Korean War Crimes

"To what extent can the Korean War be regarded as a Cold War proxy war?"

On March 16, 1968, over 300 unarmed civilians were killed in South Vietnam during an indiscriminate, mass murder event known as the My Lai Massacre. Conducted by a unit of the United States Army, the My Lai Massacre ranked one of most appalling atrocities carried out by US forces in an already savage and violent war. All victims involved were unarmed civilians, many of which were women, children, and the elderly. Victims were raped, tortured and beaten, even mutilated before being killed. The massacre was forever seared into the hearts and minds of the American people as the day “the American spirit died.”

Before we ask about My Lai Massacre, we need to know what is My Lai Massacre the My Lai massacre is My Lai massacre has indiscriminately shot unarmed civilians during the Vietnam War. The genocide was the duty of an officer of Charlie Company in the United States to lead a team in search of Vietnam. Their teams occupied a place called My Lai and slaughtered civilians under the direction of the high commander. Charlie Company entered South Vietnam in December 1967. In the first month there was no fighting, but in mid-March, five members of the team were killed by booby traps. Moreover, Vietnam’s 48th Battalion attacked US forces in the South Vietnam. The place of the incident occurred not far from where civilians live. This time, the US military was very angry and determined a massive counterattack the villages. Colonel Oran K Henderson orders Charlie Company to commit a massacre. The civilians who lived there were mainly woman, children and the elderly. American soldiers cruelly murdered and mocked them after receiving get permission. In the massacre more than 500 civilians were slaughtered and many women were raped and murdered. They attempted to conceal the events they had committed and led to an antisense sentiment that further divided the United States during the Vietnam War. However, some US military testimonies make their world known to their cruelty, including genocide and rape. In this paper, I will write down things about the behavior of the US

War crimes are committed in every war, whether it be the mass murder/rape of civilians/noncombatants or the mistreatment of POWs, war crimes show war's worst effects on people’s morals and humanity. After the end of World War 2 there were the Nuremberg trials which tried the members of the nazi party that had committed war crimes throughout the war. However most allied war crimes were not brought to the public and in the soviets case, blamed on the nazi's. This is the result of how “history is written by the victors” and while the nazi war crimes were closely documented, judged and sentenced the allied war crimes were swept under the rug away from the public eye as it wouldn’t of been popular to publicly lock up and persecute the men that had

are sent to defend South Korea” (Document C). This led to another war for the United States.

The My Lai massacre and the Abu Ghraib torture prison were both tragic events in history that Americans were involved in. The My Lai massacre took place during the Vietnam war in 1968. Lieutenant William Calley ordered the Charlie Company to proceed with the attack on the village of My Lai. Their goal was to exterminate the Viet Cong combatants and any one who stood in their way, but they ended up killing hundreds of innocent unarmed civilians instead. The Abu Ghraib torture and prison was an american military run prison that was active during the Iraqi war in 2003 until 2006. They captured Iraqi soldiers and tortured them in extremely inhumane and unimaginable ways. These horrific occurrences made an impact on a countless amount of communities and people’s lives around the world whether they had connections to the incidents or not, which is why this issue is such an important matter to discuss. The concepts that will be discussed in this essay are the similarities between the events of the My Lai massacre and Abu Ghraib prison, the major difference between the two, considering who was truly responsible for the events at the Abu Ghraib prison, discussing whether or not the lessons of My Lai were learnt, and the steps to take to insure nothing alike these events would ever take place in the world again.

Imagine, waking up to your neighbors and family being brutally murdered. You manage to escape, and later find out that those responsible for the massacre of your community have gotten off, scot free. When people commit a horrible crime, we expect there to be consequences. Son My is a village that had been heavily mined by the Viet Cong, a communist organization that fought against the South Vietnamese government, many American soldiers had been killed or injured by those mines. Seeking “revenge”, on March 16, 1968, American soldiers from the C Company division went into a smaller part of Son My called My Lai and murder over 400 innocent people. The My Lai massacre was a horrible crime committed by U.S soldiers from C Company division, they

Matthew Lippman provides that the Lai Massacre violated the international humanitarian law of war. The Lai Massacre and the Vietnam War raises critical questions about how America conduct war and its military leadership in Vietnam. The massacre of innocent unarmed civilians illustrates the horrendous war crime committed by American soldiers. Lippman discusses how the United States tried to keep the events of My Lai Massacre from the public. The My Lai Massacre makes me wonder if this was only one of the many massacres in Vietnam War and if the higher US officials managed to cover-up the other massacres. The trials for the crimes committed in My Lai were held separately from the Nuremberg trails because officials wanted to avoid creating parallels between the two events. However, parallels can be drawn with American conduct in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Troops who were in violation of international law and committed war crimes in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay were not held accountable for their action to their full extent. In fact, those who were convicted were not necessarily charged with war crimes. This leads us to question whether the events of my Lai and Nuremberg could ever be reconciled. Allan Ryan makes the argument that the Nuremberg Tribunals was the most significant development of international human rights law. I agree with Ryan as many tribunals following the events of World War II have been modeled after the Nuremberg Tribunals. For instance, this is true in

The massacre at My Lai 4, often referred to as the “Pinkville Operation” by military officials, quickly became an event surrounded by outrage on the behalf of anti-war activists and soldiers alike. As stories leaked from letters sent to congressmen, and interviewed soldiers, outrage quickly boiled and conservatives and liberals were forced to ask: how could American soldiers commit atrocities so detestable? Newspapers, magazines, and tabloids presented stories all with a similar title. Headlines such as, “First Photos of Mass Viet Slaying” and, “One Hundred Killed; Calley To Blame” helped draw attention to Charlie Company, the soldiers involved, while the spotlight fell on one particular soldier, Lt. Calley, who many blamed as the main instigator of the massacre. While Lieutenant Calley and his fellow members of Charlie Company are responsible for many of their actions during the massacre, the policies instituted by the American government and military are responsible as well, due to the helped violent and detesting nature of American soldiers against the Vietnamese they fostered that caused My Lai.

The My Lai massacre remains one of the bloodiest and most shocking incidents in the history of the Vietnam War and yet it is not widely known as an important episode within the context of the war. The reasons for this are the attempted cover up of the incident by the US Army and then the US government and also the complete lack of consequences that the perpetrators received. In this essay the event and the relevant instigators along with the lack of appropriate action that was taken against them will be discussed. There are various reports and articles that outline the basic blueprint for what happened in My Lai and also the conflicting stories about just who should take responsibility for the deaths of the 504 people killed that day.

The United States has fought in many wars throughout the years. The Korean War took place from 1950-1953. It has also been called the forgotten war, as people do not recognize it like the Second World War, the Vietnam War or the Gulf War. This battle consisted of North Korea, South Korea and the United States. It was fought on sea, land and air. The Korean War was a clash between the Communist forces and the free world.

The My Lai Massacre is, to this day, still known to be one of the most horrifying acts of violence against neutrals that occurred during the Vietnam war. A company of American soldiers, under the order of their superior, violently attacked and killed most of the population of South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lia. This village, made up mostly of women, children, and the elderly, did not fire one single shot

The Los Angeles Times starts by explaining that a Bosnian Serb army colonel named Vidoje Blagojevic was charged with crimes against humanity and genocide. The Los Angeles Times stated that “the charges against Blagojevic relate to alleged Bosnian Serb atrocities around Srebrenica. More than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were executed after being caught fleeing a Serbian conquest of the town in July 1995” (Times Wire Services). This information supports the case of Blagojevic’s arrest but it also connects to bias by making the Bosnian Serbs (such as Blagojevic) more guilty of commiting war crimes. As the article goes on, the Los Angeles Times address that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) got involved on whether his arrest is justified.

To better understand the atrocities of these wars, one must have knowledge of the definitions of certain terms and war crimes. The ideas of “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” are often thrown

In eastern Bosnia, these atrocities were war crimes that breached the Geneva Conventions and other international laws governing conflicts between nations. They were also breaches of international humanitarian law, as formulated at Nuremberg and elsewhere. When these tactics were employed by Bosnian Serb forces as part of the program of so-called "ethnic cleansing" directed against Bosnian Muslims and other non-Serbs, they also constituted genocide.