On March 16, 1968, the Mai Lai Massacre took place in a small village in Vietnam. More than five hundred people were murdered by soldiers under the control of William Calley. Afterward, throughout the entire town only three weapons were recovered from the villagers. In fact, other than that, they were not armed. One of the officers even claimed he did not see a single military aged man in the entire village. This event was horrific for the village families and for the families that had to find out their family members were slaughtered. Throughout America, many people opposed vietnam war and this event furthered the division between the people and the soldiers. Not only did it affect the people here at home, but it also affected the soldiers. …show more content…
An article states, “The Soldiers killed four students and wounded at least nine others.” (Appleby 791) Soon after this event there were two African American males murdered on Jackson state College in Mississippi. These were only a couple of acts that took place following the Mai Lai Massacre. The War Powers Act was passed and it established limits on executive powers it had to be passed through the president.
The Massacre divided the united States even more making the American people turn their backs to the U.S. government. Soon many people began to rebel against the government by leading protest against the wars that were happening overseas. They began to oppose the war further than they had in the beginning. The rebellious acts mainly occurred on college campuses where many students were murdered or shot
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I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry. (Press 1)” The events that occurred made many believe he was the scapegoat and took blame for everyone else's actions. Although some claimed he was the scapegoat he was still charged with the murder of the villagers along with many other men. He soon admitted to the crimes claiming he was told to do this to the villagers by his commander.
After the Mai Lai Massacre many of the citizens of Mai Lai were moved to a more secluded village because they wanted to avoid another attack. In an article a reports claims, “A group of National Liberation Front soldiers approached Mylai 2(Known As Tucung). They made the soldiers there flee then they tore down the town down from gate to the camp( Teitel 1).” The second town the Mai Lai were moved to was demolished as well by the American soldiers. Many other surrounding towns fell victim to the
The Vietnam War was a war which many people felt negative about, this attitude became especially true after the Tet Offensive took place. Northern Vietnamese forces attacked the South and Americans on the Tet Holiday in hopes to start revolutions in major cities. The outcome was decreased support for the war in America, slowed economy in the south, and a loss in moral for the north. The Tet Offensive proved to be a smart offense by the North, yet did not reach the desired outcome and was not a victory for either side.
The official version of My Lai made the massacre sound as if it was an effective search-and-destroy mission that had killed suspected enemy soldiers of the Vietcong. “[Leader of the operation, Lieutenant Colonel Frank] Barker said to his superiors in his combat action report, noting that the ‘operation was well planned, well executed and successful.’” (Gorn et al 2010) In reality this was a massacre of over 500 innocent
Countless Americans lack education of the Vietnam War and what treatment the Vietnamese population received during the war. Many times the behavior conducted towards the Vietnamese portrayed American soldiers mistreating the noncombatants. James W. Loewen’s chapter nine of Lies My Teacher Told Me leads readers through the occurrences in the Vietnam War by elaborating the war crimes enacted by American soldiers, examining the intervention of America in the war, and describing pictures that were taken during the war. One subject Loewen uncovers is the analysis of the war crimes throughout the Vietnam War.
Reading Response Two In the village of My Lia in Vietnam on March 16th 1968 roughly five hundred innocent Vietnamese villagers were executed by, an enraged United State army called Charlie Company which, after decades of being covered up and buried to keep the United States Armed forces images polished will go down in the annals of war history as the My Lia Massacre. Sgt. Ron Haeberle a photographer with Charlie company snapped pictures of burned homes littered with charred villagers and corpses strewn through the dirt paths along with other war photos, which Haeberle published to Life and Time magazines in November of 1969 catapulting the crimes committed to national as well as international spotlight.
In A Viet Cong Memoir, we receive excellent first hands accounts of events that unfolded in Vietnam during the Vietnam War from the author of this autobiography: Truong Nhu Tang. Truong was Vietnamese at heart, growing up in Saigon, but he studied in Paris for a time where he met and learned from the future leader Ho Chi Minh. Truong was able to learn from Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary ideas and gain a great political perspective of the conflicts arising in Vietnam during the war. His autobiography shows the readers the perspective of the average Vietnamese citizen (especially those involved with the NLF) and the attitudes towards war with the United States. In the book, Truong exclaims that although many people may say the Americans never lost on the battlefield in Vietnam — it is irrelevant.
The responsibility was laid out to them clearly, but the decision to downplay this massacre would lead to events soldiers wished never happened. By omission and commission, they suppressed reports of the incident and submitted false or misleading accounts to higher headquarters. (My Lai Massacre) By suppressing the news of the massacre, Calley and his fellow officers just dug themselves a deep hole. Surely they should have expected the cause and effect from this small decision.
The Vietnam war took a major death toll in Vietnam, United States, South Korea, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia. Just in the U.S., “more than 58,000 American soldiers were killed while more than 150,000 others wounded”. On both sides, there were almost 2 million civilians dead and 1.1 simply on the Vietnamese side. The My Lai Massacre, where soldiers brutally killed Vietnamese children and mothers, presents an example where the war mentally changed the soldiers in the war in a very horrendous way. On the other hand, the United States took brutal losses in the Tet Offensive, where the Vietcong slaughtered over 100 towns and twelve United States air bases.
The Massacre of Yangzhou The Massacre of Yangzhou within the “Horrid beyond Description” passage tells the story of the Yangzhou massacre, which was one of the most devastating events that occurred during the Ming dynasty. This primary source serves as a valuable source because it reveals the deteriorating state of the Ming dynasty as well as the beginning of a new era with the Qing dynasty through the story of the invasion. In addition, this primary source is meaningful because it allows the reader to grasp an understanding of the massacre through the eyes of two distinct men, two individuals of very different backgrounds. Therefore, the primary source is a vital historical source because it sheds light into the Ming-Qing transition. Moreover,
Although there are many reasons why the American Revolution started, a few of them had a larger consequence. First, the Boston Massacre had a major impact on the American Revolution. To continue, another instigator to the colonists seeking their independence was the Boston Tea Party. Lastly, The Battles of Lexington and Concord really pushed towards the American Revolution. Let us begin with how the Boston Massacre had a significant impact on the American Revolution.
The Vietnam War was a war the United States should have never been involved in. The “Domino Theory” was a direct cause of the war. The war resulted in much death; innocent civilians and young Americans were killed. The Vietnam war also resulted in rioting, distrust for the United States government, and the loss of many lives. 58,000 Americans were killed and 300,000 were wounded.
Although not a single shot was fired against the men of Charlie Company, virtually everyone in the village was brutally murdered; some of the women were also viciously raped and tortured. Dozens of villagers were dragged into a ditch and executed with machine guns. The massacre was covered up by officers higher in command of Charlie Company and the 11th Brigade until Ron Ridenhour, a soldier who had heard reports of the massacre, sent letters to government officials and gave an interview to an investigative journalist. The U.S. Army ordered a special investigation, and the inquiry released their report in March 1970. Fourteen were charged; all were acquitted except Calley, who was given a life sentence for his role in directing the killings at My Lai.
A movement away from segregation There are a lot of big events that come to mind when you think about the history of Oklahoma, but is the Tulsa Race Riot one of them? Things happen all over America everyday that improve the lives of Americans. There are people still affected by segregation and racism everyday and this was the beginning of the movement toward everyone being more equal. It is not taught, or talked about as much as it should be, sometimes it seems like it is even being forgotten.
Once, twice, a hundred, or even a million times. The complete diversity of the human race is what allows us to contemplate the “truth” of moralities and ethics that merely is a statement of what we believe is the right or wrong thing to do. The idea of conflict, in society, whether that is through physical or verbal means, is something that haunts at the shadow of our identity. The Things They Carried by Tim O’brien in the story titled, “The Man I killed” addresses the moral standards of people and how conflict is reverberating and coursing through the veins and blood pumping within their body. In Vietnam, everyone is more or less from the same background, they share the same culture and american descent, there is no major difference in religion, and they all are fixed with the notion that each one of them is patriotic for their country, to the highest degree (both the United States soldiers and the native Vietnamese
December 8th, 1941, one day after the horrific events of Pearl Harbor, the United States officially declared war on its foes in Eastern Asia, the Japanese. After strategically taking out many American battleships, including the USS Arizona, (the last of "super-dreadnoughts" from Pennsylvania), Japan had set off a series of chain reactions, unfortunately ending with the sanctioned bombing of their homeland (Document A). The struggle for victory lasted four years before the devastating, yet just action, occurred. America took countless strides to suppress Japan and stop their malevolent attacks on US soil, including the Ellwood Oil Field in 1942 and the Bombing of Fort Stevens and the Lookout Air Raids in 1942. To stop the Japanese from causing
This piece was ultimately about the U.S. pillaging and burning an innocent Vietnamese village, such as the My Lai Massacre, in the Vietnam War and how much people suffered during it because of our ancestors’ actions. The My Lai Massacre was a mass killing of three hundred forty-seven and five hundred four unarmed civilians in South Vietnam. The picture was compelling and portrayed the pain the Vietnamese people went through by the expressions on their faces. It made me feel upset about the actions that the United States took in Vietnam.