It was fifty years ago yesterday that the most infamous, from the American prospective, incident of the Vietnam War occurred. The Massacre at My Lai.
I'm a day late in noting this event and I'm not going to dwell on it deeply due to that reason. Suffice it to say it has gone down as the most infamous American atrocity of the Vietnam War.
The event came about in the wake of the Tet Offensive of 1968 but that huge Communist offensive cannot completely explain it. As is simply often the case with war, as the American presence in the Vietnam War drug on an element of acclimation to violence combined with frustration began to take a toll on the American forces. While not usually noted, for some reason, both the North and South, or more properly the North, South, and the indigenous southern Communist guerillas, fought the war in an brutal fashion and the American and other allied forces found themselves in the midst of that reality. While the movie is otherwise pretty bad, the one line from Apocalypse Now in which Colonel Kurtz notes that and decides to take the war up to the next level of violence and horror in order to win it does somewhat accurately reflect the nature of fighting as an outside western army in a third world civil war. Added to that, the conscripted American army was beginning to suffer from moral problems, although most of that would come later, as the the war turned unpopular.
At some point in this part of the war the Americans began to utilize what amounted to a liberal use of "free fire" zones. The original idea was to declare an area that was heavily infiltrated by the Viet Cong to be off limits to everyone so that the VC could be identified, but that was an impossible thing to effect in a densely populated country like Vietnam. This too had its unintended consequences as it acclimated some American units to the concept that every Vietnamese in the countryside was the enemy. Here the war began to take on a bit of the character of the worst elements of the Indian Wars.
So, enter Lt. William Calley and his unit on this date.
Entering My Lai with orders that were perhaps vague but a prelude to genocide Calley issued orders to gather up and kill the villages of My Lai. Most of his troops followed the orders, but not all of them did (something that is important to note). It's shocking to think of American troops behaving like the Germans in World War Two but by and large at My Lai they did, but some did not and aided villagers in escaping. Ultimately two Americans from outside the unit intervened including a helicopter pilot who threatened to open up on his own side if the killing didn't stop.
The news did not break immediately, so the event had no immediate effect. When it did, some men were tried for the incident, including Calley, but his time in prison was relatively brief and he remains out of prison today, largely silent on the event (he has spoken very occasionally). The event, which wasn't wholly singular, tainted the image of the American soldier in some quarters, building on a trend that was already in the works due to actions such as burning the huts in villages. Surprisingly the American population itself remained largely supportive of its soldiers and polls after the news broke even showed them supporting Calley and his men, but it became acceptable and even fashionable to condemn American troops as "baby killers". It would take years for the reputation of the Army to recover.
As a horrific incident, and it was one, it wasn't exactly unique for the Vietnam War. Most American combat troops in the war never participated in anything remotely similar to My Lai, but other incidents did occur and the issuing of "search and destroy" and "no prisoner" type orders were a feature of the later stages of the war. Other allied forces committed similar acts, most notably a South Korean example, showing that a level of frustration was breaking out in atrocities. The most brutal forces were the indigenous combatants themselves, with the Communist forces by far taking the cake for atrocities.
None of which excuses what occurred on this day in 1968.
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