My Lai Massacre Research Paper

Born on November 9th, 1970, Lisa Vanderbeck grew up in a very close knit neighborhood, always doing things with her neighbors, whether they were thirty years older than her, or ten years younger. One person who she was extremely close to was a friend of her moms, Mrs. Louis, who lived five doors down from her. Lisa, her mom, and twin sister would go over to her house at least once a week for “Avon Lady Day”. They would drink coffee, and hang out with the other neighbors who attended.

Amidst all of the violence surrounding not only the United States, but also the whole world, I felt like the July 7th Dallas Shootings interested me. The attack took place on a Thursday evening during a Black Lives Matter Protest. The protest came shortly after the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and occurred in many major cities that evening. After reviewing many different stories from both CNN and Fox News, I found one article hours after the attack occurred and one about one week later. This story definitely had a large amount of coverage online, in newspapers, and on television. The content of information was similar, but the article published one week after the killings had more accurate information since more become known

In the town of My Lai on March 16, 1968 was not a day you would be wanting to visit. U.S troops were ordered to conduct a massacre killing 500 plus innocent old men, women, and children.

1. STATEMENT OF RESEARCH QUESTION Throughout the years, the Vietnam War has lived up its name as “one of the most obscure episodes and, at the same time, one of the most serious conflicts not only of the Cold war period but also of the whole modern history” (Hodboďová, 2008). It was apparently the most long-lasting conflict in American history and most disfavored war that broke out after World War II and ended in 1975. The peculiarity of this war lies not only in its prolonged duration but also in an overriding number of war casualties, or in other words, the death and destruction to the country’s people. Averagely in the struggle, more than one million Vietnamese soldiers and over 58,000 Americans were killed, not to mention the massacre

March 16, 1968 was when over 300 civilians were killed in the My Lai village and was hidden by American soldiers from the American people. November 1969 was when the My Lai massacre was brought to the attention of the American people. People wondered why did some soldiers commit atrocities and others did not, also some of the different choices the soldiers made instead of following orders, and can anyone ever judge anyone? Also Pham Thi Trinh was one of the Vietnamese witnesses that lost her family on this tragic day.

The Vietnam War was like no war before. America got involved in Vietnam to preserve a non-communist South Vietnam, but in the end, the government and the country fell to communist North Vietnam. The US had never experienced such a military defeat in its history. The causes of this monumental defeat may not have been clear at first, but through memoirs such as Philip Caputo 's Rumor of War and other historical accounts of the war, we now have a better sense of what truly led to America 's loss. As a combat soldier in Vietnam, Caputo 's memoir helps us to better understand why America lost the war because it shows how the conditions of this war caused mayhem within the minds of these soldiers, undermining the American war effort.

March 16 1968 in the morning hours, American soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade, systematically and intentionally shot, raped and killed 504 innocent civilians; men, woman, children and grandparents. William Calley, the commanding officer during the massacre ordered his men to round up everyone

Americans were able to see the war in action on television and were able to witness the horrifying images of war, casualties, and massacres. One of the most horrifying massacres that Americans saw was the My Lai Massacre. My Lai is a very small town 100 miles south of Saigon in South Vietnam. On March 16, 1968, American troops enveloped the town and murdered between four hundred and five hundred innocent civilians. These troops were acting under the command of Captain Ernest Medina and Lieutenant William Calley, Jr. Their justification for this attack was their belief that the citizens of My Lai were working with the Viet Cong by harboring them in their homes.

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.

This historical event is related to C.P. Snow ’s quote, because there are people following orders and does not know what they are doing is wrong. We have committed many hideous crimes out of obedience instead of rebellion. The soldiers that was in the My Lai Massacre were just following the orders that were given to them. They do not know that those innocent women and children are not the Viet Congs and the soldiers believed that they were the Viet Congs.

The Mỹ Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass killing of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. The massacre, which was later called "the most shocking episode of the Vietnam War", took place in two hamlets of Sơn Mỹ village in Quảng Ngãi Province. These hamlets were marked on the U.S. Army topographic maps as My Lai and My Khe. The U.S. military codeword for the alleged Viet Cong stronghold in that area was Pinkville, and the carnage was initially referred to as the Pinkville Massacre. Later, when the U.S. Army started its investigation, the media changed it to the Massacre at Songmy. Currently, the event is referred to as the My Lai Massacre in the United States and called the Son My Massacre in Vietnam.

Consider the way that textbooks depict the My Lai Massacre, a standout amongst the most notorious occasions of the Vietnam War, amid which American soldiers killed unarmed Vietnamese ladies and kids. To the degree that textbooks say the slaughter, they regard it as a detached occurrence—notwithstanding the impressive confirmation that My Lai is demonstrative of "wrongdoings submitted on an everyday premise with the full attention to officers at all levels of command." Besides, course books never cite from the adversaries of Vietnamese mediation, including Martin Luther King, Jr.— without a doubt, the main individuals whom textbooks consistently cite on Vietnam are Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, two of the draftsmen of the war.

of unarmed and innocent Vietnamese civilian in the village of My Lai were massacred. It was a

On March 16, 1968 a terrible massacre occurred at My Lai, called The My Lai Massacre. The following massacre should have never happened and the event's that followed the massacre are typical of any American wrongdoing. That's why it wasn't in my US History book. They covered it up and the people involved in the massacre received no punishment except for one soldier.

A woman wearing a green uniform appeared to be in the Vietnamese army and so a man in the Alpha Company shot her in the back. They did not realize she was a woman otherwise she would not have been shot. They tried to save her but her wounds were extensive and she bled out before she could get proper medical attention. They were distraught that they killed her and they thought that she was very pretty. This could have been another ploy of the vietnamese to throw off the company and distract them (112). There were 10 VC located in a village called Tri Binh 4. The night patrol went out with only 6 men to check out the village. The VC were trying to disguise as civilians however the night patrol knew they were not because they listened to their conversations so they opened fire on them (83). Major Callicles said to reporters that they were not in My Lai to harm the civilians it just so happened that's where a lot of the enemy lived. The VC did their best to make Americans look like the bad guys buy dressing their military and civilians the same so that it appeared America was out in Vietnam just killing civilians. Callicles was even suspicious to that fast the young two year old children were out setting mines and other