A Brief History
On March 17, 1970, the US Army charged 14 officers with suppressing information about the My Lai Massacre that took place in South Vietnam in 1968, a horrible atrocity in which between 347 and 504 Vietnamese civilians, including women, children and babies, were slaughtered by C Company, 1st Bn 20th Regt of the 11th Brigade of the 23rd Infantry Division of the US Army. Allegations included gang rape, shooting women with babies, bayoneting and clubbing people, using grenades and burning occupied dwellings.
Digging Deeper
Probably the best known and worst atrocity committed by US military troops during the Vietnam War, initial reports indicated that the people killed had been Viet Cong, guerilla communist fighters and C Company was applauded for doing a good job. Rumors and reports of atrocity began soon afterward, and officers up and down the chain of command minimized the incident or flat out suppressed true information. Even Colin Powell, then a major (later a 4 star General Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then Secretary of State), is said to have “whitewashed” the incident in his role of investigating a letter reporting the massacre.
The 14 officers charged included the Division Commander, Major General Samuel Koster and 11th Brigade Commander, Colonel Henderson. Of those involved in the alleged cover up, only Henderson stood trial by Court Martial and he was acquitted. Unlike the shameful behavior of senior officers that tried to cover up the incident, some helicopter crews had witnessed the massacre and intervened on behalf of the civilian Vietnamese, preventing even more killings. These men were later recognized as heroes and presented with medals for their bravery in intervening.
The designated scapegoat was 2nd Lieutenant William Calley, charged with and convicted of murdering at least 20 people, the only officer or soldier convicted of anything involved with the massacre. Sentenced to life in prison, per President Nixon Calley was sent from Ft. Leavenworth to serve house arrest instead, and the Convening General of the court martial reduced the sentence to 20 years.
Calley had pled the “Nuremburg” defense, that he had only been following orders and that as a “lowly” 2nd Lieutenant he dare not question or disobey orders. An inconsistency in the proceedings was that the enlisted men under Calley were not prosecuted for “following orders” and perpetrating most of the atrocities.
Calley later appealed his case, and was released after only 3 ½ years if confinement on the basis that pre-trial publicity poisoned the prosecution’s case and Calley’s defense, that defense witnesses were denied, inadequate notice of the charges, and the US House of Representatives refused to release testimony they had received during their investigation of the massacre. Calley’s conviction and ejection from the service was upheld, but his prison sentence was commuted to time served, and he was now (1974) a free man.
Many of the soldiers involved with the My Lai Massacre later reported regret about the incident, but they did not offer to accept any personal responsibility. The lenient treatment of Calley and the attempts at cover up by others implies that the US Army and American Government did not fully accept responsibility either. The Vietnam War was characterized by numerous brutal massacres and atrocities by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, as well as South Vietnamese military and government officials. The US military by comparison engaged in far fewer criminal type murders, but were presented to the world by the Communist Bloc and an all too accommodating Western media as the main criminals of the War. The Vietnam War cost as many as 3.8 million Vietnamese (both sides) their lives, and hundreds of thousands of other neighboring countries people, as well as 60,000 or so Americans.
The Vietnam War was a frustrating experience for Americans still flush with the resounding victory of World War II, and fostered so many lies and blunders by American politicians that the bitter debate about the War divided the US like few other things have since the Civil War. Unfortunately, it appears American politicians have learned little from the experience, and the American military is mired in the Middle East since 2001!
Question for students (and subscribers): What do you think we learned or failed to learn from the Vietnam War experience? Should we still be involved in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries? Please share your opinions with us in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Charles River Editors. The My Lai Massacre: The History of the Vietnam War’s Most Notorious Atrocity. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="15421 https://www.historyandheadlines.com/?p=15421">12 Comments
Part of what we learned from the Vietnam war is that it is very difficult for the United States to get involved in another country’s Civil War. However if the decision is made that it is in the best interest of the United States, then we need to go in with the attitude that we are going to win. As far as Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the military it is extremely important that we abolish Isis over there instead of allowing them to come over to the United States and wage war on us here. Having said that we need to do everything within our power including military, in order to win.
To start with, we had no business being involved in the Vietnam War/ It was not our war to fight. The thing that we failed learn from this war was that we should stay out of another country’s civil war. We should not be in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries fighting their war. I support our troops, but not the war.
I’ve heard this story before. It makes me mad that Calley only served 3 1/2 years for massacring 20 people and then set free just like that.
It is horrible the things that the soldiers did to innocent women and children, they should have served much longer sentences.
I cannot believe a single person didn’t receive any actual jail time for such a terrible crime. The government is pretty good at hiding things which I feel is unnecessary.
I truly believe that even if we wanted to, we could not take troops out of the middle east. Innocent people will die. Also if we pulled out, we might be sending a message of weakness and end up with a similar 9/11 incident.
I think we should divert all of our efforts to humanitarian missions. Stop policing the rest of the world. We do not need to be shooting tomahawk missiles from Naval ships into areas as a sort of revenge for others that can not seek their own revenge. This isn’t fixing or “flexing” anything. Innocent people die, and it is disgusting, but its also not our job to seek revenge or repair their governments. We have abused, neglected, starving, uneducated, unloved children in our country. We have single mothers working three jobs and getting government assistance not able to make ends meet. We have a huge crisis in our education (Especially with our new Secretary of Education that wants to de-fund public education and basically abolish special education). We should worry about our own country, invest in our own future…. If we have an attack on our soil, heck yes lets go to war…. I do not understand how exactly we are waging war on a concept such as terrorism and not an actual country. This war is designed by default to never end and lets us put our boots on any foreign ground that we classify as committing terrorist acts. The media fuels this fire, middle class (whats left of it) funds this fire, and the big banks and other corporations and stock holders make money off of this fire. It is insane.
I understand retaliation for the attacks to our country (9/11) but I don’t think the United States should put its nose in areas that don’t concern it.
I didn’t know that US soldiers did those things
The US always want to intervene with other country’s problems!
I do believe there is a reason the US gets involved in things that do not directly effect us for a reason. We are a strong country and other countries look to us for the answers.
I feel like the United States is always wanting to be in a disagreement with someone it does not matter who is in office!