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

SE Asia XXXIV - On the road

I covered a lot of ground in a few days making my way down from the highlands and on to the coast. What stood out from these days were the insane risks that Vietnamese minibus drivers take. They all seem to have been schooled at "Get Away Driver's R'US". What is amazing is that everyone sits back and accepts the detours and crazy driving manoeuvres as common practice. Apart from one woman sitting next to me squealing, though that may have been because she was sitting next to me.

The bus from Buon Ma Thout to Nha Trang was packed by the time we had driven around and picked up passengers outside of the bus station. I caught the 6am bus to Nha Trang for 70,000VND. The journey down from the highlands to the coast is very pretty. A Catholic missionary joined the bus. Joseph was working in the Phillipines and had come back to Vietnam to visit his relatives. His English was excellent and we chatted about Vietnam and travelling. My plan for the day was to go to Quy Nhon a further 4 hours of travelling from Nha Trang., Joseph informed me that there was a direct bus from Buon Ma Thout to Quy Nhon, something I didn't know and would have made the journey quicker as it takes a different route. I decided to jump off of the bus once we joined Highway 1A that runs from Saigon to Hanoi. It struck me as pointless going to Nha Trang to come back on myself to go to Quy Nhon. Joseph wasn't a fan of the plan and quite worried for my safety. Apart from anything else he was worried I would get ripped off. As it turned out the only dodgy thing that happened was a rather friendly moto driving stroking my arm. I only waited ten minutes for a bus heading to Quang Ngai. I did have to negotaite with the conductor. After many noises on my part and much lauighter from the rest of the passnengers I paid 60,000VND to Quy Nhon. The bus was packed but the driver was taking life easy. The view of the coast was spectacular even if the clouds of cigarette smoke obscured it. I was surprised to find Highway 1A, the main artery linking north and south Vietnam to be nothing more than a normal road with hard shoulders that were slow lanes for local traffic. At one point the road climbed up the side of a cliff face and plunged over the other side only to be confronted with huge pot holes with truck and bus swerving to avoid them.


Quy Nhon is a small Vietnamese town on the coast. It sits in a pretty bay. The beach is very long, colourful fishing boats are moored just off shore or sit on the beach itself. Quy Nhon is a small town by Vietnamese standards but is still pretty big and busy. There are very few western tourists. Quy Nhon is certainly a nice place to break up the journey going north. There are some Cham towers in the town and the locals appear to be genuinely pleased to see you. I stayed at Barbara's Backapckers a hostel setup by a New Zealand woman. It was a nice place with lots of informaion on what to do in the area. I stayed in a 6 bed dorm for 50,000VND which only two of us shared.

Minibus drivers in South East Asia are psychotic. Vietnamese minibus drivers are among the more mental. I got a minibus from Quy Nhon to Quang Ngai. I arrived at the bus startion on a moto and as soon as I got off a guy was chasing me. I agreed 50,000VND for the journey to Quang Ngai and got in. I asked when we would be leaving, he said 8am (it was 7.30am). I was the only passenger. We roared off down the road. The driver must have gone to the bank robber driving school. We chased down moto drivers and screached to a halt alongside them, before doing a u-turn and flying off in the opposite direction. It had more in keeping with a kidnapping than a bus service. The minibus pulled up next to a guy standing next to the road, the conductor jumped out and bundled him into the back of the minbus. We went back to the bus station where a German joined us. We waited around for a good twenty minutes before doing some more circuits of the local area. We eventually had a pretty full transit van and we started on the road north. The airconditioning wasn't working and it felt like a sauna. The driver was really going for it. He did the usual crazy manoevoures, passing on blind bends, overtaking with traffic coming at us head on, forcing motos off of the rod, while at the same time having the horn blasting and the conductor leaning out of the window screaming "oi, oi, oi" at anything in our path. I could understand driving like this to get to our destination quickly but then we would slow for no apparent reason before speeding up again. Click here for a video of some of the risks he took, if you listen carefully you can hear the "oi,oi,oi". We would drive at 120 km/h through the centre of a town before slowing in the countryside with no potential for picking up passengers. When people were seen at the side of the road we would pull up beside them and the conductors would try to kidnapp them. The locals at the side of the road appeared to be just as repulsed by their hard sell tactics as foreigners are.

I was going to Quang Ngai to visit the Son My Memorial to the My Lai Massacre. I have written about that in a separate post. I got dropped off at the ringroad in Quang Ngai and wandered over to a roadside cafe. I had a cheap lunch and then the moto mafia descended. I knew the cost of a return journey to Son My should be 50,000VND but that as a westerner you were highly unlikely to get this price so the best you could hope for was 100,000VND. Two moto drivers sat down and their initial offer was 200,000VND. I laughed and said nothing. The negotiations drew a small crowd. I could see little point in returning a price so collected my bags and asked to use the toilet. I was directed to a muddy chicken coup out the back. When I returned the patriarch of the family said 100,000VND, I agreed to the price and he directed me to a moto driver (I left my big bag at the cafe). The scenery is very beautiful, big blue skies with rich green rice paddies lining the road.

After my visit to the Son My Memorial I returned to Quang Ngai to continue my journey north to Danang. I had another hair raising minibus journey ahead of me. I got my bags and walked across the roadf to catch a bus heading north. A minibus was waiting. The conductor tried to nget me on board for 90,000VND which I knew was way overpriced. I put my bag down and sat at the side of the road confident more buses would be along shortly. She returned and offered a cheap price, I refused eventually it came down to 50,000VND and I accepted. On board it turned out that the minibus was not departing for Danang immediately. We toured around the ring road. After twenty minutes we were full and I assumed we would be leaving for Danang. Another full minibus pulled up infront of us and all of their passengers got off and got on to our already full minibus. When I say minibus we were in a Ford transit van. There were seats for about twenty people. The back seat seat was folded down and they manged to squeeze 40 people into the van. The conductor hung out of the sliding door touting for even more passengers while yelling "oi,oi,oi" at anything in our path. The driver was of course mentally deranged, even with the number of passengers on board we went at light speed to Danang. Click here for one video and a second video of his driving. Sitting next to me was a local from Quang Ngai going to Danang to watch the fireworks. It turned out that an international fireworks competition was on in Danang and that was why so many people were going.

I arrived in Danang and caught the local bus from the bus station to the centre of town for 3,000VND. I hunted high and low for a room for the night and could not find anywhere, not even at the expensive hotels. I went to Phu An Hotel and asked for a room. They didn't have any either so I asked about buses to Hoi An. It turned out that there were no more buses to Hoi An. Luckily a guy at the reception who was staying at the hotel spoke excellent English. He said a taxi to Hoi An should cost no more than 300,000VND. A hefty sum but in the end it was my only option. I went to watch the fireworks. There was a huge crowd but for some reason no one had apparently told the crowd where the fireworks were going to be. Everyone was setup around the bridge but the fireworks were on the other side of town. They looked impressive if slightly far away. I caught the taxi afterwards toi Hoi an, which cost 280,000VND and took 40 minutes. I had booked a room at Dai Long Hotel for $15 (the first room I had booked since I was in Krabi back in December).