My Lai Massacre : My Lai Massacre During The Vietnam 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.”

As the Vietnam War continued, the North Vietnamese reported on the public opinion in the United States. Specifically the American public’s reaction to any massacre of innocent civilians. After careful research they saw the Americans showing sympathy. Vietnamese then began to orchestrate a program to denigrate the U.S. military. They showed this by saying that the killing of the innocents was not accidental but a policy deliberately fostered by the U.S. High Command in Vietnam. General William Westmoreland was one such person singled out by the

A genocide that is still currently happening is the one in Laos which is the result of the Vietnam War. It was a war against the communist North and the democratic South with the help of the U.S. The U.S got involved because they want to prevent the spread of communism, which is known as the “domino theory” where if a surrounding country falls into the ideology of … then the rest will fall with it. The leader of North Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh, a strong dictator that managed to get support of his people. He states that the South was being used as a puppet state by the American. A lot of American dislikes this war and many oppose it, however many Americans don’t know that there was actually another war going on known as the Secret War.

Though Ridenhour did not learn about the My Lai massacre until a year after it took place he immediately wrote a letter to current president, Richard Nixon, who began an investigation. However, the events in the small Vietnamese village did not come to the public’s attention until Haeberle, who had been present at the time of the massacre, published pictures in Life and Time magazines toward the end of 1969 (Cookman 159). As previously discussed, most coverage of Vietnam in the early

During the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, there were American soldiers who murdered over 300 civilians in the My Lai village. But also there were some who refused to participate in those types of murderous activities. Once the My Lai massacre was brought to the attention of American citizens, they were questioning why did some soldiers commit atrocities and some of the other soldiers did not?

A major turning point in the Vietnam War occurred in the small village of My Lai, Vietnam. The hamlet of My Lai was known for being fertile Viet Cong territory. A unit of the 11th Infantry Brigade, known as the Charlie Company, was sent to My Lai on a “search and destroy” mission. Soldiers of the Charlie Company were ordered to locate and eliminate communist fighters said to be in the area. On the morning of March 16, 1968 U.S. soldiers entered My Lai and, in what was said to be a matter of hours, killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in cold blood. Innocent men, women, and children were raped, tortured, and murdered. The initial targets of the Charlie Company’s mission, the 48th Viet Cong Battalion, were nowhere to be found. This horrific event became known as the My Lai massacre.

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

Section 1: I think one of the main reasons why the My Lai Massacre occurred was due to conformity. Conforming to a group of norm is powerful when it comes to ambiguous and confusing situations as what happened at My Lai. The soldiers were instructed to kill everyone in sight, whether they were old people, children, babies, or animals. The soldiers followed orders because they felt obligated to obey an authoritative figure who had power over them. The soldiers at My Lai were influenced by other soldiers who were given the same brutal task.

The Fall of Saigon represented an end to the horrendous Vietnam War that had been raging for almost 20 years. Saigon was the capital of South Vietnam and was taken April 30th 1945. Vietnam had been a separating force in the United States for over 19 years when it started in 1955. One of the worlds greatest superpowers had been defeated by a skinny country in Southern Asia. Vietnam is still one of the most debated military conflicts of all time. The Start of the Vietnam war is one of the many problems people had with The Vietnam War. The United States had intentionally had got involved in the war to stop the spread of communism in another country. The United States was determined to stop communism at all costs. They had already lost in Korea and they weren't going to let another country in Asia fall. The Fall of Saigon was the end to an era

On the morning of March 16th the company moved in. They were instructed by Lieutenant William Calley to shoot every living thing in sight, from animals to babies, for the animals would feed the Vietcong and the babies would one day grow up to be them. From many soldiers’ accounts, non-of the people shot that day seemed to pose any threat to the American soldiers. In fact, women, children and old men made up a huge majority of the victims. Barely any weapons were found and according to most of the soldiers the Vietnamese people were trying to cooperate but there was the barrier of language. When the soldiers yelled things in Vietnamese they weren’t even sure if they were saying the right thing because Vietnamese is a language based on inflection in the voice. LT Calley ordered his soldiers to kill all of the Vietnamese in massive slaughters. They were herded into big groups, and some groups were forced into ditches and then fired upon. “The few that survived did so because the were covered by the bodies of those less fortunate.” (Linder) After the massacre was over there was an extensive cover-up, the commanders even reported My Lai as a success with 123 enemy deaths and some weapon recoveries. It wasn’t until a man named Ronald Ridenhour,

The Vietnam War was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Vietnam. Vietnam use to be a peaceful country until the idea of communism started spreading across Vietnam. Many wanted to stay democratic but saw what happened to the Germans and started to lean towards communism. Many also wanted to stay democratic and still had it hopes high that it will soon get their lives and economy back on track.

The word Genocide can be described many ways, but is customarily utilized in the same inchoation within eight stages of Genocide. In South Vietnam, the killings all commenced from the different regime views on communism. The adamant murdering of the Vietnamese people in South Vietnam falls within the the eight stages. Dolefully, genocide does not come to a halt by itself because there needs to be a substantial ceasing power to put it to rest. It is very hard for me to grasp what authentically transpired and those inculpable people killed in South Vietnam. I didn't realize how the U.S. did so many preposterous killings to reprehensible unarmed civilians using inhumane ways such as gas bombs, poisonous gas, toxic chemicals, white phosphorus bombs, napalm, and B-52 bombers.

To succeed politically within South Vietnam itself the United States had to ‘win the hearts and minds of public’. However the atrocities which had struck Vietnam, caused disarray with the public of Vietnam, one case where this is true was the Massacre at My Lai in March 1968; this was the killing of 300 villagers mainly women and children who were raped, murdered, and mutilated; this was carried out by American soldiers who thought the villagers were supposedly harbouring Vietcong. Lieutenant William Calley was charged with the crime but only served

Ho Chi Minh was a tiny man, frail in appearance and extremely deferential. He wore simple shorts and sandals. To his followers, he was known simply as “Uncle Ho.” Inspired by Woodrow Wilson’s call for universal self-determination, Ho wrote,” all subject peoples are filled with hope by the prospect that an era of right and justice is opening to them.” Ho wanted to meet Wilson and plead the cause of Vietnamese independence. Wilson ignored his request. Ho then traveled to Moscow, where Lenin had declared war against imperialism. While in the Soviet Union, Ho embraced socialism. By the early 1920s, he was actively organizing Vietnamese exiles into a revolutionary force. In 1941, Ho returned to Vietnam. The time was right, he believed, to free Vietnam

The fall of Saigon was quick and swift. US aids was drastically cut, troops have been pull back, with less than 2,000 combat/advisor troops, and AVRN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) spread thin, with main forces by the DMZ. With supplies running out and little defense forces, Hue and Da Nang fall within days. General Van Tien Dung of the PAVN (The People’s Army of Vietnam), quickly move toward Saigon. The drive toward Saigon became known as the “Ho Chi Minh Campaign”, they encountered the final line of defense, the 18th ARVN Division at Xuan Loc, perhaps the best unit in the ARVN. Despite being badly outnumbered, and with supplies running out, the 18th ARVN Division as able to repel attacks for nearly two weeks, until they were overwhelmed.