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My Lai Massacre: A Once Hidden Tragedy

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My Lai Massacre: A Once Hidden Tragedy

The American people do not like to be left in the dark when it comes to important information about their country. They expect that any problems or actions that their country takes should not be kept secret. Keeping secrets is exactly what their country did when the My Lai Massacre transpired. The My Lai Massacre occurred during the United State’s involvement in the Vietnam War. This devastating massacre was part of the reason the Vietnam War was so controversial. There were countless bloody tragedies during the Vietnam War, but this unnecessary and brutal violence was something that will never be forgotten. The Mai Lai Massacre is one of the cruelest war crimes the United States has ever committed, …show more content…

The soldiers initiated a ruthless and unobservant killing spree. To the soldiers everyone was an enemy. They killed old men, women, and children. Without a second thought they murdered women with babies wrapped tightly in their arms. Not only did they kill but also soldiers raped younger women in the village or mutilated innocent citizens bodies. The rampage continued until according to the United States 347 civilians were murdered. According the Vietnamese, the massacre killed 504 innocent villagers. The madness stopped only with the help of pilot Hugh Thompson. Hugh was part of the group of soldiers who were present, but he did not participate in the killing. He saw the scene from above in his helicopter. Thompson was not sure what had exactly been occurring below him, but he knew he must intervene. He flew down into the hamlet and turned his guns on his fellow soldiers to save a group of Vietnamese civilians. He recued eleven Vietnamese soldiers with two helicopters before heading back to his base to report and end the killing ("The My Lai

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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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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.

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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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The events of My Lai is a story where a beautiful country named Vietnam, a free and beautiful country that until one day, the U.S troops was sent to Vietnam, Quang Ngai to “liberate” the non-communist citizens during cold war era. America at that time was trying hard to extreminate communist elements due to the cold war with Russia. The combination of unclear orders by higher officers, frustration of seeing fellow armies being killed by Hostlile Vietcongs bred racism and anger, mental pressure whether to follow orders to kill innocent civilans or to refuse, created a chaotic combination that led into a great remorse in Vietnam, especially My Lai village. For starters, like a worker bee recieving orders from the queen bee, most of the soldiers at that time had adequate “training” by the higher officers, which is only to shoot without

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