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    My Lai Massacre

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    Ben Rogaczewski
    On March 16, 1968, the men of Charlie Company entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai poised for conflict with the Vietcong. What unfolded was the massacre of over 300 unarmed civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. Lt. William Calley ordered his men to fire indiscriminately into the village. Word of the atrocities did not reach the American public until over a year later, when an investigation was launched into the events at My Lai. Lt. Calley claimed he was following orders from his superior officer, but he was ultimately the only one convicted for his role in the massacre.

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    My Lai Massacre

    Uploaded by

    Ben Rogaczewski
    94 views2 pages
    On March 16, 1968, the men of Charlie Company entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai poised for conflict with the Vietcong. What unfolded was the massacre of over 300 unarmed civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. Lt. William Calley ordered his men to fire indiscriminately into the village. Word of the atrocities did not reach the American public until over a year later, when an investigation was launched into the events at My Lai. Lt. Calley claimed he was following orders from his superior officer, but he was ultimately the only one convicted for his role in the massacre.

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    On March 16, 1968, the men of Charlie Company entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai poised for conflict with the Vietcong. What unfolded was the massacre of over 300 unarmed civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. Lt. William Calley ordered his men to fire indiscriminately into the village. Word of the atrocities did not reach the American public until over a year later, when an investigation was launched into the events at My Lai. Lt. Calley claimed he was following orders from his superior officer, but he was ultimately the only one convicted for his role in the massacre.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    94 views2 pages

    My Lai Massacre

    Uploaded by

    Ben Rogaczewski
    On March 16, 1968, the men of Charlie Company entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai poised for conflict with the Vietcong. What unfolded was the massacre of over 300 unarmed civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. Lt. William Calley ordered his men to fire indiscriminately into the village. Word of the atrocities did not reach the American public until over a year later, when an investigation was launched into the events at My Lai. Lt. Calley claimed he was following orders from his superior officer, but he was ultimately the only one convicted for his role in the massacre.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
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    My Lai Massacre

    March 16, 1968


    On March 16, 1968 the angry and frustrated men of Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, Americal Division
    entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai. "This is what you've been waiting for -- search and destroy -- and
    you've got it," said their superior officers. A short time later the killing began. When news of the atrocities
    surfaced, it sent shockwaves through the U.S. political establishment, the military's chain of command, and
    an already divided American public.

    Poised for Conflict


    My Lai lay in the South Vietnamese district of Son My, a heavily mined area where the Vietcong were deeply
    entrenched. Numerous members of Charlie Company had been maimed or killed in the area during the
    preceding weeks. The agitated troops, under the command of Lt. William Calley, entered the village poised
    for engagement with their elusive enemy.

    Massacre
    As the "search and destroy" mission unfolded, it soon degenerated into the massacre of over 300 apparently
    unarmed civilians including women, children, and the elderly. Calley ordered his men to enter the village
    firing, though there had been no report of opposing fire. According to eyewitness reports offered after the
    event, several old men were bayoneted, praying women and children were shot in the back of the head, and at
    least one girl was raped and then killed. For his part, Calley was said to have rounded up a group of the
    villagers, ordered them into a ditch, and mowed them down in a fury of machine gun fire.
    Call for Investigation
    Word of the atrocities did not reach the American public until November 1969, when journalist Seymour
    Hersh published a story detailing his conversations with a Vietnam veteran, Ron Ridenhour. Ridenhour
    learned of the events at My Lai from members of Charlie Company who had been there. Before speaking
    with Hersh, he had appealed to Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon to investigate the matter. The
    military investigation resulted in Calley's being charged with murder in September 1969 -- a full two months
    before the Hersh story hit the streets.

    Questions About Soldiers' Conduct


    As the gruesome details of My Lai reached the American public, serious questions arose concerning the
    conduct of American soldiers in Vietnam. A military commission investigating the massacre found widespread
    failures of leadership, discipline, and morale among the Army's fighting units. As the war progressed, many
    "career" soldiers had either been rotated out or retired. Many more had died. In their place were scores of
    draftees whose fitness for leadership in the field of battle was questionable at best. Military officials blamed
    inequities in the draft policy for the often slim talent pool from which they were forced to choose leaders.
    Many maintained that if the educated middle class ("the Harvards," as they were called) had joined in the
    fight, a man of Lt. William Calley's emotional and intellectual stature would never have been issuing orders.

    Orders from Above?


    Calley, an unemployed college dropout, had managed to graduate from Officer's Candidate School at Fort
    Benning, Georgia, in 1967. At his trial, Calley testified that he was ordered by Captain Ernest Medina to kill
    everyone in the village of My Lai. Still, there was only enough photographic and recorded evidence to convict
    Calley, alone, of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in 1974, following many appeals.
    After being issued a dishonorable discharge, Calley entered the insurance business.

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