My Lai Massacre Essay

My Lai Massacre

"The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one."(Martin Luther King Jr.). In this short quote Martin Luther King Jr. perfectly described what happened at Vietnam and what many people thought of the war. As the war progressed many viewed it as a mistake and one of the reasons why was the alarming fact that many innocent people had died. What made things worse was that the government tried to hide this information from the people. One of the many appalling stories that made this war so gruesome was the My Lai Massacre. Many proclaim that the My

Lai massacre was the fault of the immoral US American soldiers from Company C commanded by Lieutenant William Calley. However, My Lai was actually a logical outcome of the United States becoming involved in Vietnam. Historical research shows that this wasn't the only atrocity committed, the individuals were mentally tired and scared for their lives, and the soldiers were trained to follow orders to defeat the enemy, which is what the soldiers thought that they were doing in My Lai.
Sometimes when someone wants something really badly, they will go to extremes to get what they want. The Vietnam War was one of these cases. People, especially soldiers wanted everything to end, so they went to extremes in order to speed things up. They thought that if they killed more people the war would end sooner. Many of the people that the soldiers massacred were just ordinary innocent people. My Lai is just one of the known atrocities committed on Vietnam grounds. For example on February 8, 1968 the soldiers that were part of the B Company shot and killed 19 civilians. Nick Turse and Deborah N. state in their article that “documents detail 320 alleged incidents that were substantiated by Army investigators.” (Nick Turse and Deborah N.). This is not even including My Lai. This is proof that My Lai wasn’t only a single incident that hadn’t happened before. The Vietnam War was full of these kind of events. Many innocent people died on the grounds of Vietnam. Even the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II could be considered an atrocity because a lot of the people that died were noncombatants. America bombed these cities and didn’t even stop to think that millions of innocent people would be affected. We did this because we were in the middle of a huge war and we wanted it to end. Looking at all of these events one could say war rarely ever brings good tidings. So if My Lai wasn’t a single incident then the blame shouldn’t only go on the people who directly committed the shooting. This was the logical expected outcome of the US getting involved in a war like Vietnam.
Being far from home for a prolonged period of time while watching people die left and right makes most people want to go home. This is how a lot of the American soldiers felt after fighting a long Vietnam War that didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Things at Vietnam just got worse with every new day and the leaders kept loosing men. William Calley said in his last statement to his court Martial “When my troops were getting massacred and mauled by an enemy I couldn't see, I couldn't feel and I couldn't touch…” (William Calley). This caused the leaders to order what some people might think of as immoral commands. On the other hand, if you look at the reason for these commands you can begin to accept the fact. When the soldiers saw one of their companions get killed by the enemy they had no guarantee that they wouldn’t be next. Hewitt and Lawson say in their textbook that the soldiers were “frustrated by the rising casualties from an enemy they could not see.” They were scared because they didn’t know what to expect in the next minute. Many of them had families and friends that they wanted to return alive to. As Johnny Boy said in his Letter Home from Vietnam they were “all are afraid to die” and all they could do was “count the days till we go home.” (Johnny Boy). Everyone was homesick and many would do anything if it meant they could go home sooner. This is why they would obey the commands that were given to them even if they knew that it was morally wrong. Therefore, it wasn’t because William Calley and his men that were immoral, the troops were tired and scared for their lives and this all happened because America got involved in Vietnam.
Before going into a big event like war one must first go through training.

The Vietnam soldiers were no exception. They were trained to follow orders that were given to them. The soldier had no right to question an order. If they did, strict consequences followed. William Calley explains this when he says during his trial, “all orders were to be assumed legal, that the soldier's job was to carry out any order given him to the best of his ability.” (Lt. William Calley). All of the orders were given because the leaders thought these commands would help the Americans defeat the enemy. Everyone at Vietnam was doing what they thought was expected of them. As Kendrick Oliver states when trying to explain why Charlie Company would kill civilians at My Lai “they had considered their conduct consistent with the attitudes and practices of their GI peers, with the policies of the military command, and with the conscience of the political nation at home.” (Oliver 252). People thought in order for America to win we just had to kill as many people as possible because that had worked in previous wars. John Kerry explains this situation when he says that in order for America to remain the superpower we “couldn’t lose”, “couldn't retreat”, no matter “how many American bodies were lost”. However, the soldiers also never knew who was or wasn’t the enemy. For that reason, if the civilian looked like the enemy, they must be involved with the enemy, therefore they were the enemy. As a result of this mindset the soldiers were convinced that they were killing the enemy. The My Lai Massacre was a consequence of American involvement in Vietnam because of the way the soldiers were

trained.
If you were commanded to kill an innocent person who had done nothing to harm you, would you do it? Most people would answer “no” to a question like that. The soldiers in Company C were in a very similar situation. However, most of the soldiers obeyed this command. Many might wonder how these individuals could be so immoral because everyone has a free choice. On the other hand, if the situation is thoroughly examined one can come to the conclusion that it wasn’t because the soldiers were so immoral that My Lai happened. When ap person is placed in a situation like the Vietnam War the situation can be looked at from a different perspective. This situation can be looked at as a logical consequence of the Vietnam War. It can be seen like this because declassified papers show that this wasn't the only atrocity committed, the individuals were tired of the war and dreadfully scared for their lives, and the soldiers were trained to follow orders in order to defeat the enemy, which is what the soldiers thought that they were actually doing in My Lai. In conclusion, whether we like it or not atrocities like the one in My Lai will take place as long as wars go on.