Great Satan – Americans are not as nice as you think – The Mylai Massacre

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On March 16, 1968, American soldiers did their best to exterminate a village filled with Vietnamese women and children in the Mỹ Lai massacre. Approximately five hundred unarmed people were murdered by U.S. troops, but helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson risked his own life, defying orders, to save as many as he could from his rampaging fellow soldiers. And he paid the price for his heroism.

–On This Day in History Shit Went Down: March 16, 1968–

It was a horror. Green troops expecting to find enemy Viet Cong decided that instead of leaving this peaceful village alone, they’d kill everyone. Then they realized, oh, wait, we can do some raping first. Yeah, that happened. While the boys in Company C were displaying the worst of humanity, Thompson was flying a small observation helicopter with two other crewmen. He witnessed the massacre taking place and rather than say “None of my business,” he made it his fucking business.

Thompson landed his craft and confronted the heavily armed American soldiers who were in the process of raping and murdering the civilians. He confronted the lieutenant, who said he was “just following orders.” Thompson replied with “Whose orders?” and the lieutenant said, “It ain’t your concern” and told Thompson to get in his chopper and fuck off. At that point, one soldier began to open fire on wounded civilians lying in a ditch to kill anyone still moving.

In disbelief at what he was witnessing, Thompson went to look for any civilians he could save. He found eleven people and called in a gunship to transport them out. He and his two crew members stood guard over the terrorized civilians until evacuation arrived. He told his crew that if any Americans tried to shoot the civilians they were protecting, that they were to open fire on their fellow Americans. As a small mercy, the evacuation was successful.

When they returned to base, Thompson saved many more lives by reporting the massacre to his superiors. The operation–turned–mass murder was to include forays into many more hamlets that likely would have suffered a similar fate, but a halt was commanded.

Thompson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions, and he threw it away because the commendation said it was for rescuing a child caught in crossfire, with no mention of the massacre. When the story broke the following year, Thompson was summoned to appear before Congress where they ripped him apart, saying he was the one who should be court-martialed, for pointing his weapon at fellow soldiers.

Thompson became an outcast, saying people thought “I was a traitor. I was a communist. I was a sympathizer . . . that went on for about thirty years.” There were death threats and dead animals left on his porch. In terms of “justice,” the man leading the massacre, Lieutenant William Calley, was the only one punished. He was sentenced to life in prison, but President Nixon intervened, and he only served three and a half years’ house arrest.

On March 16, 1968 the angry and frustrated men of Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, Americal Division entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai. “This is what you’ve been waiting for — search and destroy — and you’ve got it,” said their superior officers. A short time later the killing began. When news of the atrocities surfaced, it sent shockwaves through the U.S. political establishment, the military’s chain of command, and an already divided American public.

Poised for Conflict
My Lai lay in the South Vietnamese district of Son My, a heavily mined area where the Vietcong were deeply entrenched. Numerous members of Charlie Company had been maimed or killed in the area during the preceding weeks. The agitated troops, under the command of Lt. William Calley, entered the village poised for engagement with their elusive enemy.

Massacre
As the “search and destroy” mission unfolded, it soon degenerated into the massacre of over 300 apparently unarmed civilians including women, children, and the elderly. Calley ordered his men to enter the village firing, though there had been no report of opposing fire. According to eyewitness reports offered after the event, several old men were bayoneted, praying women and children were shot in the back of the head, and at least one girl was raped and then killed. For his part, Calley was said to have rounded up a group of the villagers, ordered them into a ditch, and mowed them down in a fury of machine gun fire.

Call for Investigation
Word of the atrocities did not reach the American public until November 1969, when journalist Seymour Hersh published a story detailing his conversations with a Vietnam veteran, Ron Ridenhour. Ridenhour learned of the events at My Lai from members of Charlie Company who had been there. Before speaking with Hersh, he had appealed to Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon to investigate the matter. The military investigation resulted in Calley’s being charged with murder in September 1969 — a full two months before the Hersh story hit the streets.

Questions About Soldiers’ Conduct
As the gruesome details of My Lai reached the American public, serious questions arose concerning the conduct of American soldiers in Vietnam. A military commission investigating the massacre found widespread failures of leadership, discipline, and morale among the Army’s fighting units. As the war progressed, many “career” soldiers had either been rotated out or retired. Many more had died. In their place were scores of draftees whose fitness for leadership in the field of battle was questionable at best. Military officials blamed inequities in the draft policy for the often slim talent pool from which they were forced to choose leaders. Many maintained that if the educated middle class (“the Harvards,” as they were called) had joined in the fight, a man of Lt. William Calley’s emotional and intellectual stature would never have been issuing orders.

Orders from Above?
Calley, an unemployed college dropout, had managed to graduate from Officer’s Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1967. At his trial, Calley testified that he was ordered by Captain Ernest Medina to kill everyone in the village of My Lai. Still, there was only enough photographic and recorded evidence to convict Calley, alone, of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in 1974, following many appeals. After being issued a dishonorable discharge, Calley entered the insurance business.