my lai massacre--16 mar 1968 (trigger warning)

[niyad]

(let us not forget that colin powell was one of those instrumental in the coverup)

(the full pbs documentary)

My Lai Massacre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the massacre. For the hamlet called Mỹ Lai, see Sơn Mỹ. For the documentary, see My Lai (film).
Mỹ Lai Massacre
Thảm sát Mỹ Lai
My Lai massacre.jpg
Location Son My village, Sơn Tịnh District of South Vietnam
Coordinates 15°10?42?N 108°52?10?ECoordinates: 15°10?42?N 108°52?10?E
Date March 16, 1968
Target My Lai 4 and My Khe 4 hamlets
Attack type
Massacre
Deaths 347 according to the United States Army (not including My Khe killings), others estimate more than 400 killed and injuries are unknown, Vietnamese government lists 504 killed in total from both My Lai and My Khe
Perpetrators Task force from the United States Army Americal Division
2LT. William Calley (convicted and then released by President Nixon to serve house arrest for two years)





Vietnamese women and children in Mỹ Lai before being killed in the massacre, March 16, 1968.[13] According to court testimony, they were killed seconds after the photo was taken.[14]


Massacres of the Vietnam War

Huế
Châu Đốc
Tây Vinh
Gò Dài
Binh Tai
Tinh Son
Bình Hòa
Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất
Hà My
Đắk Sơn
My Lai
Thạnh Phong
Duc Duc
Vinh Xuan



The Mỹ Lai Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Mỹ Lai [tʰɐ̃ːm ʂɐ̌ːt mǐˀ lɐːj], [mǐˀlɐːj] ( listen); /ˌmiːˈlaɪ/, /ˌmiːˈleɪ/, or /ˌmaɪˈlaɪ/)[1] was the Vietnam War mass killing of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968. It was committed by U.S. Army soldiers from the Company C of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated.[2][3] Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but served only three and a half years under house arrest.

The massacre, which was later called "the most shocking episode of the Vietnam War",[4] took place in two hamlets of Son My village in Quảng Ngãi Province.[5] These hamlets were marked on the U.S. Army topographic maps as My Lai and My Khe.[6] The U.S. military codeword for the alleged Viet Cong stronghold in that area was Pinkville,[7] and the carnage was initially referred to as the Pinkville Massacre.[8][9] Later, when the U.S. Army started its investigation, the media changed it to the Massacre at Songmy.[10] Currently, the event is referred to as the My Lai Massacre in America and called the Son My Massacre in Vietnam.
The incident prompted global outrage when it became public knowledge in November 1969. The My Lai massacre increased to some extent[11] domestic opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War when the scope of killing and cover-up attempts were exposed. Initially, three U.S. servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and rescue the hiding civilians were shunned, and even denounced as traitors by several U.S. Congressmen, including Mendel Rivers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Only after thirty years were they recognized and decorated, one posthumously, by the U.S. Army for shielding non-combatants from harm in a war zone.[12]

. . . .

Six months later, Tom Glen, a 21-year-old soldier of the 11th Light Infantry Brigade, wrote a letter to General Creighton Abrams, the new overall commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam.[72] He described an ongoing and routine brutality against Vietnamese civilians on the part of American forces in Vietnam that he personally witnessed and then concluded, "It would indeed be terrible to find it necessary to believe that an American soldier that harbors such racial intolerance and disregard for justice and human feeling is a prototype of all American national character; yet the frequency of such soldiers lends credulity to such beliefs. ... What has been outlined here I have seen not only in my own unit, but also in others we have worked with, and I fear it is universal. If this is indeed the case, it is a problem which cannot be overlooked, but can through a more firm implementation of the codes of MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) and the Geneva Conventions, perhaps be eradicated".[73]

Colin Powell, then a 31-year-old Army major, was charged with investigating the letter, which did not specifically refer to Mỹ Lai, as Glen had limited knowledge of the events there. In his report, Powell wrote, "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal Division[74] soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." Powell's handling of the assignment was later characterized by some observers as "whitewashing" the atrocities of Mỹ Lai.[73] In May 2004, Powell, then United States Secretary of State, told CNN's Larry King, "I mean, I was in a unit that was responsible for My Lai. I got there after My Lai happened. So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they are still to be deplored."[75]

. . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre

[tammywammy]

1. There's an episode of PBS' American Experience about My Lai

I recommend it.

[niyad]

2. thank you. I edited the op to include the youtube video (the full documentary)

[tammywammy]

3. It doesn't beat around the bush.

I thought it was very frank about what happened. They interview both Vietnamese survivors and American perpetrators.

[niyad]

4. have you read the seymour hersh article just posted in the new yorker?

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/30/the-scene-of-the-crime

[tammywammy]

5. I'll read it later. Thanks for the link.

Good OP.

[catnhatnh]

6. I'll take exception to one part of your post...

You post a list of 15 "massacres" without further comment. I would like to point out that after checking only 2 involved US troops. 2 of the largest were North Vietnamese massacres with a figure of 7600 executed in Hue. An amazing 11 accrue to South Korean troops.

I'm all for accountability, but let's have some accountability...

[niyad]

7. thank you for adding that information. I did not assume that all the massacres

were the responsibility of the americans.

[niyad]

8. . . .