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How Did The My Lai Massacre Impact The Vietnam War

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The Vietnam War originated from when the North of Vietnam wanted to unify the country under a communist regime after defeating the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954 (“Vietnam”). This decision made by the North of Vietnam was influenced by the Soviet Union as well as China. Since the Soviet Union and China were quite dominant during the Cold War, this signifies that the Domino Effect had been successful to a certain extent. Even if the Domino Effect might have been somewhat a success there were still the nationalists who did not agree to be controlled by the communists. The United States were against the Viet Cong, who were the communists, had an impact on the war (Berman). One of their impacts on the war was the My Lai Massacre. The My Lai Massacre surprisingly increased the amount of public support for the Vietnam War, since it had began to decrease, specifically among the ones who were not educated (Carter). The majority of the American citizens believed that Lieutenant Calley was a man serving for his country during one of the most controversial wars involved with the United States due to his persuasive techniques, since he convinced his audience that he was an innocent man, but there are still the minorities who beg to differ. The small percentage of Americans who …show more content…

It all began in early hours of the 16th of March 1968 and lasted three hours (Chiu). Between February and March of 1968, the U.S Military Assistance Command was aggressively trying to regain the strategic initiative in the South of Vietnam after the Tet Offensive (History). This statement leads to the purpose of the massacre. The reason behind the horrendous massacre is the Americans went on a search-and-destroy mission, since they had heard that the Viet Cong had taken control Son My, which is where the My Lai village can be found

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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

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The United States was in the midst of the Vietnam War that was now escalating with the Vietcong before the My Lai Massacre occurred. They had the intention of going to My Lai to find and attack the Vietcong. On the morning of March 16, 1968, US soldiers flew in helicopters into My Lai 4 with the mission of clearing the area of Communists and to only fight the enemy, not civilians. The soldiers landed and started to move through My Lai 4 expecting to battle with the Vietcong, but the area was only occupied by civilians. Despite the mission to not kill any civilians, and seeing no traces of the enemy, Lieutenant Calley “ordered his men to kill the unarmed civilians”

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1b. The significance of Vietnamization is that it was started by Richard Nixon and it stated that he would withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam slowly and give South Vietnamese money, weapons, and training needed to win the war. This event caused the number of US troops in Vietnam to go from 540,000 to 30,000 in a span of four years. He got U.S. troops out of a war they did not know why they were fighting in. 2a.

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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.

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“There is at the outset a very obvious... connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America,”(Document E: Martin Luther King, Jr.). During the period of the Vietnam War, division struck the United States due to people’s vast opinions, this caused a rift in the country and began protests. Citizens of the USA did have legitimate reasons to protest the Vietnam War, but not all agreed with that. American citizens had many different reasons to protest the Vietnam War, but the biggest reason was that people were realizing how horrific wars truly were.

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The Vietnam War was fought between the North and South Vietnamese over Communism. The North pushed for a communist regime while the South favored a more democratic government. During the time of this war, the U.S. was pushing towards containing Communism, and vowed to support any nation resisting communism. Although America’s policy of containment had good intentions, this often led to the support of corrupt leaders and governments. President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was Catholic and did not lead well.

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One of the most controversial wars in history and a turning point in American foreign policy, the emotions and events surrounding the Vietnam War capture the essence of the era. The rise of rebellious youth culture and anti-war and anti-draft movements were key social aspects of American life leading up to and during the fighting. (Doc 2, 3) On the political side, Congress aimed to control the Chief-Executive with legislation such as the War Powers Act of 1973, requiring the president to remove all unreported troops in Vietnam and report any further sent. (Doc 7) To say the country was divided would be a massive understatement.

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The Vietnam War was one of the longest lasting conflicts in American history starting on November 1st, 1955. Dwight Eisenhower began the United States' involvement with the Vietnam War by creating the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization to help squelch communist uprisings in the area. With conflicts growing between the Communist North Vietnamese and the anti- Communist South Vietnamese the U.S sent the first troops in 1965 to aid in stopping the spread of Communism. Even after 41 years of the war being over people still debate the legality of the vietnam war. Some say under the international laws of war it was legal and just for America to intervene with the conflict.

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However, there was also a population of people that supported our involvement. The fear of communism held a very powerful influence over people at the time, especially because of McCarthyism, a fear tactic that had been used a decade earlier. The Red Scare and McCarthyism caused many American people to be paranoid and extremely fearful of communists. By the time of the Vietnam War, communism was a great fear looming over the heads of people like a giant raincloud before a storm. Some people supported US involvement in the war because they believed we needed to fight to defend our freedom.

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The Massacre at My Lai happened on March the 16th 1968 during the Vietnam War. Over 500 south Vietnamese civilians of the village My Lai were killed by the Charlie Company. The Charlie Company was part of the first 20th Battalion in the United States Army and was led by Captain Medina and Lieutenant Calley. The Charlie Company were told that the area around My Lai had a strong North Vietnamese connection and had Viet Cong 48th Battalion fighters hiding among the village.

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The My Lai Massacre was a significant event in the Vietnam War. Hundreds of innocent villagers were murdered by a portion of the Charlie Company. Most of the victims were elderly, 70-80, and children, as young as three. They also raped women, clubbed people, executed them (then most likely dumped into a mass grave), and carved C’s into their chests. A cover-up was created but it was no use, the American people found out.

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The Vietnam war was preceded by a very turbulent time in our history with problems here in the states such as racism, women’s rights, and a president being shot. But in Vietnam they were going through a civil war, which they had done before, but not to this extent, this time they got the U.S.S.R. involved. It was communist Russia and North Vietnam against South Vietnam. The U.S. started to get

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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.

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When the Vietnam war started late in 1955, my grandmother, Margery (Marge) Affeld was 14 years old. As she recounted to me her memories of the war she recalled that she was already living in California, engaged to be married to my grandfather. As the interview continued she talked about her stance on the war and Americas reaction to the war. She spent most of her time however, talking about the change of American leadership throughout the war and how it consequently shaped and changed America's viewpoint on the war. Marge says, "I was not in favor of it, but was beyond college age

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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.

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