My+Lai+Massacre+\+Phoenix+Program

My Lai Massacre/ Phoenix Program (1968)

The Phoenix Program was organized by the CIA and it was designed to undermine the Viet Cong by informants and assassins. Its success was gauged by body count and the program was involved in a lot of killings of entire villages. The My Lai Massacre is an example of just one that happened to be made public.

The My Lai Massacre is viewed as one of the worst events of the Vietnam War and happened on March 15, 1968. The massacre took place because 1/3 of Charlie Company of the First Battalion, Twentieth Infantry, had been killed in the previous two months and the villagers were blamed for aiding the enemy. Lt. William Calley was the leader of the Battalion and ordered all of the villagers to be rounded up and killed. Over 400 villagers were killed and at least one girl was raped. Some soldiers refused to take part in the slaughter. Hugh Thompson, an army warrant officer, witnessed the massacre while flying his helicopter, he landed and helped evacuated some villagers. Thompson ordered his chopper crew to fire on any soldier who killed another civilian and Thompson and his crew saved nine civilians.

Thompson took his story to the military who did nothing, General Westmoreland sent Calley's Company a congratulatory message for "outstanding action" and the civilian deaths were added to the "body count". A year later the army tried to court-martial Calley without making it public but Seymour Hersh caught wind of the story and made it public. Calley was found guilty on March 29, 1971 of the murdered of 22 Vietnamese citizens and was intially sentenced to life in prison at hard labor but President Nixon reduced it to allow him to serve it in his apartment under house arrest.

The My Lai Massacre seems to be one of the biggest messes to come out of the war, seeing that it was until 1971 that the officer was actually punished for the crimes he committed on March 15, 1968. The Vietnam War was a very brutal and civilian involved war, like the wars before it, and this shows it especially. The only difference with the My Lai Massacre and morale bombing like Operation Rolling Thunder or Free-Fire Zones is that Calley was not told to slaughter the city. Which doesn't seem like that big of a difference but either way both of them are in the wrong, Calley just got arrested for it.

Next (Hoa Lo Prison)

Citations

Kutler, Stanley I. "My Lai." //Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War// . New York, New York: Charles Scribner, 1996. Print.

Isserman, Maurice. __Vietnam War__ . Updated ed. America at War. New York: Facts On File-Infobase Publishing, 2003. __Infobase eBooks__ . Infobase Publishing.. http://ebooks.infobasepublishing.com/ View.aspx?ISBN=9781438100159&InstID=831 (accessed November 19, 2010).