The My Lai Massacre: 50 Years Later

Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson speaks with reporters at the Pentagon on Dec. 4, 1969, 

after testifying about the My Lai massacre in South Vietnam. (Associated Press)

Last Friday, the LA Times ran a story on the 5oth anniversary of the My Lai Massacre (March 16, 1968), “A forgotten hero stopped the My Lai massacre 50 years ago today.” It tells the story of helicopter pilot, Hugh Thompson, who courageously stopped the massacre and filed the initial complaint with the army.  The army then tried to cover it up, but journalist Seymour Hersch found out about it and reported it to the world. It would be over a year later, in November of 1969, when Hersh's report was filed to the press. 

Tragic Civilian Loses

All of us heard about the My Lai incident during the Vietnam War (note: we typically referred to this, if my memory serves correctly, as the My Lai Incident, not the My Lai Massacre). I was in junior high school at the time. I did not know this story, however, about the young soldier who stopped the massacre. Moreover, I was not aware that “Americans killing civilians in Vietnam was pervasive and systematic,” and that there had been “a My Lai a month.”

I do remember at the time that the adults were saying things like, “That's just the cost of war, especially over there with guerrilla warfare, where you can't tell who the enemy is.” I say, that is just one more big reason not to engage in war. There were 507 killed in My Lai that day, and who knows how many civilians were killed in those unreported from previous incidents (massacres).

The article highlights the tragic loses in the numbers of children who were killed:

Today there's a little museum in My Lai, where Thompson is honored, and which displays a list of the names and ages of people killed that day. Trent Angers, Thompson's biographer and friend, analyzed the list and found about 50 there who were 3 years old or younger. He found 69 between the ages of 4 and 7, and 91 between the ages of 8 and 12.

Our Tragic Wartime Bent

Tragically, our country has made war engagement much easier in the intervening years. We ended the draft, but that has only led to removing most of us further from the brunt of war. Since we no longer fear our sons and daughters being drafted into service, we have fewer qualms about sending other people’s sons and daughters to do the Empire’s bidding.

We have been laying waste to villages for years now over in the Middle East without ever officially declaring war. Our drones will decimate wedding parties in other countries in an attempt to kill a terrorist (it is still hard for us to tell who the enemy is).  Urban areas are being bombed in order to maintain control or regain control of countries.

We always seem to find the money and a good excuse to engage in military conflict. As a result, whole generations grow up knowing only wartime and destruction under the heavy arm of Empire as we seek to maintain oil supplies, and “national security” (read, protection of our corporations’ overseas interests).

We have yet to learn from the costs of war.

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Monument to the victims of the My Lai Massacre
(Photo property of www.traveladventures.org)

*Read about one man's visit to the My Lai museum here.

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