The My Lai Massacre

My Lai, a sleepy hamlet about 14 km (9 miles) east of the city of Quang Ngai in the Son My district, is a site infamous for the worst atrocity carried out by American forces during the war in Vietnam. On the morning of March 16, 1968, U.S. troops entered the Son My area (including My Lai, Thuan-Yen, and other hamlets) and massacred hundreds of Vietnamese civilians—mostly women and children—in an act that has come to symbolize the often-senseless brutality that accompanied the conflict in Vietnam. Although the full truth concerning the events of My Lai remains shrouded in controversy, what is known is that the area around Son My was considered by the U.S. military to be a stronghold of the Vietcong and that some American soldiers had been killed and wounded in the area in the days preceding March 16, 1968. (A note on the term Vietcong: Vietcong is used to refer to the opposition movement in the South because it is the term that is probably the most familiar, though the history of this term is a complex one.) In response, three platoons under Charlie Company exacted a terrible revenge that included pillaging, rape, and mass executions of civilians. The killing and destruction, which occurred under the at least tacit approval of higher officers, took place over a number of hours, during which time the soldiers took a break for lunch before resuming their criminal acts.

Hundreds of Vietnamese civilians died; the only reported American casualty was a U.S. soldier who shot himself in the foot in order to avoid participating in the atrocities. Although a cover-up of the events of My Lai was attempted, several participants went public; the resulting scandal contributed to the deterioration of American support for the war in Vietnam. Only one man, Lieutenant William Calley, who led Charlie Company's 1st Platoon—responsible for some of the worst atrocities—was ever convicted for the crimes that took place at My Lai. After serving three years of his sentence, Lieutenant Calley was paroled in 1974.