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My Lai massacre

"My Lai" redirects here. For the documentary, see My Lai (film).

My Lai Massacre
Thảm sát Mỹ Lai
Part of the Vietnam War
Photo taken by U.S. Army photographer Ronald L. Haeberle on 16 March 1968, in the aftermath of the My Lai Massacre showing mostly women and children dead on a road
LocationSơn Mỹ village, Sơn Tịnh district, Quảng Ngãi province, South Vietnam
Coordinates15°10′42″N 108°52′10″E / 15.17833°N 108.86944°E / 15.17833; 108.86944
Date16 March 1968 (1968-03-16)
TargetMỹ Lai 4 and Mỹ Khe 4 hamlets
Attack type
Massacre, war rape, torture
Deaths
  • Vietnamese government lists 504 killed in both Mỹ Lai and Mỹ Khe
  • United States Army lists 347 (not including Mỹ Khe killings)
PerpetratorsUnited States Army, specifically the C Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment and B Company, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 23rd Infantry Division
ConvictedWilliam Calley
ConvictionsPremeditated murder (22 counts)
SentenceLife imprisonment; commuted to three years house arrest by President Richard Nixon

The My Lai massacre (/ˌmiːˈlaɪ/; Vietnamese: Thảm sát Mỹ Lai [tʰâːm ʂǎːt mǐˀ lāːj] ⓘ) was a war crime committed by United States Army personnel on 16 March 1968, involving the mass murder of unarmed civilians in Sơn Tịnh district, South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War.[1] Between 347 and 504 civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment and Company B, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated, and some soldiers mutilated and raped children who were as young as 12.[2][3] It is the largest publicized massacre of civilians by U.S. forces in the 20th century.[4]

Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted. Found guilty of murdering 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence but served three-and-a-half years under house arrest after U.S. president Richard Nixon commuted his sentence.

The massacre, which was later called "the most shocking episode of the Vietnam War",[5] took place in two hamlets of Sơn Mỹ village in Quảng Ngãi Province.[6] These hamlets were marked on the U.S. Army topographic maps as My Lai and My Khe.[7] The U.S. Army slang name for the hamlets and sub-hamlets in that area was Pinkville,[8] and the carnage was initially referred to as the Pinkville Massacre.[9][10] Later, when the Army started its investigation, the media changed it to the Massacre at Songmy.[11] Currently, the event is referred to as the My Lai Massacre in the U.S. and called the Sơn Mỹ Massacre in present-day Vietnam.[12]

The massacre prompted global outrage when it became public knowledge in November 1969. It contributed to domestic opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, both because of the scope of killing and attempts to cover up the events.[13]

Initially, the three U.S. servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and rescue hiding civilians were shunned, and even denounced as traitors by several U.S. congressmen, including Mendel Rivers (D–SC), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Thirty years later, these servicemen were recognized and decorated, one posthumously, by the U.S. Army for shielding non-combatants from harm in a war zone.[14]

  1. ^ "WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ON 16 MARCH 1968? WHAT LESSONS HAVE BEEN LEARNED? A LOOK AT THE MY LAI INCIDENT FIFTY YEARS LATER". The Army Historical Foundation. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  2. ^ Brownmiller, Susan (1975). Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. Simon & Schuster. pp. 103–05. ISBN 978-0-671-22062-4.
  3. ^ Murder in the name of war: My Lai, BBC News, 20 July 1998.
  4. ^ Rozman, Gilbert (2010). U.S. Leadership, History, and Bilateral Relations in Northeast Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 56.
  5. ^ Greiner, Bernd. War Without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2009.[ISBN missing]
  6. ^ Department of the Army. Report of the Department of the Army Review of the Preliminary Investigations into the My Lai Incident, Volumes I–III (1970).
  7. ^ Summary of Peers Report.
  8. ^ My Lai – Letters Archived 20 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine, due to the reddish-pink color used on military maps to denote a more densely populated area. 11th Light Infantry Brigade Veterans Association website.
  9. ^ Frontline (PBS): Remember My Lai Archived 6 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine Originally Broadcast 23 May 1989.
  10. ^ "The My Lai Massacre: Seymour Hersh's Complete and Unabridged Reporting for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, November 1969 /Candide's Notebooks". Pierretristam.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
  11. ^ Ex-G.I. Says He Saw Calley Kill a Vietnamese Civilian. The New York Times, 27 November 1969.
  12. ^ "Commemorating victims of Son My massacre" VOV News, 13 March 2012.
  13. ^ Corley, Christopher L. Effects on Public Opinion Support During War or Conflict Archived 7 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2007, p. 39.
  14. ^ ""Moral Courage In Combat: The My Lai Story" (lecture by Hugh Thompson), Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics, United States Naval Academy, 2003" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2013.