There's no argument that prosecutions for My Lai should have gone higher. For one thing, Medina should have been sentenced harshly for the way he incited this rampage. But that does NOT nullify the fact that accountability extends to ALL levels. If you witness a fellow soldier raping and butchering a young girl or shooting unarmed civilians, infants amongst them, your duty - as an American, as a soldier, as a human - is to defend the innocent, not to turn away, and DEFINITELY not to participate. The only people who acted with honor on the US side that day were Andreotta, Colburn and Thompson - heroes to a man, make no mistake. Had they not intervened, many more may have died. It's just a shameful wonder that at least some of that murderous mob didn't follow their example, and do what they could to stop the slaughter. And in case you're silly enough to have swallowed all the bleating from Calley, Hodges, and others about 'following orders' as a justification for such actions, remember this: the Nazis were tried and executed at Nuremberg for such crimes, despite pleading the same spineless excuse.
I served 3 years in the US Army infantry and these strange and horrific incidents can and do happen. As for the Mi Lai massacre the only people that should have been destroyed are the VC not innocent unarmed villagers. Seems like it was planned and ordered by Captain Medina and Lt. Calley or possibly even higher in the chain of command. As I've said these things can and will happen especially in a wartime situation. I don't believe I could have participated in that ruthless slaughter even if ordered to. But the men that did with smiles on there faces did what should have never been done.
The country built on the Genocide of one race and the Enslavement of another...SMH One day, IF humanity survives itself long enough, they will look back on these times of War and shake their heads and know how Lucky they will be to be alive in that time of the future, but I Highly Doubt it will Ever happen... And then they try and tell us that video games and loud music makes us violent, but for Hundreds of years we've been burning People alive for being witches and or non believers, so probably humans are just garbage... This Earth was Just Fine w/o us and think it would be a Better world for All Other life on Earth if we weren't here, but much like cancer, we continue to build No matter what the universe or the Earth throws at us, you can flood us, shake us, burn us down and it will continue to grow, much like mold on bread, and to the Dumb question, "why me?"the cosmos barley bothers to return the reply, "why not?" and Couldn't care Less if we were here or not, and if you understood that 97% of All things to Ever live on Earth is now extinct , it outta be quite clear that the odds are lopsided Heavily Against us as a species...
I walked away from a $100,000 a year job and a great career path when I caught my boss doing illegal unethical activities. Although doubly exempt from military service in '71 with fulltime college credits and draft lottery number 364 I volunteered and went to assist in military hospitals and bases nationwide. Did the same in Cambodia and Thai Laos years later all on my own dime. I have only contempt for these murderers. If they were truly repentant they should move to Vietnam and spend the rest of their lives and money reconstructing the country and helping Vietnamese families - they could have tracked down the relatives of all they murdered and helped their lives. If they haven't done that may they burn in hell. Forgot to mention I was in a US Army SF jungle camp south of Saigon where they were training adolescent Cambodian boys to kill.
I walked away from a $100,000 a year job and a great career path when I caught my boss doing illegal unethical activities. Although doubly exempt from military service in '71 with fulltime college credits and draft lottery number 364 I volunteered and went to assist in military hospitals and bases nationwide. Did the same in Cambodia and Thai Laos years later all on my own dime. I have only contempt for these murderers. If they were truly repentant they should move to Vietnam and spend the rest of their lives and money reconstructing the country and helping Vietnamese families - they could have tracked down the relatives of all they murdered and helped their lives. If they haven't done that may they burn in hell. Forgot to mention I was in a US Army SF jungle camp south of Saigon where they were training adolescent Cambodian boys to kill.
I'm a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. I served with the 60th infantry brigade in the Mekong Delta and with the 196th light infantry brigade near Chu Lai. Westmoreland initiated the use of search and destroy operations while I was in Vietnam. What did the U.S. Army think was going to happen when they included villagers in the search and destroy operations? When I was in the Mekong Delta I personally went to JAG at MACV and formally complained about the killing of innocent and unarmed villagers. No action was taken and I was transferred to the 196th. I became a team leader and we routinely went on patrols in the jungle every other day and ambushes in the rice patties every other night. We took our assignments seriously, but we treated the villagers with kindness and respect. From personal experience I can testify that the My Lai atrocity was not an isolated incident. Reuters has estimated that 4 million Cambodians ,Laotians and Vietnamese were killed during the War. It has also been estimated that two thirds of these victims were civilians. More bombs were dropped on Hanoi then the entire second world war. To be blunt this was a war of genocide and greed perpetrated by the military industrial complex. The military submits an infantry soldier through a process of regimentation whereby the desired goal is to render this soldier unable to refuse any order. I went through this process of regimentation and in my case the military failed miserably. They were not able to supplant that innate humanity that represents who I am. The My Lai Massacre happened 50 years ago. I was in Vietnam 50 years ago and if I had been there on that date I would have simultaneously cut into these scumbags. We carried a lot of ammo and we hit what we aimed at. I will always do anything in my power to stop anyone from killing innocent and unarmed civilians. The perpetrators of this atrocity all took the fifth. Calley served three years under house arrest and then was pardoned by tricky Dick. An order to kill innocent unarmed civilians is illegal and the scumbags that perpetrated these killings should've been summarily executed. This country has been plagued by gun violence and routine mass shootings! Is anyone surprised?
God Bless American Soldiers. Thanks to American Soldiers and Veterans for my freedom. I was born in Saigon and I'm a SURVIVOR from the bloody hands of việt cộng of North VN and việt cộng (farmer by day, but shooter by night) of South VN. Therefore I have really deep respect for American Soldiers who died to saving me from evil việt cộng. I will never forget American Soldiers and I will keep them closest to my heart. I would love to be a SERVANT to wash away the mud of VN jungle on their shoes and use my hair to dry them, I'm very satisfied to see the sea of dead fish across Vietnam, plus some aircraft of Vietnamese officials crashed into the sea and Vũng Tàu. In addition, 12 more Vietnamese officials burned till death at a karaoke café in Hanoi. Then with floods, followed by have a poor crop of drought season,. I'm also very satisfied to see việt cộng destroyed Liên Trì temple. I wonder why no monk self-immolation like the time of Mr Diễm or Mr Thiệu. After 43 years, I'm so pleased to see the game "gậy ông đập lưng ông".
Can't say I object to the fact that this was a vc sympathetic village. No military age males were present. That's a dead give away. Same problems in Iraq and afghanistan. Here's a village full of women children and old people but no young fit men that can fight. Or reproduce. Come the fuck on.
3:25- It doesn't tell WHY he was paroled early. It was because of major legal problems with his conviction. It had NOTHING to do with leniency. The person who posted this video should know better.
You send a bunch of armed 18-20 yr olds who have witnessed their comrades killed by an unseen enemy and who have been brainwashed into following orders from their superiors GET orders from their superiors to kill everyone. and then ask what happened. Hmm...real mystery.
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Calley couldn't read a map. He routinely got his patrols lost. There were regular plots to kill him by his fellow soldiers. This is all a fact. It was a vengeance patrol induced by him-because he kept getting his squads killed or injured. This is how it went wrong.
A man who wrote on the My Lai Massacre said, "He never should have been in the position he was in in the first place. He didn't have the qualities of intelligence or leadership necessary for that role."
if you condone this behavior of American soldiers, really whats the point of even having international laws or laws of armed conflict? Even in war you know that killing innocent, defenseless civilians is wrong. Just "following orders" is the absolutely epitome of group think and leads to horrific consequences if no one dares to question the morality of it all.
@@jackvermeulen1940 Viet Cong controlled village does not mean that everyone there, including the infants, were vc. They were a farming community on their own you filthy yank
"Be ALL that you can be, in the US ARMY". What a brain-washing machine the Pentagon has created. I see this stuff and it makes me sick. It's even worse today. No wonder many US vets are all messed-up in the head. Talk about terrorism, this stuff is somehow worse than suicide bombings in my opinion.
Will you all stop making ridiculous distinctions ...... mass murder is mass murder. Nazi .... this .... that ..... jesus everyone! Why not simply admit that the dregs of humanity are everywhere. It aint THEM ..... it's in all of us. God's sake, wake up.
Well in your comment earlier "Well it is different from the Nazi's isn't it?" that is comparing them (though not in much detail); I am merely attempting to say that they were both massacres except that the Americans did it on a smaller scale-Sorry if it came across in the wrong way.
Practically that means dying, I have inside sources and I can tell you not all American soldiers that died were killed by the NVA, desobying an order meant you'd be the guy sent to patrol the area full of mines, a lot of US servicemen disserted, the US gov would never admit it but thats where a lot of the MIA issues come from.
Same as Nanking. The Japanese soldiers would nevee have wanted to do it in the first place. However, after being told that it was alright, they did it anyways
Nothing could justify massacres. Japanese massacres are separate from all this. The Japanese have suffered TWO nuclear strikes let alone them. The My Lai massacre is a different war crime. Many americans believed that what they did is OK. I strongly disagree. I do hope some day they'll suffer the same fate as these villagers did. I can't imagine that many americans never let bygones go (ex: Japan) but put the My Lai massacre behind them to the extent of letting William free.
And AN AMERICAN, Hugh Thompson stopped them from killing more yet you wish this on all Americans. I wouldn't be surprised if you're not alive today honestly
Bunch of losers should stop killing the villagers and face the Viet Congs. Prayed they'd experience their psychotic actions first-hand on themselves. "THIS ISN'T WAR, THIS IS MADNESS"
We do to mention this tragic event and most of us are sorry about war crimes that a few ignorant soldiers decide to commit. But I can assure you this is a topic we do discuss in high school and America and why it was wrong.
I can see its been years since you left this comment but it appears no one replied to you it was 102 at that spot or post yes it was nearly 500 ppl but not at that location of that exact memorial from what I have seen there are several such memorials spread out over the area with different amounts of the massacred
Hope you don't think all of us are like this, most Americans that know are repulsed by what our government has done, we have alot of brainwashing over here that starts at childhood, most Americans think where in these countries to protect them and keep them free but truth is slowly getting out.
US strategy in Vietnam was basically the same as used against the Philippines after the Spanish-American War and before that against the Native Americans. Safe zones (reservations) were created to isolate the combatants from the population, and any native found outside this area could be assumed to be hostile. Many officers were promoted based on body counts of "enemy" killed which for a long time convinced the media that the war was winnable.
