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My Lai Massacre Essay

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Many people do not know what happened overseas between the United States and other troops, unless you were there to witness it. There are many different things that have been covered up by the government and many of these occurrences do ultimately come out, but some situations do not. The My Lai Massacre was one of the many things that was being covered up by the government and army, that got out and caused a lot of controversy. Seymour Hersh is the journalist that revealed the real truth about what happened in My Lai. Seymour Hersh acted in accordance with the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics to uncover the truth about the My Lai Massacre. The My Lai massacre was one of the most horrific incidents of violence committed …show more content…

The Army and government tried so hard to keep it covered but it eventually got out. The efforts that were reached to expose the massacre from within the service triggered an Army investigation, the investigation led to the first stories of the massacre and what happened in My Lai. The authorities originally played down the bloodshed. On November 20, 1969, the first pictures of the My Lai massacre were released by the Plain Dealers Grim Newspaper. The front page photo was of dead bodies, children and women, that were killed by American GI’s (Government Issue). The headline of the article read “1st Photos of Viet Mass Slaying”. This was the first newspaper publication anywhere to publish pictures which later was known as the My Lai Massacre. People didn’t get wind of the massacre just out of the blue. Ron Haeberle, a cameraman for the Army, he was in My Lai witnessing and documenting what was happening by taking pictures of the massacre. “Off to the right I noticed a woman had appeared from some cover and this one GI started shooting at her, then all the other GI’s started shooting at her, aiming for her head. The bones were flying in the air chip by chip.” Ron Haeberle said. He also said “I could see people walking along at the distance, and all of a sudden GI’s started opening up on them and firing at them”. The Army said to the newspaper company if the pictures Haeberle took got published the company would

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