Today marks the 50th anniversary of My Lai massacre

[elmac]

On this day in 1968, a platoon of American soldiers brutally slaughter more than 500 unarmed civilians at My Lai, one of a cluster of small villages located near the northern coast of South Vietnam.

Full program

[TheDebbieDee]

1. I've always suspected that there were smaller

"My Lai"s that we never heard about... Well, I've suspected this since the late 80s anyway.

[elmac]

3. I agree nt

[spike jones]

6. Kill Every Thing That Moves.

“Americans have long been taught that events such as the notorious My Lai massacre were isolated incidents in the Vietnam War, carried out by just a few “bad apples.” But as award-winning journalist and historian Nick Turse demonstrates in this groundbreaking investigation, violence against Vietnamese noncombatants was not at all exceptional during the conflict. Rather, it was pervasive and systematic, the predictable consequence of official orders to “kill anything that moves.”

http://americanempireproject.com/kill-anything-that-moves/


The Vietnam Wall in DC is triangular shape 10 feet high and 494 feet long. A Wall for the Vietnamese killed would be 100 feet high and 2177 feet long, mostly civilians.

[Upthevibe]

17. Wow....

those dimensions really put things into perspective...What a clusterf**k

[niyad]

2. and let us never forget that colin powell was instrumental in the attempted coverup.

[LisaM]

7. Thank you!

I've never understood why Colin Powell gets such a pass. There was My Lai, there was his refusal to work with Bill Clinton to let gays serve openly in the military, there was the way he went to Crawford during the recount to lend legitimacy to the Bush team, and of course, the infamous weapons of mass destruction presentation at the UN.

Yet people treat him like some kind of hero. I know we live in Upside-Down Land half the time, and this is just one glaring example.

[Ohiogal]

4. I'm old enough to remember this

A dark cloud in our country's history.

[dingosatemyusername]

5. High Def version

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/mylai/#part01

[yuiyoshida]

8. wow

[kentuck]

9. I was in Nam when that happened...

I was stationed on the coast, and was "visiting" a small village about half-way between My Lai and Saigon in distance.

Something like My Lai massacre was not something that was broadcast or many GIs knew about? I could speak just enough Vietnamese to get around. A small group of older Vietnamese women started a conversation with me and was telling me about "GIs number ten! They shoot beaucoup (boocoo) women and babies in My Lai. Beaucoup! Hundreds! GIs number ten!"

I tried to reason. "No. Americans no kill women and babies. Americans no do."

And I heard no more about it until after I left Vietnam in April of 1969.

The conversations still haunt me.

[elmac]

12. This happened right after the Tet offensive started

so GI's nerves were strained to the breaking point, taking lots of casualties. Add to that poor leadership and bad intelligence of enemy movement created the perfect storm that left over 500 dead. I remember when it happened, my cousin was killed over there before 68.

[kentuck]

13. Very true.

And the hate became so deep that some troops were saying, "kill the little gooks...they just grow up to be big gooks...."

That was not the general attitude of most GIs but it was there in some.

[smirkymonkey]

10. I know very little about Vietnam and almost nothing about this massacre.

I plan to watch the documentary. How horrible! I had no idea.

Thank you for bring this to our attention.

[shadowmayor]

11. There were dozens and dozens of My Lai slaughters.

Massacres were not so rare, and yes, some of our soldiers were baby killers. The free-fire zones were exactly that. The Mekong Delta and the Cambodian border areas were notorious for being death zones when the Americans arrived. Move the clock forward and we have Shock and Awe and Fallujah and roadside deaths from our convoys. It's always covered up, and those that do so are promoted, not punished. Just ask Powell. If the general population had any idea of what war really looked like, our troops would be on their way home by Monday.

[BigmanPigman]

14. There are events today and tomorrow in San Diego.

About two years ago I went on a search of the guy who was responsible for many of the deaths and got off with a slap on the wrist. He is Lieutenant William Calley Jr. and still is alive, residing near Atlanta and gave talks at the Rotary Club until recently. He actually gets fan mail.

Here is what is happening in San Diego, CA...
The 50th Anniversary of the My Lai Massacre
The San Diego and Chicago Chapters of the Veterans For Peace, the San Diego Peace Resource Center, and the American Friends Service Committee invite you to the following events. These issues are as important today as they were 50 years ago! This exhibit, created and based in Chicago, honors the over 2 million Vietnamese killed in what we call the “Vietnam War” but which they refer to as the “American War”.

Friday, March 16: First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, Display open 2pm- 9pm
Speakers: 7:30 PM, Dennis Stout, Marjorie Cohn, Barry Ladendorf

Saturday, March 17: SD Peace Resource Center, 3850 Westgate Pl, SD 92105; Display open Noon-5pm
Speakers: 6:30 PM, Church of the Brethren, 3850 Westgate Pl., SD 92105, Fernando Suarez del Solar, Lori Saldaña, David Valladolid

[Upthevibe]

15. I remember this..

I was 10 years old...I'm going to watch this documentary...Thanks for posting...

[BigmanPigman]

16. I was born in 1962 and didn't remember it

but I became interested in the Vietnam War while in high school and have taken classes on it. When I learned about this part of the history while researching the war I became irate. I started to research Calley and the massacre. I have seen the video posted above before and it led me to several other videos that related to it on You Tube. If you google it you will see other documentaries and related videos. The Ken Burns series was very good too.

[orangecrush]

18. It was to punish the village

for helping the VC.

It was a tactic used by both sides.

It backfired big time, as it was used to great effect for propoganda purposes by the North.

Torture and brutality are piss poor strategy.

[elmac]

19. Villagers had no control over who they helped

they were forced, through coercion, to supply food, shelter when the VC came calling, usually at night. Then US solders would show up, demand cooperation, not always bad but all these people wanted was to survive, they didn't give a shit about communism or democracy, they just got caught in the middle. We weren't there to help them, we were there to fight the cold war with help the military industrial complex make a few bucks.

[orangecrush]

20. We were trying to force the farming people

out of the countryside into the cities, to deprive the VC of support.

And I totally agree, they were caught in the middle.

[elmac]

21. Yes, the south Vietnam goverment had that policy of

forcing populations into protected zones which was a big mistake, it turned those people against the government. I don't think the US really agreed with this policy and it pretty much worked against their hearts & minds program.

[orangecrush]

22. Total fiasco

the whole way around.