone not an American.
I suggest you read "Kill Anything that Moves" by Nick Turse.
11
I volunteered and started active service 28 May 67. Got out 30 Jun 70 as a Spec 5 company clerk. I was never within 3,000 miles of Viet Nam, but that was the US Army that I knew even that far from the war zone.
17
I found the Wikipedia story on Warrent Officer Hugh Thompson's life. Well worth reading. Includes short transcript of conversation between him and Lt. Calley.
His grandmother was full Cherokee Native American and his ancestors were victims of the ethnic cleansing of the Indian Removal Act, and the infamous Trail of Tears. The Thompson family denounced racism and ethnic discrimination and assisted many ethnic minority families in their community.
A book was written about Thompson. He testified before congress, he was vilified by many, and suffered PTSD for years.
In 1998, Thompson and Colburn returned to the Vietnam village and met some of the people they saved. Thompson and his crew's actions have been used as an example in the ethics manuals of U.S. and European militaries.
I was glad to see Thompson received military honors later. A fascinating story, told on PBS also in a British documentary.
76
As one who pulled and read the entire report from the Pentagon library, the basic details as presented here is correct. The massacre came to light someone that was there could not deal with the guilt and came forward. The pilots report was dismissed by the chain of command. One thing that struck me was the age of the people involved. Calley was 21 - just barely out of his teens. The emotional level was high. The inability to identify the enemy from the citizens. And the every day fear that they experienced just being in a combat zone. I have to say that I felt more compassion for Calley than I had previously. In my mind, Captain Medina forfeited his responsibility as a leader by feeding the emotional fire, and the rest of the chain was culpable in their haste to worry more about their personal fortunes than to do what is right.
16
As for compassion for Calley or Medina, I find it difficult, as I have for many years, to sympathize with the judgement that a terrified woman standing still holding a infant is an enemy combatant who must be killed, and the infant with her. I know this story well, and it still infuriates me. I was wearing the uniform around that time, and it sickens me to know that US soldiers could and did do that.
7
Bruce in Portland, Oregon
My wife and I bicycled through Vietnam a year ago. I didn't know what feelings would emerge in regards to our involvement there in the war but it was profound at times. We kept a cycling journal which is online at: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/tomorrow1616/
I encourage you to read my entry; When the Birds Stopped Singing. It describes my reaction to the My Lai Massacre - what I felt and thought about as we rode through the area where the massacre took place.
11
I was anticipating a draft notice when this happened. I was demonstrating all the time and weighing my options. I loved my country despite the horrendous things we were doing in Vietnam, so running to Canada was not an option. A very healthy cousin had obtained a medication that drove his blood pressure up at the physical exam and got him a deferment. I knew I'd be guilty about this for the rest of my life.
On my birthday, my phone rang, It was an Army Reserve unit I'd forgotten I'd applied to over a year earlier. "Get here by 10:00 am or you're out," barked the sergeant. I served my six years, and I'm glad I did. So many of my friends did not come back or were damaged for life. This still goes on, as the murders/suicide at the VA hospital in N. California just demonstrated.
31
In 2007, an American helicopter gunned down a reporter, his camera crew, and 4 civilians (including 2 children) that tried to get them to a hospital. The only person punished for that was the person who revealed video of this to the public.
War involves killing civilians. That is one of the few constants of war, no matter how "surgical" the strikes are, no matter how diligent our military personnel are, and no matter the rules of engagement or treaties signed. This should make you think twice about supporting *any* foreign military adventures, no matter how justified you may feel. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
61
The reporter had been embedded with an insurgent group. He arrived to take pictures near where an American ground unit had been ambushed, though he probably didn't know that. From a distance, his long lens was mistaken for a rocket launcher. From the context -- carefully edited out by Wikileaks -- it's clear that the helicopter crew made an understandable mistake. That's completely different, legally, from knowingly gunning down unnarmed women and children.
Your other point, that war involves killing civilians, is absolutely correct. In asymetric warfare or in urban terrain there is no way to perfectly protect innocents while effectively targeting combatants. And even if you could only target combatants, not all people shooting at you are there by choice. The choice to go to war cannot be made lightly.
8
One bright spot in this otherwise horrific story is the actions of the hero helicopter pilot who intervened to save god knows how many more innocent lives from gruesome death. I only learned about this detail today, from this well-written (if terrifying) article. A true American hero.
58
There's part of an interview with Thompson on the BBC website. He continued to serve for several years, but he never lived down what he had seen.
17
I only just learned about this too, from a W. Post commenter. Meredith New York Pending Approval
I found the Wikipedia story on Warrent Officer Hugh Thompson's life. Well worth reading. Includes short transcript of conversation between him and Lt. Calley.
His grandmother was full Cherokee Native American and his ancestors were victims of the ethnic cleansing of the Indian Removal Act, and the infamous Trail of Tears. The Thompson family denounced racism and ethnic discrimination and assisted many ethnic minority families in their community.
A book was written about Thompson. He testified before congress, he was vilified by many, and suffered PTSD for years.
In 1998, Thompson and Colburn returned to the Vietnam village and met some of the people they saved. Thompson and his crew's actions have been used as an example in the ethics manuals of U.S. and European militaries.
I was glad to see Thompson received military honors later. A fascinating story, told on PBS also in a British documentary.
15
He died last year. A hero indeed.
By the time of the Vietnam war the Army had perfected its training techniques and methods to improve the 'firing rate' of soldiers in combat, that is, when soldiers actually fire their guns at an enemy with the intent to kill. In WW2 it was discovered that the firing rate of soldiers was only 15-20 percent. By the Korean war improved training increased the firing rate to about 55%. During the Vietnam war it was brought up to 90-95%.
The military just had to condition recruits to overcome that civilized objection and reluctance to killing. They discovered that only a relative few soldiers were doing most of the killing in combat, the rest were randomly firing or deliberately missing the enemy.
The My Lai operation looks like a test of the effectiveness of the military's training and conditioning methods.
Reference sources available on request.
18
My father, who served in WW II, told me that most soldiers just fired their weapons randomly because they weren't interested in killing people.
He, however, wasn't involved in combat since he was in the Signal Corps. He could type, and operated a teletype machine. In his spare time, he and a friend ran an operation much as described in the book Exodus of HM 23 Jewish Transportation Company on Cypress. They "liberated" American equipment and supplies under the supervision of their unit's commander and the commanding general to help the local Jewish community, first in North Africa and later in Italy.
1
My father also served in Northern Africa and Italy with the Army Air Corps. He was a weather forecaster when he was drafted and so did not go through basic training. He already had orders waiting for him. He didn't talk much about the war but he did say once that he didn't like the way the Army did things. It was a general condemnation of the military, but he was good at his job.
This is still a bit understated if you can actually believe it!!! This was such a dark time in the history of a what was to be benevolent democracy. When I read it I cried. When I spoke with friends who served near or in it I cried. Today I still cry when I read this. We can and must be better than this. From top to bottom. Must. Please.
25
I'm surprised that there were so few prosecutions arising from the My Lai Massacre. Even the mere act of investigating potential abuses, war crimes, or even negligent mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan generates all kinds of push back, from both military and civilian authorities and right-wing media. (Consider the Kunduz hospital airstrike.) The push back is much as the same as in Vietnam: "don't make our troops fight with one hand tied behind their backs," "it's war what do you expect," "the other side does much worse things," or a simple, blanket appeal to patriotism.
28
There's always a scapegoat in the ranks below the ones really responsible. Remember that the only people prosecuted for the atrocities at Abu Ghraib were a couple of sergeants.
I got in country in nov. 1968. Remember well hearing of it. Afvn was censored but we could get magazines from home which had the news. Moral was negatively impacted and it was the subject of heated debate. Many were reluctant to belive it. Others didn't care at all. More were appalled and it reinforced anti war sentiment in the ranks. Even now I am embarrassed by the conduct of the war.
44
After 5 decades it's illuminating to finally get the full story. This is a powerful article.
28
I was a junior in high school when My Lai occurred, and a college student protesting the war when it became public. My Lai symbolized the tragedy of the Viet Nam War. Political leaders unwilling to admit the facts and that the reasons behind the war were flawed. Military leaders unable to see that their counter- insurgency methods were unsound. An educated population hiding behind student deferments and Think Tank jobs. The unconnected and unprotected hordes of young American men conscripted into service with no idea of what they were getting into nor what they were doing. And the poor civilian Vietnamese masses left to be cannon fodder at the bottom of the heap. America has come a long way over the past half century. But there's still so much to be learned.
25
I was in high school at the time My Lai become public knowledge. A teacher asked our class what's the difference between the Air Force killing civilians by bombing cities and the Army killing civilians in a raid on a village. Nobody could really answer the question. Of course we were all willing to give Calley the benefit of the doubt. I also recall an interview of LT Calley in Esquire magazine at that time. It was a rather favorable interview that gave the impression that Calley was just stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. I later became an Army lieutenant myself. In a class on military law, I learned what a criminal Calley was.
68
Calley is alive today. He returned to his home town in Georgia and lived a quiet life as the proprietor of a jewelry store.
So far as I can determine, he has never acknowledged he did anything wrong. Neither did Medina.
44
In fact, Calley gave a brief presentation at his local Kiwanis club in 2009. He expressed some remorse but primarily emphasized that he was following orders.
He was asked his opinion about following unlawful orders and stated: “I believe that is true. If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a second lieutenant getting orders from my commander and I followed them – foolishly, I guess.”
Nor did General Westmoreland.
1
Calley was silent for many years, but I believe he did offer a public apology a few years back:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2009/08/william_calley_makes_fir...
1
War corrupts and debases vastly more often than it produces heroism or virtue. The Draft delivered so many callow Americans into nightmarish combat situations in Southeast Asia, with often inexperienced or mediocre leadership, it's no wonder some of them lost their bearings. As for retrospective Vietnamese points of view on this tragic war, anyone with lingering anti-Vietnamese sentiments who has not watched Ken Burn's documentary series "The Vietnam War" should do so, and pay particular attention to what Vietnamese civilian survivors and military veterans, men and women, have to say. One comes away with sorrow and compassion for all combatants and their families on both sides.
38
I was 13 when this happened. I don't remember much about it except my father saying that Lieutenant Calley was the fall guy for the larger failure. Reading this now I can understand why. The real culprits were Captain Medina, and th officers who tolerated the abuse of Vietnamese civilians. The My Lai massacre was due to a complete failure of leadership. I hope they teach about it in the service academies today because it's to our shame as a country that this ever occurred.
39
It also illustrates what a crock an oath to carry out "just orders" is. I've had two lifetimes of experience (and a solid moral grounding) and I MIGHT be able to differentiate a just order from an unjust order. Your typical teenager? Clearly not. And as to the moral grounding: who's to say that my morals are better than your morals? The only thing that carries weight in any of these instances are (to the best of my knowledge and belief, and I Am Not A Lawyer) the Constitution and the Geneva Convention, and I'm pretty sure the enlisted men aren't given any training in applying them to actual circumstances they might face, and officers aren't given practice in thinking quickly in those terms.
Calley and his command pulled the triggers--they are not excused. However, those higher up should have been charged with war crimes as well.
Interestingly enough, by the time General Koster was relieved of command in the spring of 1970 and forced to retire, he had become the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Do they teach My Lai at the Academy now? Great question......
1
War is always brutal, and a counterinsurgency where soldiers can't tell who is the enemy and who is a civilian, is even more so. Read "With the Old Breed" by Eugene Sledge about his experiences as a Marine in the Pacific in 1944-45 and you will see that atrocities didn't start in Vietnam.
Another worthwhile book to read is "Fields of Fire" by James Webb. It's fiction but based on real experience in Vietnam around 1969. It includes a scene where soldiers kill civilians and you almost have sympathy for the situation the soldiers were in.
14
...where soldiers can't tell who is the enemy and who is a civilian... correct. And this has to be known to the people deciding to make the decision to go to war. And what better way to send those civilians to the other side than to kill their relatives and friends.
I think the larger picture is that what happened at My Lai was the same problem that allowed torture in Iraq and by the CIA. It was not a failure of a bunch of low level enlisted personnel. It was a persistent institutional failure.
111
As a nation we sent those soldiers to war. We knew , or should have known, that events like My Lai are an integral part of modern war. We all own some responsibility for the inevitable consequences of sending people to war.
34
No. An entire nation never agreed to that war. This entire nation never agreed to the war in Afghanistan either. Not all people are blood-thirsty, hateful, racist, greedy dark souls bent on destroying others. It takes a particular group of humanity to commit such acts. Muhammed Ali spoke for good and decent people when he declared that he had nothing against the Vietnamese.
My father was a Vietnam war veteran. It changed his life. It changed the lives of his family. It changed the world. What a shame it didn't change everyone for the better.
3
Yes, but sometimes war becomes a necessary evil. (Perhaps not so in Vnam, but elsewhere).
The responsibility lies with those who pulled the triggers and those higher ups who encouraged, permitted, condoned or covered it up. War crimes are just that crimes during combat. Troops and their commanders have brains and know right from wrong.
I was fifteen when I learned about My Lai. it changed my world outlook completely. Unfortunately, there is more reason to weep now, than there was then.
44
I always wondered about that story. I was pretty young when it happened, and never heard. Thank you.
16
Thank you for this excellent review of facts. Yes, the facts are appalling. Now please review the atrocities of the Viet Cong, which surpassed those of the Americans by high orders of magnitude. The best estimates by reliable historians is that the Viet Cong massacred between 130,000 and 240,000 of Vietnamese civilians, especially those in leadership positions. Tens of thousands were murdered before the U. S. even entered the war. These figures vastly exceed estimates of civilian deaths caused by Americans, whether intentional or unintentional. The Viet Cong also forcibly drafted civilians against their wills and put them in the most hazardous situations. So please tell that story too. Thank you.
24
" The Viet Cong also forcibly drafted civilians against their wills and put them in the most hazardous situations. "
The United States also forcibly drafted civilians against their will ...
"hese figures vastly exceed estimates of civilian deaths caused by Americans, whether intentional or unintentional. "
I don't think so. Of course that depends who was a "civilian". It may be true if you consider the deaths of any supporters of the Viet Cong to be a military casualties. If not, then the United States and South Vietnamese likely killed more "civilians" - people not directly involved in combat.
26
True, but also beside the point. We are responsible for what young soldiers do in our name.
37
David seems to want to weigh out deaths to somehow apportion the blame for suffering and evil done. His balancing of atrocities seems to have neglected the bombing which killed many in Vietnam and Cambodia. These numbers are highly uncertain and utterly appalling. Perhaps somewhat fewer civilians (~120,000 dead) died from US bombs and artillery than were executed by NVA/VC. It is an odd calculation that leaves them out of the cost. It is as if collateral damage has no author.
The names of Calley and Medina and Chivington (opps, wrong massacre) go on that special list of Monsters: Hitler, Mao, Stalin......
We interviewed the old planners like McNamara and wonder if Kennedy would have chosen the same path as Johnson. We ask if we can learn from past massacres to prevent future ones. Maybe First, I am afraid, we need to identify the liars and profiteers: Bush, Cheney (Opps, wrong war), Johnson, Kennedy, McNamara, Nixon, Westmoreland..... Then it becomes clear that the good ole US of A is on that list - we are no better that the Good Germans or the Cultural Revolutionaries or the Bolsheviks. All are Barbarians at the Gates.
PS Choosing corruptly and badly about climate will dwarf the inconveniences of the last century as regard costs and evil.
8
So what happened to Thompson? How did his life turn out.
It seems from this that he heroically stood up to Calley and prevented more deaths.
22
Hugh Thompson returned to Lafayette, Louisiana, where he worked as a state veteran's service officer, assisting veterans in the filing of their applications for service-connected disability. He died in, must have been about 2006 or so. I attended his Wake.
78
Thank you ERC. I often wondered at what kind of character it took to decide to put himself in the lace of confronting Calley and making the reports. So much is focused on the bad conditions and the failures - but he was someone who stood up to save people.
23
Thompson is the hero.
Calley was misguided and deranged, partially by the context into which he was thrust and partially by his own lack of values.
It was the superiors who deserved to go serve time in jail.
1
The "fog of war" seems to mostly block the public's view of war criminals. Most of the soldiers on the ground had and have a pretty good view of what's right and what is most definitely wrong. And some 50 years after the war crimes at My Lai disgusted our nation, we're still sending a likely war criminal to head the CIA instead of sending her off to The Hague for trial.
117
maybe errol morris or some other talented director should make a documentary on why so many americans; mostly republican, white, religious, are so willing to give themselves a pass on what is and has been perfectly clear to anyone who actually does the due diligence. the american military industrial complex thrives on killing people over seas, especially if they are not white.
The trope of unremarkable men capable of remarkable violence repeats itself again and again from the war front to the gang zones. Reading Christopher Browning's book "Ordinary Men" was an eye-opening experience. Impose the right conditions of violence, brutalization, dehumanization, peer pressure and just about any man will reach a combustion point where he ceases to care and just lashes out. Usually it just takes one violent man to set the standard to which all others must adhere to unless he wants to be ostracized or deemed weak. That's the lurking, dark secret in the heart of just about every man--brother, father, husband, etc.
33
And women. Women have lashed out also in incredibly brutal was, maybe not physical, but capable of emotional and psychological cruelty
That's actually pretty amazing. I'm just reading several books about Nazi war criminals (by coincidence -- it's taking forever to get through the Nuremburg trials). Klaus Barbie is described as someone who, if it weren't for Nazism, would have made a fine mid-level accountant.
As a global history teacher who highlights the atrocities in Vietnam, I always have the students read Hugh Thompson’s account and discuss his bravery to make the choice. He is remember in my school as a hero.
138
I am pleased to know that Hugh Thompson receives the recognition he deserves.
1
My Lai was standard operating procedure in many parts of Vietnam. The civilian death toll is estimated to be over 2 million and the number injured is estimated to be over 6 million Vietnamese. Another reason for the deaths : "By the time the United States ended its Southeast Asian bombing campaigns, the total tonnage of ordnance dropped approximately tripled the totals for World War II. The Indochinese bombings amounted to 7,662,000 tons of explosives, compared to 2,150,000 tons in the world conflict." War Crimes ??
Keep in mind that Vietnam is about the same size as California.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bombs_in_the_Vietnam_War
https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23427726
61
Standard operating procedure? That is an outrageous libel, and I notice you don't offer a shred of evidence to back up your claim.
Fabrications like yours were standard operating procedure for the anti-war left -- and in that category I put people like John Kerry and Noam Chomsky. The attitude of anti-war activists seemed to be that lying about the war was a higher form of truth. Their reasoning seemed to be that the war was bad, and therefore anything that hastened the end of the war was good. So lies about the war were noble lies. But the result was that the minds of a whole generation of Americans were polluted by these terrible lies.
That includes the bogus statistics about bombing tonnages. The tonnage figure may or may not be accurate, but it is irrelevant. It doesn't matter how many tons were dropped if all they did was demolish a few bamboo huts in a jungle clearing. It's not the tonnage that counts, it's where bombs were dropped.
And if you read up on the war, you'll find that LBJ PERSONALLY reviewed bombing targets. You can tell something is wrong when the POTUS micromanages the war. In my judgment, Johnson's queasiness about bombing made the bombing campaign ineffective and doomed the war. It was only when Pres. Nixon ordered the Christmas bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong that the North cried uncle and began to negotiate seriously.
1
Not near enough credit is given to Chief Hugh Thompson, who ended this by telling his door gunner to fire on the Calley-led troops if they did not stop shooting civilians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr.
179
Chief Hugh Thompson, a true hero and deserving of our highest honor and recognition.
91
I'm so encouraged that Chief Hugh Thompson is recognized by so many as the true American hero that he is. I flew with him a couple times when I worked in the oil field's in the Gulf of Mexico. After discovering who he was, I tried to compliment him on his courage in saving those lives, and he simply said he should have done more.
In the darkest of times, we often find our hero.
152
See Wikipedia story on Warrent Officer Hugh Thompson's life. Includes short transcript of conversation between him and Lt. Calley.
His grandmother was Cherokee and his ancestors were victims of the ethnic cleansing of the Indian Removal Act, and the infamous Trail of Tears. The Thompson family denounced racism and ethnic discrimination and assisted many ethnic minority families in their community.
A book was written about Thompson. He testified before congress, he was vilified by many, and suffered PTSD for years.
In 1998, Thompson and Colburn returned to the Vietnam village and met some of the people they saved. Thompson and his crew's actions have been used as an example in the ethics manuals of U.S. and European militaries.
I was glad to see Thompson received military honors later. A fascinating story, told on PBS also in a British documentary.
8
Thank you for this moving, detailed, and clearly-written account of these horrendous events. It is interesting that even with evidence of the massacre so much attention seems to have been focused on discrediting the account of the brave Mr. Thompson, who finally stepped in. We see such tactics -- a suppression of those who tell unpleasant (here horrible) truths - again and again in our history; it feels like something to be especially wary of these days where we have an administration that sometimes seems to have no regard for truth at all.
89
Mr. Thompson was finally recognized by the military as a hero 30 years after the event. He gave talks at US Military Academies, and his biography is biography is required reading for American officers. We need a medal named in his honor for those with courage to stand up to friends when the cause is right.
95
I clearly remember that during recruit training, navy, 1953, we were instructed to ignore clearly illegal orders. I also remember the warnings we received regarding the results if we were wrong.
Clearly instructions like these didn't work at MyLai.
42
My Lai proves that we are not as exceptional as we like to think and why some of my friends who served in Vietnam never talk about it.
135
I'd put it differently: I do think by and large we are exceptional, but that does not always mean 'perfect'.
2
It is hard enough to get students to ask questions just so something will be clearer when they mostly understand it. They don't want to appear "stupid". I want to help you, lead me to the place where you're having difficulty.
But then, "What's your idea of a good way to start this?" No answer. Don't want to appear stupid. (Or maybe smart. Maybe just different.) I seldom get more than two students in a class of 30 that are willing to question whether there are other ways to solve problems (there always are), whether this is the best way (the best way is whatever is works best for you, or maybe whatever you can communicate to others) and so forth. But when I talk to them individually, I have found maybe a handful over the years that were truly unable. The rest were just unwilling to stick out.
That's in the low-stakes arena of the classroom. When live ammunition is involved, I'm sure more are unable, and more are unwilling to stand out.
1
Yes, like all armies, GI's have committed horrible atrocities.
Difference is that we try to admit our short-comings, and try to do better.
From a Vietnam vet:
I studied My Lai and war in general for years after the war and now believe that there are no "good" wars. 20% of any army's casualties will come from accidents, mistakes in judgement and execution, and friendly fire. War sometimes brings out the best, but more often the worst, in human nature. There will always be acts, large and small, of casual, gratuitous cruelty, up to and including atrocities like My Lai.
Politicians and "deciders" have no idea what they are setting in motion when they cry havoc and unleash the dogs of war.
214
In the past that wasn't true, because everyone had served in the military (and in fact a war). Today that's no longer true. The last president to have served in the military was Kennedy. The cabinet is full of people who've never served in the military, Congress is full of people who've never served in the military (last time I counted it was 2 representatives and 1 senator, but that was a couple of years ago). But they'll all vote for a war. Why? Profits, of course. (I'm not cynical.)
Of course, knowing the horrors of war won't necessarily keep us out of one. McKinley was dead set against the Spanish-American war (remembering his experiences in the Civil War) but Congress voted us into it anyway. (Remember those days, when Congress declared war? Seems quaint now.)
2
Politicians who are in the pay of the Military-Industrial complex Eisenhower warned against have a very good idea of what they are unleashing. They are paid well to ignore any moral or ethical constraints. We need an honest Congress to repeal Citizens United. Corporations are not "people"; they are financial entities formed to protect shareholders from lawsuits. Scalia knew that; however, he was a corporate shill who dredged up an old Superior Court decision with a typo which identified a corporation as an individual. The error was never used until Scalia used it. It still stands; it is still wrong; it will continue to provide dishonest pols with dark money. If we add to that with a repeal of Dodd-Frank, we will be forming the well known circular firing squad. Ignore Trump, the golf cheat; pay attention to Zinke, Pruitt, Price et al. Pay attention to the potential for fraud and theft if Dodd-Frank is repealed. Remember the old people who lost their savings accounts; remember the small bank closures; remember the rampant mortgage frauds which rolled across the country leaving thousands homeless; remember the dishonest brokers who gave those thousands of unemployed with no credit histories mortgages, collected their commission and walked away. The empty weed strewn neighborhoods where those mortgages were handed out are still there. The banks which foreclosed rather than re-negotiating loans bundled the mess and sold it. Foreign banks failed through this.
1
Sure they know. Everybody knows. But what they know is less important to them than some other things, like power.
1
"The events at My Lai became public a year later. Several officers were brought to trial in 1971, but only Lieutenant Calley was convicted. He was released from prison in 1974."
Herein lies the problem. No one who ordered this to happen or participated in the cover-up ever received punishment. Calley served 3 years for essentially first degree murder. It starts at the top; it cannot happen without being condoned by those in charge. The same thing happens in police departments today.
187
The same happens in U.S. administrations where the war crimes of the Bush Administration were never investigated or prosecuted. It also happens at financial institutions where those in charge were never investigated or prosecuted for tanking the global economy. And it also happens in corporations where environmental damage & laborer deaths are issued minimal "fines" & the reset is swept under the rug. The wealthy & powerful always, always, always win in the U.S.
Three years? But, under house arrest. And his girlfriend was allowed to move in with him. Such was the punishment for this massive war crime.
Some corrections to "The Truth"
“Captain Medina planned an aggressive sweep through the area.”
- Plans were made by Medina’s superiors, including Henderson and Barker, perhaps based upon faulty intelligence. - Bilton, p. 93-95. Medina advocated or ordered their plans, he did not plan himself as it is suggested.
“became a synonym”
- became an analogue or metaphor not a synonym
"smaller groups of solders”
- add "many of which" after, as the sentence currently states that their officers couldn’t observe any soldiers when they broke into smaller groups.
Thompson-Brooks confrontation
The Thompson-Brooks confrontation at the bunker was between those in the helicopter--thompon, his two door-gunners, Larry Colburn, and Glen Andreotta-- and Lt. Brooks and members of his company. Earlier, Thompson touched his helicopter down and confronted Calley at the ditch. This account conflates the two confrontations.
“three old Garand rifles”
- Michael Bernhardt discovered these in a box outside the villages, and they were described by him as rusty and non-operable. The reference to these wood and steel implements as “weapons” makes them seem as if they were operable.
55
America also (secretly) dropped ten of millions of bombs on Laos and Cambodia sovereign countries with whom we were not at war.
Subsequently, we---America---dishonored our soldiers, both alive and dead, who were obeying the dreadful orders of the people we elected to govern (and the corporate oligarchies that rule them). It was a sad and shameful American affair.
Tragically, the horror of this war rages on. America made the decision to utilize a defoliant called “Agent Orange” to rid the jungle of ground cover. The United States sprayed twenty million gallons of this toxin on Vietnam. The primary ingredient in Agent Orange is dioxin, a powerful poison that kills or maims all it encounters. Current estimates are that four hundred thousand people, both Vietnamese and American, were killed by the toxin, and another one half million children were born with horrendous birth defects. Many victims have yet to be born.
And then we evaded Iraq---under false pretensions---where we killed another 500,000 people . . . and incubated ISIS.
There was a time when being a liberal meant standing up for others, instead of oneself.
And BTW, I am a patriot and proud to be.
"The massacre at My Lai was not the only time American troops committed war crimes against Vietnamese civilians, but it was the single worst instance;"
We would all hope that this was the single worst instance...but there is plenty of evidence that this was standard operating procedure for *hundreds* of other operations over a period of years in Vietnam.
But thank you for reminding us of this important event on this day. I still think Calley and his crew of officers and enlisted men to this day.
26
I think of the poor victims of My Lai and any of their survivors. My daughter lives in Hanoi today and I often think it remarkable that the people there are as forgiving as they are.
41
The people responsible for the My lai massacre and other such horrible events were LBJ, Rusk, McNama and Bundy who chose to fight this war.
FIghting a guerilla civil war means these atrocities will occur.
27
You'd better add the French, Eisenhower and Kennedy to that list if you are going to make it.
Vnam was no doubt a mistake. But the decision to involve ourselves - albeit wrongly in this scenario - cannot be taken out of the context of the times.
Blame goes back to immediate post war Truman. He supplied the French to reestablish their colonial rule in the whole of Viet Nam.
Every U.S. soldier, sailor, marine and airman is trained in the Law of War. The Law of War prohibits shooting civilians. Furthermore, the oath taken by every U.S. serviceman requires only that "lawful" orders by obeyed. The actions of our soldiers at My Lai reflect poorly on the entire leadership from the President and Secretary of Defense on down through training cadres and divisional leadership right down to the squad leaders.
94
"Every U.S. soldier, sailor, marine and airman is trained in the Law of War."
I was in the USAF during the Vietnam war. In training I was given a few minutes instruction regarding a "lawful" order, but it is far from the fact that I was given any legal instruction. I was left with the impression that my determination that an order was unlawful was fraught with legal consequences for me. Furthermore, I was never given any instruction on the laws of war.
The American public should not be under the impression that it is always clear that an order is either lawful or unlawful. As with most of life, there is plenty of room for error. Unfortunately, the situation occasionally results in a non-lawyer having to make an impromptu determination of legality. In the case of My Lai lives were at stake.
17
The “ law of war” is. 1) dehumanize the enemy into subhuman creatures, in Viet Nam “slopes” not people, especially bad where the “good” ARVAN “slopes” and the “bad” NVA and NLF “slopes” look the same, and just like the civilians.
Especially when there is also no visible reason to snuff out “gooks” living half-way around the world from you, and they do not threaten your way of life, except while you are put in front of them by your government to kill or be killed.
2) Teach your warriors that the enemy vis subhumanly brutal, spearing babies on AK-47 bayonets, they were spears in Rome, lances during the latter days of the 100 Years’ war, you get the idea.
3) Teach your fighters to kill anything that moves, because everyone knows crazy subhumans will put grenades under their infants’ arms, wire ‘em up as booby traps and run away leaving them behind.
4) remind them body count leads to promotion, and since they all look alike ...
There were plenty of men and a handful of women who fought for the US. In Viet Nam (incidentally, 2 words in their language) otherwise Sy Hersh and others would never have learned of the atrocities at My Lai 4, and in hundreds if not thousands of other places in the Indochinese theater.
And I can guarantee you there has never been an army that did not commit its share.
But don’t blame the fact that those who KNEW they were freedom fighters, in a nation where mist of the populace supported them.
Blame the regular army thrown against them
So where, exactly, does rape fall in those unclear situations where an order may or may not be lawful, and the soldier must make a quick decision under horrific circumstances? I can understand pulling triggers un the heat of the moment, but rape? I don't care what the circumstances are, sexual assault is ALWAYS a choice, and ALWAYS a crime.
I appreciate this account of the My Lai massacre, because it emphasizes the role of the officers and commanders. It focuses on the career aspirations and ambitions of these people. Ambition has motivated soldiers and politicians for centuries--from Julius Caesar to Benjamin Netanyahu to Rob Porter. Many fewer by the values of autonomy and honor. Such a person was Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson. I hope his efforts to stop the killing were acknowledged by the Army.
Mr. Levesque's account is detailed, perceptive, and clearly written. I hope he will write more on the subject, on which we continue to need a better understanding. I am grateful to the Times for commissioning this series.
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Enlisted men put at high risk, ordered to do the killing, some, with great courage, refusing to kill civilians, while Officer after Officer lied, over and over, to protect their careers. But they, not the protesters, even now are the heroes.
My rage is beyond anything I can put in print.
Red Cross, Viet Nam, 66-67
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What a waste and a tragedy this massacre was and in the larger picture the American war in Vietnam itself. It was a failure of courage of Johnson and the Harvard advisors he listened to. In the end it was his fault magnifying a civil war into something more than it was: Vietnamese who wanted outsiders to leave them alone. It was pure folly and ripped the U.S. asunder.
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do not forget Henry "Killer" Kissinger, Mr. RealPolitik.
us army 1969-1971/california jd
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Thank you. We could use some humility now in our inclinations
toward support for international aggression, Trade Wars,
AR's in the public domain, and in our touted Christian values
regarding the poor, migrants, even our own women of any
race or ethnic background. Our species, worldwide, is rather
insane, and our nation hasn't much to hold itself up for as
a model of democracy, equality, all the high blowns that
politicians mouth. Lt. Calley is in all of our psyches, a threat,
but need it be a likelihood?
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Still shocking to read this story, especially as I remember all to well reading about this war crime in late 1960s as a young man at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The heroes of this story who refused orders to murder, interrupted the mass murder and/or who helped evacuate civilians deserve a special place in our collective consciousness, especially as the nominee to head our CIA today engaged in torture.
The high percent of members from minority groups and/or working class individuals in this poorly led unit remind us of who does most of the military service in this country.
The sexual violence was/is far more common than most civilians realize. Shocking to read about any rape, but especially shocking to read about the rape of children. There are no words to convey my disgust at the main war criminals, the officers in charge and even higher up.
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I couldn't read the whole piece. But I know this: No major war has ever been fought without these sorts of atrocities. And if the "legal" slaughter of combatants is not enough to remind us of the awful price of war, then surely keeping the illegal and horrific slaughter of innocents top of mind should keep us from waging war except out of absolute necessity. No other justification can ever be sufficient.
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Exactly my own thoughts. Have we heard the full story of Fallujah yet? War is armed combat--but it is also murder, rape, torture, maiming, amputation, psychosis and long-term trauma, mental illness, and broad destruction. Always. Outstanding piece on My Lai. Unfortunately, we need to be reminded regularly.
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See the My Lai Memorial Exhibit
http://mylaimemorial.org/exhibit/
MARCH 2018 – APRIL 2018: Southwest – California – Northwest
MAY 2018- JUNE 2018: Midwest
JULY 2018 – AUGUST 2018: New England, Northeast
SEPTEMBER 2018 – OCTOBER 2018: Midwest
JANUARY 2019 – FEBRUARY 2019: South, Florida
MARCH – DECEMBER 2019: TBA
The sad truth about My Lai is that there were thousands of these events in Vietnam. This was the only one that truly got the attention of the press. More on this ghastly topic can be found in "Kill Anything That Moves" by Nick Turse. Almost all the evidence comes from the National Archives. It is difficult to complete each chapter because it's right up there with stuff we have read about in Poland during World War Two.
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M. Sallah, Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War (2007). Nasty US recon unit that perpetrated war crimes in 1967.
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I guess this is why men who come back from war don't want to talk about it.
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Yes. I was friends with an ex-Marine for a while. Heavy PTSD guy. He said I didn't want to hear about his experiences in Iraq but volunteered one story. His group was charged with clearing a small village while in transit to a location. There were a few shooters in houses/structures that couldn't be precisely located. The Marines were under orders to arrive at their next destination at a precise time. So, they called in an airstrike which blew up the entire village.
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Or can't. Many of these men are boys. Their brains sometimes never recover. They are not even fully formed when these young people are given commands like these.
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