SE Asia XXXV - My Lai Massacre

The Son My Memorial sits near the coast off of Highway 1A from Quang Ngai (if you want to know how to get there check the previous post). The scenery is very beautiful. Rich green rice paddies were covered by big blue skies. It is strange to visit a memorial to such a terible event in such a beautiful place. The My Lai Massacre took place on the 16th March 1968. 504 civilians wer killed by US troops. The My Lai massacre is commonly seen as an example of when a few soldiers go 'bad'. In Actual fact the massacre was an authorised mission and the soldiers were told "...anyone down there was VC or VC sympathisers." Leioonard Gonzales of Charlie Company testified to the Peers Inquiry that "that day was a massacre", the command was "...kill anyhting and evrything...". The BBC has recently broadcast a documentary using recording from the PEers Inquiry that investigated thge cover-up of the incident. The Inquiry produced 20,000 pages and 400 hours of audio recordings. However, Jerome Walsh a lawyer at the Inquory described General Peers findings as being gagaed and that it was a "...fiasco of military justice". The BBC broadcast the documentary for the 40th anniversary of the massacre.
The Son My Memorial is a moving place to visit. Inside the museum is a wall with the names of the victims. There are Ron Haeberle's (US Army official photographer) photographs of the massacre. There are personal accounts from survivors and parts of village life that survived the village being burnt to the ground. The way the memorial presents the crime can grate with western sensibilities. There is a large diorama of US troops shooting women and children, accurate but not something I think you would see in a western equivalent. The descriptions of photographs refer to imperialist puppets and the usual anti-capitalist diatribe. What is very powerful is the recreation of the village after the massacre. Ruined huts are scattered around rice fields. While I was there old women were working in the rice paddies. Next to each hut are details of the family who lived and died there. The concrete paths that link them have small bare foot prints mixed with large G.I. boot prints. I'm not sure the concrete models of dead livestock fitted in but that may just be my western sensibilities again.

Below is the introduction to the documentary from the BBC website. "For a year after My Lai, the rapes and murders were covered up. Much of what we know thereafter came from the widely publicised court martial of Lt William Calley in 1970/71. He was the only man ever found guilty of any offences at My Lai. But the massacre was much more than the actions of a few rogue individual soldiers. It was carefully planned and a high body-count was the main aim. Before Calley's trial, The US Army itself held its own investigation into the massacre. "The Peers Inquiry" heard evidence behind closed doors inside the Pentagon from December 1969 to March 1970. *The inquiry recordings lay forgotten for nearly 40 years. Tonight, for the first time, you can hear the testimonies of those involved and the full extent of US Army activity on the ground on16th March 1968. You can also hear new interviews with soldiers who took part and with one of the members of the panel of the Peers Inquiry. Over 14 weeks, Lt General William Peers and his panel took statements from 403 witnesses: soldiers, senior officers, chaplains, journalists and Vietnamese. The findings of the investigation were so uncomfortable for the US Military they were suppressed. Some 400 hours of tape were recorded - and classified. Until now. The accounts are shocking: "The first shot hit a baby in the head and I turned around and (was) sick" - one soldier. Another: "Most people in our company didn't consider the Vietnamese human…..A guy would just grab one of the girls there and ….they shot the girls when they got done." The tapes of the Peers Inquiry prove that US soldiers raped and killed hundreds of civilians in not just one but three villages that day. They prove that two companies - not only the infamous Charlie Company - were involved. They show how badly trained and ignorant of the laws of war many of the young soldiers were. These tapes also prove that the orders "to leave nothing alive" came from senior officers. The Peers Inquiry made key recommendations about the training of soldiers fighting insurgents and about the responsibility of leaders in wartime - issues with huge resonance today in Afghanistan and Iraq. The programme is presented by American military journalist, Robert Hodierne, himself a journalist in Vietnam." http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/1968/mylai.shtml