My Lai Essay

The My Lai massacre was a very dramatic event affecting many livelihoods and destroying communities. The US Army was heavily involved in the massacre. It is believed that approximately 504 innocent Vietnamese men, women and children lost their lives to the massacre. Before the massacre Vietnam was still war-stricken with civil wars between the north and south Vietnamese people but after the US got involved many other countries came into the mix as well like Australia, China, Cambodia, North Korea

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

The My Lai massacre took place in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968. To some, the occasion is considered the worst event in American military history. A group of American soldiers attacked and killed between 300 and 500 Vietnamese men, women, and children. About a year later people learned of the violent attacks made on these innocent people by newspapers and newscasts. When people heard of the attacks, it increased the animosity against war and gave the public another reason to resent the Vietnam

My Lai the Great Massacre The Olson and Roberts book, My Lai is based upon the March 18, 1968, assault on My Lai. By examining the material, an explanation of why this massacre occurred is drawn. The main factors that lead to the My Lai assault were difficulty engaging with the enemy and the problem of distinguishing between the enemy soldiers and civilians, which both led to rage and frustration among soldiers and a misinterpretation of the mission. On March 17, 1968, a mission was given

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

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? Hugh Thompson was asked during an interview on BBC “How could previously normal people butcher through over

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 orders were given to wipe out all of the Viet Congs in My Lai village. There were no ways to tell if the Vietnamese were Viet Congs or not. They had no choice but to follow the

killed (American Experience). Regardless of the devastation caused in the small hamlet, the public most likely would never have known about the event if it weren’t for two men, Ron Ridenhour and Ron Haeberle. 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

I believe that both the massacre and the cover-up of the events in Vietnam are equally worse. The brutality displayed by the American soldiers in their act of killing over700 human beings at My Lai was wrong. I think that the soldiers misused command and took an advantage of the situation to act brutally. Command had earlier advised the soldiers that the village may be occupied guerrilla fighters. Instead, they found unarmed villagers who were mainly comprised of women and children. I think the soldiers

William T. Santiago, so Kaffee, Lt. Cmdr. Joanne Galloway, and Lt. j.g. Sam Weinberg fight for their justice. In “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience” authors Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton claim that the act on My Lai was an example of indefinite orders from one authority to another. The men of Charlie Company were ordered to go into the village of My Lai and destroy it in search of Viet Cong, which none were found. The massacre was covered up, but unveiled in later years