Arguably the single most shocking event of the Vietnam War, an atrocity that finally shook America’s self-perception as a force for good, was the My Lai Massacre. On March 16, 1968, a company of American soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant William Calley Jr., attacked the unarmed civilians of the village of My Lai. The company had been in Vietnam all of three months and had not direct enemy contact. They had, however, suffered twenty-eight deaths or injuries due to booby traps and mines, reducing the company’s numbers to around one hundred. The common interpretation, one that we readily recognize by now, is that they had a fierce, vengeful desire to connect faces to this faceless enemy. The official rationale was that the village harbored Viet Cong fighters and civilian sympathizers; there is minimal evidence to support this. Some of the participants reported being instructed to only kill Viet Cong fighters; others that they should kill everyone, burn houses, kill livestock, and destroy wells.
Us vs. Them at My Lai
Us vs. Them at My Lai
Us vs. Them at My Lai
Arguably the single most shocking event of the Vietnam War, an atrocity that finally shook America’s self-perception as a force for good, was the My Lai Massacre. On March 16, 1968, a company of American soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant William Calley Jr., attacked the unarmed civilians of the village of My Lai. The company had been in Vietnam all of three months and had not direct enemy contact. They had, however, suffered twenty-eight deaths or injuries due to booby traps and mines, reducing the company’s numbers to around one hundred. The common interpretation, one that we readily recognize by now, is that they had a fierce, vengeful desire to connect faces to this faceless enemy. The official rationale was that the village harbored Viet Cong fighters and civilian sympathizers; there is minimal evidence to support this. Some of the participants reported being instructed to only kill Viet Cong fighters; others that they should kill everyone, burn houses, kill livestock, and destroy wells.