An Introduction to the My Lai Courts-Martial

[RC]

Two tragedies took place in 1968 in Viet Nam. One was the massacre by United States soldiers of as many as 500 unarmed civilians-- old men, women, children-- in My Lai on the morning of March 16. The other was the cover-up of that massacre.

U. S. military officials suspected Quang Ngai Province, more than any other province in South Viet Nam, as being a Viet Cong stronghold. The U. S. targeted the province for the first major U.S. combat operation of the war. Military officials declared the province a "free-fire zone" and subjected it to frequent bombing missions and artillery attacks. By the end of 1967, most of the dwellings in the province had been destroyed and nearly 140,000 civilians left homeless. Not surprisingly, the native population of Quang Ngai Province distrusted Americans. Children hissed at soldiers. Adults kept quiet.

<SNIP>

My Lai village had about 700 residents. They lived in either red-brick homes or thatch-covered huts. A deep drainage ditch marked the eastern boundary of the village. Directly south of the residential area was an open plaza area used for holding village meetings. To the north and west of the village was dense foliage

[Cocoa]

1. Hugh Thompson died Friday

that may be the reason for your post, but in case some people hadn't heard...

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/13578282.htm

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Kicked and recommended, thank you for showing what the

wrong conflict on the wrong planet can make of men who were once sane.

www.ChrisFloyd.com/Fallujah

[blm]

3. here's MO'Ds salute to Calley and his men.

MICHAEL O'DONOGHUE

The Vietnamese Baby Book

Willy Calley, pudding and pie,
Shot the boys and made them die.
When the girls came to surrender,
Willy just ignored their gender.

Baa, baa, black market,
Have you any scag?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Would you like a bag?
Some for the master-sergeant,
Some for the pain,
Some for the hooker
Who goes down in the lane.

Monday's child is born dead.
Tuesday's child is underfed.
Wednesday's child is full of junk.
Thursday's child's a burning monk.
Friday's child is lame and blinded.
Saturday's child is feeble-minded.
But the children born on Sunday
Will be tossed in mass graves one day.

[TahitiNut]

4. Calley was a fall-guy, not a scapegoat.

The responsibility for My Lai was far more widespread than Calley. Medina, in particular, should've been imprisoned for twenty-to-life. Barker and Henderson deserved a minimum of 10 years in prison, imho. Furthermore, My Lai was not an isolated incident, merely one of the more notorious and egregious. The command responsibility does not argue for innocence at the junior level, merely mitigation when such orders aren't gleefully followed with abandon as in Cally's case. Calley was deserving of the punishment, but so were many dozens of platoon leaders in similar incidents - OCS and ROTC psychos with war comic books in their back pockets - jack-off material in the officer's latrine. (Believe it!)

No person who didn't serve in Nam can adequately appreciate the unmitigated atmosphere of rabid jingoism and insanity - exacerbated by a chain of command who made the psychological climate deliberately fertile for such behavior. "Free-fire zones" were notoriously designated as a means to unleash gut-wrenching fear in the bowels of the GIs - in effect saying they were "without friends" and widely interpreted as "abandon hope all ye who enter here." "Free-fire zones" were also the host locations for fraggings and the prospect of being shot for not following orders. It's impossible to imagine the insanity.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. I've often wondered about the difference between shooting people

in a ditch and barbecuing them with napalm dropped from a plane. Calley was court-martialed, but hundreds of pilots got medals for doing the same thing - but from a distance.