WHAT HAPPENED AT MY LAI? THE BUCOLIC SETTING OF PALM TREES, VERDANT SHADES OF GREEN, THATCHED HOUSES, AND SUN-SPLASHED PATHS BELIE A TERRIBLE EVIL COMMITTED BY AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN CHARLIE COMPANY, 11TH BRIGADE, 23RD INFANTRY(AMERICAL) DIVISION.
Mural of My Lai and Son My area is on display in a memorial museum of photos, artifacts, and a list of the 504 victims.
Mural of Son My area in a memorial museum.
Note proximity of the ocean shore to the left. My Lai is one of the small hamlets in the spread-out village of Son My, the name by which the Vietnamese remember the tragic outcome of an American sweep through the area.
The infantry grunts would have done better to go swimming at the nearby beach than to make March 16, 1968 a date that marks an American atrocity of horrific proportions committed against Vietnamese civilians. Visitors to the Son My museum in this remote coastal area are shocked at what they see, although few Americans make the trip.
It is little wonder that U.S. soldiers, no matter what they had been led to believe about their mission in Vietnam, were hated by the rural population who just wanted to grow rice, worship in their household Buddhist shrines, and raise a family. An ancient Vietnamese saying, "The emperor's rule ends at the village gates," was still apropos.
Sometime after the tragedy, Americans began noticing NVA captives had a patch on their uniforms with something about "Son My." They found out it was "Remember Son My," which most GI's knew nothing about until well into 1969.
The infantry grunts would have done better to go swimming at the nearby beach than to make March 16, 1968 a date that marks an American atrocity of horrific proportions committed against Vietnamese civilians. Visitors to the Son My museum in this remote coastal area are shocked at what they see, although few Americans make the trip.
It is little wonder that U.S. soldiers, no matter what they had been led to believe about their mission in Vietnam, were hated by the rural population who just wanted to grow rice, worship in their household Buddhist shrines, and raise a family. An ancient Vietnamese saying, "The emperor's rule ends at the village gates," was still apropos.
Sometime after the tragedy, Americans began noticing NVA captives had a patch on their uniforms with something about "Son My." They found out it was "Remember Son My," which most GI's knew nothing about until well into 1969.
This is sacred ground to the Vietnamese. There are mass graves and the ambiance is akin to what Americans feel when they visit Malmedy, or Czechs at Lidice, or Native Americans at Wounded Knee.
Son My Memorial site. Museum on right. Sculpture at end of walkway.
Son My is in Quang Ngai province. The nearest airport seems to be Quy Nhon from where one may take a bus or taxi 90 miles north to Son My. Quang Ngai Province lies about half way up the coast of southern Vietnam and does not contain large urban areas like Nha Trang, Quy Nhon, Hue, and Danang. Consequently, it was an area that supported the National Liberation Front with taxes and food. This atrocity imprinted on the Vietnamese that Americans would kill civilians making a mockery of being there to help them. It strengthened the Vietnamese peoples' resolve to throw out the foreign devils. One wonders how the GIs could have been so cold blooded. A bigger question is how could smart US leaders have considered the totality of Vietnam a threat to America. This was the heart of darkness.
This reporter has spoken to various groups back in the United States, often including Vietnam veterans. Usually, one of them will get up and deliver a soliloquy about how the Americans had been booby trapped for several weeks causing some KIAs, and the people of Quang Ngai hated them and conspired against them, etc. etc. I let them talk. When they are done, I say, "Oh, you mean the big bad enemy made them do it? If you can't hold on to standards of morality in a war zone, then maybe you're in the wrong war."
This reporter has spoken to various groups back in the United States, often including Vietnam veterans. Usually, one of them will get up and deliver a soliloquy about how the Americans had been booby trapped for several weeks causing some KIAs, and the people of Quang Ngai hated them and conspired against them, etc. etc. I let them talk. When they are done, I say, "Oh, you mean the big bad enemy made them do it? If you can't hold on to standards of morality in a war zone, then maybe you're in the wrong war."
Path through what was once My Lai hamlet. There was no resistance yet 504 civilians were slain by the GIs. Pathways and rebuilt thatched abodes at My Lai
Lt. Calley, 1st Platoon Leader of C Co., 11th Bde, Americal Inf. Div. shot point-blank into huddled civilians and ordered his men to do the same. In 1970, Calley was court-martialed for murder. Many in C Co. killed babies,children, men, and women. Some GIs raped women before killing them. None of them were ever convicted. (Source: Four Hours in My Lai, by Michael Bilton and Kevin Sim. Penguin Books, 1992).
Hugh Thompson, OH-23 helicopter pilot, saved a group of civilians by landing between them and some soldiers who had locked and loaded. Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson is honored in the museum.
Thompson's disgust and abhorrence at what he saw when he walked around led him to get on the radio and make an urgent plea for a cease fire from the command helicopter above. He holds a place of honor in the museum very near the black marble monolith on which the 504 names of the victims are etched. There were no American casualties, save for one GI who accidentally shot himself in the foot. Back in the US, Thompson received hate mail.
Ron Ridenour and Lawrence Colburn are honored. Ridenour and Colburn's actions are lauded.
On the left, Ron Ridenour, in another infantry unit, heard stories about My Lai. When he returned to the States, he kept writing letters to the Army about what was rumored to have happened. Finally, Seymour Hersh broke the story in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Lawrence Colburn (r) was Hugh Thomson's door gunner and tried to stop the killing.
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The Son My site pavilion has pictures and artifacts pertaining to the massacre. Rogues gallery not a proud moment for Americans.
Some of the infantry grunts who emptied their M-16 magazines into defenseless Vietnamese, killing scores each, are (top) Fred Widmer, Ken Hodges, and Vernado Simpson. (btm) David Reid, Richard Pendleton, and Paul Meadlo.
In the foreground are dud rounds from the artillery barrage called in to prep the area for the operation to punish the inhabitants of these agrarian hamlets. Ordnance uncovered at My Lai.
Large, partially exploded piece in the background is one of several 500 pound bombs dropped by the Americans in an attempt to cover up evidence of the mass killings soon after Medina's company left the area.
Display of officers involved with the My Lai debacle are Col. Oran Henderson, 11th Bgd commander; Lt. Col Andy Barker, the planner of operation; Capt. Ernest Medina, C Co. commander; and Lt. William Calley, 1st Platoon Leader. Upper chain of command at My Lai.
Barker was killed in a helicopter crash 3 months after the incident. The other 3 were court-martialed in late '69 and '70. Calley was found guilty of murdering 22 civilians. He was later pardoned by Pres. Nixon. Henderson was acquitted of a cover up. Medina was acquitted of murder. Three GIs were acquitted, causing Gen. J. Seaman to drop charges on all the others awaiting trial. Except for time Calley spent under house arrest, no one received even 1 day in jail for the killing of 504 Vietnamese civilians. The jury of officers who convicted Calley received death threats on their children.
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 GIs torching houses of the villagers. |
 Names of all 504 men, women, and children who perished at Son My (My Lai). |
Memorials in Son My courtyard.
There are plants and other gifts of sympathy from all over the world in the courtyard. They're well-maintained, considering the exposure to intense sunlight.
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504 is just a statistic - the number of victims lined up and shot by the Americans, but after unspeakable cruelty.
 Pictures of a few of the Son My victims.
These were people with hopes and dreams, and loved ones, trying to eke out a living. Communism? What's that? We just grow our rice to live.
Is this what happens when "support the troops" runs amok, giving GIs license to kill the demonized enemy, the hated other, or anything that moves. |
Field of rice near My Lai museum in the background. Picture was taken in August. In March of 1968 this field would have lain fallow.
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 Simple bomb shelters afforded some protection for families during artillery barrages, but not from GIs on the ground bent on murder. |