The My Lai Massacre

Lt. William CalleyLt. William Calley
Photo from PBS's Vietnam Online

On March 16, 1968, soldiers of Company C, lst Battalion, 20th Infantry initiated a "Search and Destroy" mission in the hamlet of My Lai, Quang Ngai Province. The Company encountered only civilians, and no sign of the Viet Cong battalion they were expecting. The soldiers herded the civilians in groups and started executing them. Altogether, more than 400 civilians, mainly elderly people, women and children, were gunned down. According to the official Army report, authored by Lt. General William Peers, the troops' actions "[...]included individual and group acts of murder, rape, sodomy, maiming, and assault on noncombatants and the mistreatment and killing of detainees" (see Peers Report, below)

The massacre was finally stopped by the intervention of U.S. pilot Hugh Thompson, who interposed his helicopter between the troops and the remaining Vietnamese civilians and coordinated the evacuation of the survivors. Two U.S. Army officers, Lieutenant William Calley and Captain Ernest Medina, were court-martialed in 1971. Lt. Calley was convicted of premeditated murder. Captain Medina was acquitted of all charges.

The revelation of the My Lai massacre on November 16, 1968, was a shock for the American public, and contributed to the growing momentum of the anti-war movement. A generation that grew up with the dark realities of the Holocaust could hardly believe that American boys were capable of such horrendous crimes.

Relevant Links

The My Lai Massacre trials
From the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/mylai.htm

The University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School has a web site devoted to famous trials, one of which is the My Lai Massacre trial. Available at the site are plenty of original documents, including excerpts of the Martial Court of Lt. William Caley,and the exhaustive Peers report, compiled by Lieutenant General William Peers under the request of General Westmoreland.

My Lai Bibliography
From the Vietnam War Internet Project
http://www.vwip.org/art-top.html#mylai

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