ipl-logo

Cause And Effect Of My Lai Massacre

1672 Words7 Pages

On the morning of March 16th 1968, over 500 Vietnamese civilians, including unarmed men, women, children and elderly, were brutally slaughtered in the village of My Lai by the Us military soldiers of the Charlie Company, a unit of the Americans division 11th Infantry brigade, under the leadership of Captain Ernest Medina. The My Lai massacre was seen as one of the most brutal events to have happened in American military history and is a clear demonstration of the corruption that is within the American military. Senior officers, such as Medina, attempted to try and cover up what had occurred in My Lai but failed to do so. The massacre was later revealed after an investigation was ordered and conducted, due to Ron Ridenhour, “a former member …show more content…

Lieutenant Calley was found guilty and “sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour. Within three days he was out of prison, pending appeal, he spent the next three years under house arrest; he was paroled after completing one third of his sentence.” Calley was the only one penalized for the events that took place My Lai, he played a big part in the massacre and “gave explicit orders to kill and participated in the execution of unarmed villagers standing in groups and lying in ditches.” , yet he only received a minor sentencing considering he was a key offender in the events that occurred, where 500 innocent civilians were slaughtered unlawfully. Many "Anti-war Americans saw Calley as a scapegoat for a corrupt military; those in favor saw him as a dedicated soldier who had only been carrying out orders.” Captain Ernest Medina on the other hand received no sentences and even avoided getting charged. Medina had a big part in the massacre, he worked up his soldiers, making them believe this was their chance to avenge their comrades who were killed in the war, thus he ordered them to kill every person in the village, and "intentionally gave the impression that everyone in My Lai would be their enemy” , which clearly wasn't the case. Medina was guilty for both participating in the massacre as well as trying to cover it up, he made no effort try and stop his men even when he was aware of the brutality that was taking place. The Military Manuel even clearly states "that a military commander may be responsible for war crimes committed by subordinates or persons under his control" , yet his charges were dismissed and the senior officers, captains and soldiers involved were accused but later found not guilty. It was clear that justice had not been served for My

Show More
Related
170 Words | 1 Pages

The Brownsville Raid of 1906 is a historic but tragic moment in our nation’s history. It was the center of national controversy at the time. Occurring in Brownsville Texas, this event saw the racial injustice of African American soldiers, and the “dishonorable” discharge of 167 men of the 25th Infantry Regiment. This caused outrage but was long forgotten by history until 1970, when historian John D. Weaver published a book titled “The Brownsville Raid”. His investigations concluded that the accused members of the 25th Infantry Regiment were innocent.

Read More
1522 Words | 7 Pages

Of those twenty-five who stood to be convicted only five of them were tried resulting in four being acquitted of charges. One of the extreme examples of the resonating effects of those who partook in 1968 My Lia Massacre was soldier only referred to by his last name Simpson. Upon arriving back home to Mississippi his son was shot and killed accidently. In a 1989 televised interview trembling and shaking Simpsons pointed to a scrapbook with the photograph inside stating “This is my life, this is my past, this is my present, this is my future and I keep it to remind me.” He viewed the loss of his son as punishment for his involvement in the massacre.

Read More
1185 Words | 5 Pages

Even if those claims made by Calley about the massacre were incorrect, since international law and the military code of conduct expressly forbade the killing of civilians, it was still the responsibility of the chain of command to ensure that Calley knew those policies. (Bodenner) It said that by covering up the deaths of all but 20 civilians, but the officers hid a much greater war crime. The commissioner did not learn what Seymour Hersh discovered later; U.S. officers in South Vietnam destroyed papers describing the massacre.

Read More
937 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
992 Words | 4 Pages

Against The War To someone that doesn’t know much about the Vietnam War, they might think it was nothing but an awesome war that America won just because it could. Obviously, there is much more to this war than a Huey flying over an enemy village dropping bombs while blasting Fortunate Son. The Vietnam war was a major internal conflict of Vietnam that had many layers and consequences that could have been avoided using diplomacy and by simply not splitting a divided country into two parts, but because of this war a man named Tim O’Brien was drafted, lived, and came out of the war to tell his story about the bloodshed and the experiences that would change his life forever. The author, Tim O'Brien, of “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” argued that the

Read More
973 Words | 4 Pages

The Vietnam War was a conflict between the Vietnamese government that was under French administration and the pro-communist Vietnamese citizens who were fighting for independence from foreign influence. The United States’ armed forces entered into the conflict in support of the colonial administration in an attempt to stop the spread of Chinese and Soviet influence and communism in the region. The Vietnam War is arguably the longest war, lasting 11 years, from 1964 to 1975, and costing the lives of more than 58,000 Americans and countless numbers of Vietnamese. U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War came about when communist North Vietnam sought to unify an anti-communist South Vietnam (Benson, Sonia, et al., 2009). As the war escalated and the

Read More
831 Words | 4 Pages

On March 16, 1968, American soldiers invaded Vietnam resulting in roughly 350 unarmed Vietnamese deaths (Yanak, Ted, and Pam Cornelison). They demolished the village of My Lai killing and destroying anything in sight. At first, this horrific event was kept a secret, but when information was leaked, America’s character was at risk. This horrific procedure

Read More
429 Words | 2 Pages

The Charlie Company 's actions was not a basic war effort just mass murder. The Vietnamese villagers were killed brutally with unjust force and didn’t follow rules put into place about dealing with situations with Vietnamese. Many who lived in the villages were unarmed and even the ones who were shot by military personnel didn’t fight back. According to Document 1, the majority of 300 or 400 people were fired at rapidly by the military . Butch described an innocent child who was shot in the arm and still remained terrified .

Read More
436 Words | 2 Pages

“Americans didn’t want to be believe that these things occurred in the name of the American people and for the sake of freedom”, so it was something that was swept under the rug until journalist got a hold of it. I understand now why the Vietnam War caused many to be diagnosed with PTSD and why it was very unpopular war. I am still interested in knowing the South Vietnamese side of the story, as well as the North

Read More
491 Words | 2 Pages

Ayala chose not to seek the death penalty in the case regarding Markeeth Lloyd, due to her beliefs that the death penalty should not primarily be a deterrent to crime. Historically, it has been shown the death penalty has been imposed on the innocent way too often, exorbitant to taxpayers and lastly, it adversely affecting both families of murder victims and families of the accused. Additionally, it has been apparent that co-victims had improved physical and psychological health and greater satisfaction with the legal system in cases where perpetrators received life sentences, rather than death sentences as well. In knowing Markeeth Lloyd killed two individuals, had a long criminal history and was a threat to society, I believe he had demonstrated to be tried for the death penalty. Although this case was highly publicized and nearly two percent of murderers actually get the death penalty, this does not mean leaving hardened criminals without stringent punishment, and I have to disagree with D.A. Ayala's decision.

Read More
1568 Words | 7 Pages

Crossing the Cultural Monkey Bridge The winds of war blow in many directions. From about 1955-1975, the prevailing winds of war were blowing in the orient (Windows on Asia). In Vietnam to be exact. The easternmost coastal country of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia, was undergoing a civil war.

Read More
677 Words | 3 Pages

“Gentleman, Your Verdict”: A Moral Dilemma 1. In my opinion, I don’t think the jury should convict Commander Oram of murder because he wanted at least some people to survive and to do that, many men had to die. The fact that he commits suicide makes a difference because if he hadn’t it would have made it look like he killed 15 other men so that he could survive. If he hadn’t commit suicide, I would definitely change my answer to ‘yes, he is guilty’. I don’t think that the other crew members are guilty because they didn’t have a say in what was done.

Read More
1101 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1381 Words | 6 Pages

Bloods sheds light on the war from the perspective of African Americans soldiers at the time were unappreciated. Bloods is a collection of accounts of the war from 20 African American soldiers who at some point was involved in the Vietnam war. It was written by Terry Wallace who was an African American Journalist and Oral Historian. The stories ranged from gruesome to sorrow accounts. When discussing about the Vietnam war, it should be retold from those who actual involved and not those looking from the outside because they provide a better insight of what was really happening.

Read More
1021 Words | 5 Pages

It is the winter of 1944, and 84 Americans lie dead in s field by the town of Malmedy. These were the men of Battery B, who were slaughtered by the tank formation of Kampfgruppe Peiper. A man by the name of Joachim Peiper would later be tried for the death of these men and found guilty. He would later be lease on the premise that the trial was unfair. Though Joachim Peiper was released from his sentence, it is commonly known that Peiper was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people and should have been punished.

Read More

More about Cause And Effect Of My Lai Massacre

Related Topics

Open Document