The Vietnam Anti-war Movement

"Soldiers Execute Between 300 and 500 Vietnamese Villagers"

by Evan Brown

 

American soldiers shot and killed around 300 Vietnamese villagers in the village of My Lai on March 16th, 1968. The party of soldiers, known as the Charlie Company, was a unit of the Americal Division's 11th Infantry Brigade. The company was on a search and destroy mission to destroy Viet Cong supplies that was thought to be located in the village.

 

Those in charge were tried accordingly, and Captain Ernest Medina told the soldiers that there would be no civilians, or “innocents” in the village on March 16, and anyone who was present was an enemy or enemy sympathizer. The U.S. Army commissioned an investigation, eventually charging over 20 men of wrongdoing. The commission concluded that there had been widespread failures of leadership, discipline and morale. On March 29, 1971, Lieutenant William Calley was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison, causing a firestorm of public outcry. Anti-war Americans saw Calley as a scapegoat for a corrupt military; those in favor saw him as a dedicated soldier who had only been carrying out orders.

For almost 16 months after the incident at My Lai, the American public remained unaware of what had happened until reporter Seymour Hersh broke the story in 30 U.S. newspapers. He based his story on conversations with Ron Ridenhour, a former member of Charlie Company (though not present at My Lai) who had sent letters to various government officials urging them to investigate “something rather dark and bloody” that had happened in Vietnam. At first ignored, his letters eventually resulted in Lieutenant Calley being charged with murder in September 1969. A week after Hersh’s story, My Lai was covered in Time and Newsweek, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer published the photos of the bodies by the side of the road.