16/03/68
Between 300 and 500 people, predominately women and children, are massacred, tortured and raped. Their homes are burned to the ground and the land around them razed with fire. Unarmed, they were dragged from their houses in the early morning and gunned down amidst the screams of horror from relatives and neighbours. The bodies of victims, including children, and newborns, are later found bearing signs of mutilation.
The village that played host to the brutal massacre, My Lai, is occupied almost entirely by women and children, with the male population having joined the conflict that consumed Vietnam. The night before the attack, news was heard that there were no enemy combatants in the village. The order to continue the planned assault was made. Charlie Company was instructed by their commanding officers to "kill them all" and to burn down the homes and pollute the wells. The orders went so far as to shoot any animals they might find.
The men of C Company use their bayonets and grenades as well as their automatic weapons to murder any citizen they see fit. Several groups of some 60 plus Vietnamese are round up and gunned down at point blank range. Once the majority of the inhabitants lay dead, the men perform a search for resistance fighters. None are found. The order is given to resume rounding up any remaining villagers and to "eliminate" them. Even pets are slain.
The brutality of the massacre is shocking and I advise only those not easily upset to view the following images:
A helicopter pilot flying overhead caught site of the growing numbers of dead and decided to inspect, later telling the courts he saw "many dead women and children" and "soldiers hitting a woman to the ground and shooting her in the head". That man, Warrant Officer One Hugh Thompson, Jr., saved 16 innocent people by landing his helicopter and taking them to safety. Hugh spoke to several soldiers at the site of the slaughter. He asked if he could lift the wounded out from a ditch where the soldiers had been pilling up bodies indiscriminately. The reply was a cold "I will put them out of their misery". Shocked and confused, Hugh boarded his helicopter and returned to base to report the horror. He testified that before leaving he witnessed several soldiers begin firing into the ditch where the dead and dying alike where tossed.
Only one man was ever convicted of a crime resulting from the mass killings, rapes and torture. The current system of criminal trial generally doesn't allow individual soldiers to be prosecuted for actions they perform while following orders. Usually only the commanding officer who orders the action may be held accountable. I won't use his name as I don't believe he deserves to be remembered, but that man was sentences to three and a half years house arrest.
Few people know this event ever occurred.
The system is broken.
The system needs repair.
If not for the justice of victims past, then for victims future--no doubt there will be many.
Between 300 and 500 people, predominately women and children, are massacred, tortured and raped. Their homes are burned to the ground and the land around them razed with fire. Unarmed, they were dragged from their houses in the early morning and gunned down amidst the screams of horror from relatives and neighbours. The bodies of victims, including children, and newborns, are later found bearing signs of mutilation.
The village that played host to the brutal massacre, My Lai, is occupied almost entirely by women and children, with the male population having joined the conflict that consumed Vietnam. The night before the attack, news was heard that there were no enemy combatants in the village. The order to continue the planned assault was made. Charlie Company was instructed by their commanding officers to "kill them all" and to burn down the homes and pollute the wells. The orders went so far as to shoot any animals they might find.
The men of C Company use their bayonets and grenades as well as their automatic weapons to murder any citizen they see fit. Several groups of some 60 plus Vietnamese are round up and gunned down at point blank range. Once the majority of the inhabitants lay dead, the men perform a search for resistance fighters. None are found. The order is given to resume rounding up any remaining villagers and to "eliminate" them. Even pets are slain.
The brutality of the massacre is shocking and I advise only those not easily upset to view the following images:
A helicopter pilot flying overhead caught site of the growing numbers of dead and decided to inspect, later telling the courts he saw "many dead women and children" and "soldiers hitting a woman to the ground and shooting her in the head". That man, Warrant Officer One Hugh Thompson, Jr., saved 16 innocent people by landing his helicopter and taking them to safety. Hugh spoke to several soldiers at the site of the slaughter. He asked if he could lift the wounded out from a ditch where the soldiers had been pilling up bodies indiscriminately. The reply was a cold "I will put them out of their misery". Shocked and confused, Hugh boarded his helicopter and returned to base to report the horror. He testified that before leaving he witnessed several soldiers begin firing into the ditch where the dead and dying alike where tossed.
Only one man was ever convicted of a crime resulting from the mass killings, rapes and torture. The current system of criminal trial generally doesn't allow individual soldiers to be prosecuted for actions they perform while following orders. Usually only the commanding officer who orders the action may be held accountable. I won't use his name as I don't believe he deserves to be remembered, but that man was sentences to three and a half years house arrest.
Few people know this event ever occurred.
The system is broken.
The system needs repair.
If not for the justice of victims past, then for victims future--no doubt there will be many.
