Who Was Responsible For The My Lai Massacre

On March 16, 1968, there was a massacre of around 300-400 innocent noncombatant people mainly old men, women, and children in My Lai located in the Quang Ngai region of Vietnam. My Lai was a small village of only around 700 total people. (p.3) Those responsible for this horrific act were all members Charley Company, which is a part of the United States’ military. Their mission was clear and they followed through. The mission was to “search and destroy” and “Sanitize” My Lai. (Olson, Roberts, p.8-9) Lieutenant Colonel Frank Barker ordered My Lai to be "leveled"(p.19)

In March 1968 within the Quang Ngai Province it was reported by the Untied State’s military there were around 262,200 enemies to the USA, this number includes combat troops of

Viet Cong (VC), North Vietnamese Army (NVA), guerrillas, and some administrative personnel. (p.45) The United States military tended to count victories by body count and military leaders were under pressure to keep those numbers high. Often times anyone within the “free-fire zones” was considered an enemy or communist sympathizer, or even a helper to the enemy, the USA policy being so led to anyone and everyone within these areas treated as an enemy, and could be killed without further questioning- this included old men, women, children and infants. (p8) By March 1968 most of Quang Ngai Province was considered a “free-fire zone”. American policy makers claimed that all non-communist civilians had already left and military personnel were under that conclusion as well. (p.8, 66)
On March 15. 1968 Captain Earnest Medina gave the men serving under him a briefing where several of the men have reported him telling them to “kill everything” and he admits to telling them they were "authorized to burn the village”. (.p. 63, 65, 67-68) Herbert L. Carter who served with Charlie Company recalls that the briefing was normal, however, Captain Medina’s “pep-talk” was unusual. Carter claims that Captain Medina told them this was their chance to get revenge, and Calley went around after the briefing telling everyone to bring extra ammunition supply. (p.67) After the briefing according to Nguyen Dinh Pho who was an interpreter to Captain Medina and a member of the south Vietnamese army, the majority of squads that were a part of Charlie Company were throwing a party and drinking a larger amount than usual, which was an exceptionally non-norm as normally they wouldn’t drink excessively the night before an operation. (p.71)
In four short hours in the morning of March 16, 1968 Charley Company, a total of about three squads murdered around 400 innocent villagers, killed any animal they found, raped about 20 women and children, poisoned the village well, and set fire to any and all homes and structures in My Lai 4. Charley Company officially amassed at least 224 serious violations of military code as well as hundreds of war crimes. (p.24). The first person to be killed was an old man in a field. (Carter, P. 237) Captain Medina and Calley made most of the orders and according to the other men some of the most brutal murders including emptying an entire magazine of bullets into a large group of civilians. (p.22).
Only two of the men in the US military that were there at My Lai Michael A.

Bernhardt and Hugh Thompson Jr. Hugh Thompson Jr. was the only man to even attempt to stop the killings. Thompson even went as far as landing his helicopter between the soldiers and villagers in order to protect the villagers, he also threatened to shoot his fellow soldiers himself if they continued on with the massacre. When Thompson Jr. returned to base that same day he reported what he had witnessed. (p.23) Unfortunately, Hugh Thompson Jr.’s report to his superiors was covered up. The cover up went all the way through the chain of command. Lieutenant Colonel Frank Barker wrote twelve days after the massacre that is was a successful mission and that “Friendly casualties were light and the enemy suffered heavily.”. (p.31)

In March of 1969 Ronald Ridenhour after hearing about the My Lai massacre started his own investigation and then wrote to over thirty politicians about what he heard about My Lai. At that point the American public had still not heard about the horrific My Lai massacre until in December 1969 military photographer Ron Haeberle in 1969 sold and published his photos form the My Lai massacre in Life magazine. After the photos were publish massive negative public outcry and protests erupted all around the country. The American public was

disgusted.
The result of the investigation after the men in Charley Company were interviewed, as well as a few Vietnamese who were in the village at the time of the massacre, was only one man found guilty. William Calley who was convicted of pre-meditated murder of twenty-two civilians, and his punishment was life in prison. Major General Koster was punished for his involvements of covering the massacre up and was demoted to brigadier general. Everyone else was either acquitted or all of their chargers against them were dropped. (p.24)
My Lai was in the middle of an unfortunate perfect storm of issues amongst the United States military during the Vietnam War. The US policy of Free-fire zones left Quang Ngai to be an all-out war area on everyone living there with no regards of their actual innocence nor political leanings. The idea of “kill everything” can be seen to derive from this concept. Soldiers also felt they were under trained, they were taught how to shoot but not how to view the Vietnamese people as people instead they were taught they were “gooks”. (p.41) The racism and detachment against the Vietnamese was referred to as “dink complex", if you can’t understand what a person is saying due to language barrier than they were not fully human. (p.50)
This all still doesn’t fully explain why these men went on a rampage murdering so many people, after all these men who were a part of Charley Company were described as average men and even once received the Company of the Month award. (P.10-11)
Chain of command that is found within the military can be brutal. In the US military these men were taught to obey without questioning any commands and were even worried about being purposely shot by their superiors. (p.41, 11) They faced threats coming from inside their company and outside of it. Vietnam was just as much of a psychological war as physical. The Americans soldiers were taught that every Vietnamese person could be your enemy in North Vietnam. In fact, they were told there were very few neutral in favor of US military civilians. (p.18) Often, the type of warfare for ground troops included ambushes from the enemy in jungles, landmines, and booby traps that led to a deep emotion of resentment, anger, and frustration.
Almost everyone was either acquitted or all of their chargers against them were dropped, except for Calley.

(p.24) I don’t believe this was at all justice served. Under the Geneva conventions and also the U.S. army rules and regulations soldiers do not have to follow orders to commit war crimes, not only that they are supposed disobey and report to authorities any and all war crimes that they are aware of. (p.56) Murdering of innocent unarmed people and the rape of women and children all fall under war crimes. Even if the excuse of the argument that was used to acquit most of the men was that the murders were just and they were only following orders and acted in self-defense, it still never took into account the 20 women and children who were raped. Rape could never be justified as self-defense nor is that ever a just non-war crime order to execute. (p.76, 99) Not only were these war crimes, but under the Geneva convention and U.S. army rules a solider must report war crimes done, however, only one soldier who witnessed the crimes actually reported it. These were clearly civilians out of the about seven-hundred peoples’ possessions that were found in the village where only two guns were found, and never was one shot reported coming from any of the villagers.

(p30)