My Lai Massacre (1968): War Crime and Cover-Up in Vietnam

The My Lai massacre was the killing of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians by US Army soldiers on 16 March 1968 in the village of Son My, in Quang Ngai province, South Vietnam. Over about four hours, troops of Charlie Company shot women, children and old men, and committed rapes and other atrocities, without meeting any resistance. Concealed for more than a year, the massacre became the most notorious American war crime of the Vietnam War and deepened public opposition to the conflict.

Background

Quang Ngai province, on the central coast of South Vietnam, was a long-standing stronghold of the Viet Cong. American units operating there suffered steady casualties from mines, booby traps and snipers, often without seeing the enemy, and frustration and anger grew among soldiers.

Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, was part of the 11th Infantry Brigade of the Americal Division. It had arrived in Vietnam in December 1967 and belonged to a temporary unit called Task Force Barker, under Lieutenant Colonel Frank Barker. In the weeks before March 1968 the company lost several men killed and wounded in the area, and soldiers later described a mood of fear and revenge.

In the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, commanders believed that the Viet Cong’s 48th Local Force Battalion was based in Son My. At a briefing on 15 March, Captain Ernest Medina told his men that the civilians would have left for market by early morning and that anyone remaining would be enemy or enemy sympathisers. What exactly he ordered regarding civilians was later disputed in court.

What happened on 16 March 1968

On the morning of 16 March, after an artillery barrage, helicopters landed Charlie Company outside the hamlet the Americans called My Lai 4, known locally as Thuan Yen. There was no enemy fire. The villagers, many of them preparing breakfast, were mostly women, children and elderly men.

Soldiers moved through the hamlet killing people and animals, burning houses and throwing grenades into shelters. Some groups of villagers were rounded up and shot. The largest killing took place at an irrigation ditch on the eastern side of the hamlet, where Lieutenant William Calley, leader of 1st Platoon, and men under his command shot dozens of people. Women and girls were raped. Not every soldier took part; some refused to shoot.

The same morning, Bravo Company of the same task force entered the nearby hamlet of My Khe 4, where it also killed civilians. The only American casualty in Charlie Company that day was a soldier who shot himself in the foot.

Hugh Thompson’s intervention

Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr., piloting a small OH-23 observation helicopter with crewmen Lawrence Colburn and Glenn Andreotta, flew over the hamlet and saw bodies everywhere, including wounded civilians he had marked with smoke for medical help who were later found dead.

Thompson landed his helicopter between a group of soldiers and villagers hiding in a bunker. He told his crew to cover the Americans with their weapons if they opened fire, persuaded the villagers to come out, and called in gunship helicopters to fly them to safety. Andreotta later pulled a young boy alive from the irrigation ditch, and the crew flew him to a hospital.

Thompson reported what he had seen to his superiors that day, which led to an order to stop the killing. Andreotta was killed in action a few weeks later. In 1998, thirty years after the massacre, Thompson and Colburn received the Soldier’s Medal, the US Army’s highest award for bravery not involving conflict with an enemy, and Andreotta was honoured posthumously.

The cover-up

The task force reported that 128 enemy soldiers had been killed in a successful operation, while recovering only three weapons. The Americal Division’s newspaper praised the action. Colonel Oran Henderson, the brigade commander, carried out a cursory inquiry and concluded that about 20 civilians had died accidentally.

The truth came out through Ronald Ridenhour, a former soldier in another unit who had heard accounts from men in Charlie Company. On 29 March 1969 he sent letters to President Nixon, the Pentagon and members of Congress describing the killings. The Army opened an investigation, and in September 1969 Calley was charged with murder.

In November 1969 the freelance journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story through the small Dispatch News Service, and it was carried by dozens of newspapers. Days later, photographs taken during the massacre by Army photographer Ronald Haeberle were published, first in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and then in Life magazine. Hersh won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1970.

The Peers Commission

In November 1969 the Army appointed Lieutenant General William R. Peers to investigate the cover-up. His report, completed in March 1970, found that a massacre had taken place and that officers at every level from company to division had failed to report or investigate it properly. It recommended charges against 28 officers, including Major General Samuel Koster, the Americal Division commander.

Koster’s charges were dropped, but he was demoted by one rank and lost a decoration. Of the officers and soldiers eventually charged in connection with the killings or the cover-up, most never went to trial.

Public reaction

The revelations caused a sensation. In late November 1969 one of the soldiers, Paul Meadlo, described on CBS television how he had shot villagers on orders. Many Americans were horrified, and opponents of the war saw My Lai as proof that the conflict was morally corrupt.

Others refused to believe the reports or defended the soldiers, arguing that they had been fighting an enemy who did not wear uniforms and that the press was exaggerating. Opinion polls at the time showed deep divisions over who was responsible.

Abroad, the massacre damaged the image of the United States and was widely compared with atrocities of the Second World War. It also raised questions about whether My Lai was an isolated event. Later investigations and journalism documented other killings of civilians by US forces in Vietnam, though none on the same scale was confirmed.

The trials

Calley’s court-martial at Fort Benning, Georgia, lasted from November 1970 to March 1971. He argued that he had been following orders. On 29 March 1971 he was convicted of the premeditated murder of 22 civilians and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.

The verdict divided the country. Many Americans felt Calley was a scapegoat for higher officers or for the war itself. President Nixon ordered that he be held under house arrest during his appeals. His sentence was reduced to 20 years and then 10 years, and he was paroled in November 1974 after about three and a half years.

Captain Medina was acquitted in September 1971, and Colonel Henderson was acquitted in December 1971. No one else was convicted.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1968, 16 March: Charlie Company kills hundreds of villagers at My Lai 4; Bravo Company kills civilians at My Khe 4.
• 1968, April: Colonel Henderson’s inquiry concludes that about 20 civilians died accidentally.
• 1969, 29 March: Ronald Ridenhour sends his letters to Washington.
• 1969, September: Lieutenant William Calley is charged with murder.
• 1969, November: Seymour Hersh breaks the story; Haeberle’s photographs are published.
• 1970, March: The Peers report is completed.
• 1971, 29 March: Calley is convicted of the murder of 22 civilians.
• 1974, November: Calley is paroled.
• 1998, 6 March: Hugh Thompson and Lawrence Colburn receive the Soldier’s Medal.

Myths and facts

Myth: My Lai was a battle that went wrong. There was no enemy fire and no fighting. The soldiers found almost no weapons and the victims were overwhelmingly unarmed women, children and old men.

Myth: every soldier in Charlie Company took part. Many did, but some refused to shoot, and several later testified about what they had seen. The investigations relied heavily on such testimony.

Myth: Calley served a long prison sentence. He spent most of his time after conviction under house arrest in his quarters at Fort Benning rather than in a military prison.

Legacy

My Lai shocked the United States and the world and fed the anti-war movement, which reached a peak with events such as the Kent State shootings of 1970. It raised lasting questions about orders, responsibility and the treatment of civilians in counter-insurgency war.

The US Army revised its training on the laws of war, and the case is still taught in military academies as a lesson in moral courage, often through Thompson’s example. In Vietnam, the Son My memorial site preserves the ditch, foundations of burned homes and a museum listing the names of the dead. In 2009 Calley publicly apologised, saying he felt remorse every day.

Why it matters

My Lai showed how fear, poor leadership and a culture of body counts could lead to the mass killing of civilians, and how institutions can hide such crimes. It remains a central reference point in debates on war crimes and accountability, and one of the darkest episodes of the Vietnam War.