Rheualt
Robert, who served as a commander in the army during the Vietnam War observes
that when the subject of past atrocities comes up, people immediately think of
Germany, Japan or Russia. Few would believe that the American can be
responsible for grossly inhuman practices. His experience in Vietnam however
makes him believe that the American troops are just as capable of committing
atrocities as those of any other nation (Burgan, 2008).
The My Lai massacre would have been
easily covered up and left unknown to the world if not for Spec. Ridenhour Ron.
Ron learnt of the massacre from his friends who had been in the platoon and
when he was discharged from the military, he wrote the president and some
members of congress telling them what transpired. His letter carried even
greater weight when sergeant Haeberle’s Photos of the massacre were published
in the times magazine.
The story begins with the murder of
3 American soldiers by mines, snipers or booby traps. The American troops were
enraged because their enemy was afraid of confrontational war and had resorted
to a guerilla approach .During a memorial service for the fallen soldiers,
Their commander charged them to go an a revenge mission to avenge for their
slain comrades (Seymour, 1969).
The testimony of the soldiers that
were part of the massacre revels that they had a cold landing in the village.
This is to mean that they were not fought back at all but they proceeded to
murder the hundreds of the villages who had been caught unawares. The villagers
had not had a reason to suspect anything as prior to this; some soldiers had
actually passed through the village handing some candy to the children as they
passed by (Nixon, 1978).
Many soldiers testified that their
commander had instructed them to destroy the village. What fueled the massacre
even more were the racist ideologies by most of the troops who considered the
Vietnamese to be sub humans that deserved to be killed. The soldiers rounded
the villages and shot them while they raped the women. One Vietnamese that
survived the massacre by hiding under a pile of bodies recounts how, she saw
naked women lying lifeless. She remembers seeing one girl with her vagina
ripped open.
One
of the soldiers remembers how a little boy that had been shot in the leg walked
towards the soldiers with an expressionless face probably too overwhelmed by the
days happening. Someone shot the boy three times and they walked away as if it
was the most ordinary thing to do. This
was too much for one soldier, who decided to shoot himself in the leg just to
get an excuse to be evacuated before he could see worse things happening
(Burgan, 2008).
However,
there were some sympathetic soldiers that tried to help. One such officer was
Thompson Warrant. He had been piloting around the area with his men when he
noticed some Vietnamese hiding in a bunker. He decided to come to their aid. He
ordered his men to shoot back at their fellow Americans if they should try to
interfere with his rescue attempt. Thompson managed to radio for a larger
chopper and they airlifted the terrified survivors to safety.
Even
though the reports of the media on the massacre enraged many people locally and
internationally, An Alabaman woman noted that just as is American Custom, they
will soon forget the incident as soon as another crisis comes along. However,
she observes that although the 504 people who were murdered could easily be
forgotten due to the abstraction of the figure, the photographer that captured
seven villagers that had been published by the times magazine made the event so
real and it would help generations to keep recalling what happened on 16th
March, 1968 (Seymour, 1969).
References
Burgan, M.
(2008). The My Lai Massacre. New
York: Compass Point books.
Seymour, H. (1999
Nov. 13). Lieutenant Accused of Murdering 109 Civilians. St. Louis Post- Dispatch,
p.1A, 19A.
Nixon, R. (1978,
April 12). The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. Newsweek,
449 (50), 28.
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