To this day, this is brought up and explained in painful detail on military education classes in lawful and unlawful orders. And we're reminded, "I was only following orders" is not a defense, if we wouldn't accept it from the Nazis for a defense, we most certainly cannot use it. And why Bush the Lesser trying to suggest the contrary was rejected by the entire US Armed Forces. That Lt Calley was miseducated or uneducated in the subject, that's on us as a nation and we're doing better. Hopefully, he's learned and appreciates being shown in example of precisely how easy it is to go wrong and end up in a legal morass that has no winner. Seriously, when your own people and especially a pilot of senior rank lands to stop you, you might want to reevaluate what you're trying to do. Whenever I got a dodgy order, I questioned it, explained my objection and if the officer was insistent, requested it written and signed or now, digitally signed e-mail with that order. Never had one stick to his guns, as then it's documented and I won't be taking the HEAT rounds.
@@BillOweninOttawa proving to all the dangers of illiteracy. Because, that not only isn't allowable under US law, it's expressly forbidden under the UCMJ and every case now that was attempted was prevented, save for a couple that ended up prosecuted and convicted of war crimes. The two cases that were prosecuted, pardoned by Trump, after multiple previous administrations refused to do so.
Hugh Thompson is a hero. He should recieve the medal of honor. The lightened sentence of lt Caley, proves there is no justice for the innocent and goverments dont care about justice.
In 1998, 30 years after the massacre, Thompson and the two other members of his crew, Andreotta and Colburn, were awarded the Soldier's Medal (Andreotta posthumously), the United States Army's highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy.
@@tonym994 unfortunately that’s a question we’ll never get the answer too. How many Vietnam vets are going to hold their hand up 50 years later and declare they committed war crimes? Would you, I wouldn’t.
@@matty6848 no, but it's an interesting thing to ponder. I just the other day, saw Bobby Kennedy just before he died, on 'Face the nation', saying the South weren't pulling their own load, and that we were investing more of ourselves into that war than they were.
My ex found her dad's old postwar journal and brought it to me because I'm a big history buff. Her father was a point man in a rifle company that saw a lot of action in Nam. He was also the close friend of a soldier involved in My Lai. The main focus of the journal was her dad's struggles to help his friend deal with all of the legal, emotional, and psychological fallout from the massacre. It weighed on him just as much as his own experiences in the war. It still does.
I suspect that the military would appreciate that journal, if the parties involved would agree to share it for education of our forces in the prevention of such an atrocity and to the fallout of when we get it wrong. It's a piece of history that should be treasured and shared, not forgotten in an attic.
@@spvillano Excellent point! ..but the military is already well aware of all the information in the journal and it didn't really have anything worthwhile in it. (I didn't actually learn anything that I didn't already know.) It was mainly just my father in law journaling about how much it hurt him to watch his friend go through all of the legal battles and fallout. His friend was one of the people who didn't participate in the killing, so he was traumatized both by the event and by getting lumped in with a group of killers.
An ex girlfriend of mine. Her father was a nam vet who used to brag about having 72 confirmed kills.he told me openly how they used to keep the vc ears on a key ring.
they don't, but watch the film Breaker Morant, on the battlefield esp. in guerrilla war, atrocities on both sides happen easily, good men do things in war due to stress, anger, revenge, or bad leaders -- as a civilian I've seen horrible bosses abuse me and others, imagine what they could do in war! VN war was not popular war, I 'm 66 and recall it well, our soldiers had to deal with a terrible mess and then come home and be forgotten or reviled for serving
what do plain American(?) street thugs do when they get fed up of being oppressed by their democrat government?? Go out and riot, burn down businesses, and shoot people. The BLM, antifa, etc., egged on by Nancy pelosi, Shuck schumer, Comey, adler, Mad Max Waters, etc. Unfortunately MOST democrat cities in the east are this way, and gettin worse. So what don't you "understand"???
A lot of those soldiers were on mind alternating drugs ( Acid) Every night when the national news came on the first story was always about the number of troops reported killed in Vietnam that day.
Very good point. At 19, you probably still think like a kid and will do what any adult tells you. If they say it's right, you believe them. Even by the age of 26, a lot of people have a better idea of right and wrong and are more able to stand up for it.
WWII US soldier committed many atrocities and massacres. None were ever prosecuted either. Victor's justice. Age has nothing to do with it. All war is atrocity after atrocity after atrocity. There are no good guys.
May i suggest you read "The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today" by Thomas E. Ricks. He goes into detail about this massacre and exposes some even more disturbing facts: how the platoon leaders did not reign in their troops, because the company commander encouraged indiscriminate killing but the break down of leadership went beyond that. The company that committed this crime was part of a division that was the dumping ground of all the army's unfit and incompetent soldiers who were serving in Vietnam at the time. How discipline eroded, slow but steady, how the command of the division came to adopt a "why bother" attitude towards the every day problems of commanding such a problematic formation.
Yep... if it hadn't been for Hugh Thompson, this probably wouldn't have been known about. Imagine all the other instances where no-one spoke up or took action to stop it.
@@gavinhedleygreenslade8209 yeah, and out, of ALL, those, so called, "Massacres", which some, probably were, but out, of ALL, of them, how many, had civilians, cooperating, with the NVA and Vietcong, to kill American soldiers.?? This is war, in a third world country. Wtf, do ya expect??🤔😒🤷
He was awarded the Soldier's Medal 30 years late. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr.#Recognition_for_actions_at_M%E1%BB%B9_Lai Buried with honors, including 3 volley salute in 2006.
Hugh Thompson and his crew were recognised by the US for his actions on that day in 1998. He died of cancer at the age of 62 and had been subjected to years of abuse for his actions and for attempting to bring the massacre to public attention. A great man poorly treated.
@@jasonwilliams4159 Some people kill babies because they think that if the war lasts another ten years, then the babies will be old enough to shoot them. War is detestable, Brother.
You have every right to actively disobey an order if you think it contravenes the rules of combat or the Geneva convention. These troops were stressed to the max but NOTHING excuses killing innocent civilians, especially babies. This episode is a stain on American history and it still astounds me to this day that no-one was held accountable for their actions. Calley was given three years house arrest for ordering this horrendous action, absolutely sickening.
That's not how real life works in the US. Just look up the amount of warcrimes they have committed over the years, and what happenened to the brave men who denounced it.
The US still does this today. America actively sided with pederasts in Afghanistan. When two Green Berets beat up an Afghan security police commander because he raped a boy, they were both relieved of duty. Look up bacha bazi. It was a practice banned by the Taliban, but was used by US local Afghan allies. It's part of the reason Afghan people never fully-sided with the US. Edit: Should point many US soldiers interviewed have been appalled that they're forced to side with child rapists. This example isn't a crime of the average serviceman, but a crime of US bureaucrats and high command. I'm not sure if that's more or less concerning.
Sleep deprivation, nightmares when you do manage to fall asleep. Endless walking, chafing on parts of the body you didn't realize you had, silence, heartburn from the constant stress of knowing at any time there will be contact with the enemy. Occasional odd angry shot lands a target, one of your own. He goes down screaming in agony from getting shot in the intestines. You do what you can to help but he is still in agony and eventually passes out from the pain and morphine. Returning fire you don't know where it came from. the "thump" of the muzzle report was muffled by the foliage. After a mad minute of suppressive fire you only managed to kill some trees. When you blink your eyelids scrape against your eyeballs because they are so dry from a serious lack of sleep. This becomes routine, now mix in a Sargent and or Lieutenant that wants retribution and it only takes a a small incident to escalate into a well armed, violent mob mentality.. Professional soldiers do better at resisting the urge to kill indiscriminately. That being said they are not immune. Conscripts with a few weeks training and no desire to be there on the other hand... results vary. This isn't excuses, just a little perspective.
The American military has form on this. Even years later in Iraq, they raped a 14 year old girl them massacred her whole extended family to cover it up.
Our country and media always portray the military as honorable and working for good. This war opened many eyes to how disgusting they can be. If the news , television, movies and politicians always want to promote the military , they should also tell us the whole story , the faults we did. When we point fingers at other people and countries , we first should at ourselves .
I was with the US Army CID and we were assigned to track down every soldier involved here in the Untied States. I know first hand that many should have been charged with Murder and weren’t due to the political climate. We developed strong criminal cases that just weren’t prosecuted.
@@biggootz Probably not worth answering, but I was in Vietnam 1967-68 and on active duty for twenty years. They’re Murderers. Absolutely no excuse for their actions. Troubled by what seems like you think they can be excused for their actions.
@@amaroq69 When you go to trial or court martial as it might be and you are gathering details for the prosecutor, you are going to be asked by the prosecutor what frame of mind was the person in that is being charged. His lawyer is certainly going to bring it up. Whether or not you have been shot at is going to give the investigator an idea of the charged frame of mind. If you remember, Calley was given a pardon and released because the charges were pure bullshit by the military looking for a scapegoat. A 1975 US Senate subcommittee estimated around 1.4 million civilian casualties in South Vietnam because of the war, including 415,000 deaths. Did Calley kill all of those civilians. 26 U.S. soldiers were charged with murder during the war in Viet Nam. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated, and were as young as 12. Out of those 26 only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted. It was a kangaroo court and an embarrassment and 24Mossberg and everyone involved knew it was.
Unfortunately Lt.Calley was following orders and then made the scapegoat, no matter what he did follow orders or refuse too he was on the loosing end of the orders!! Everyone who has served in the Military knows how things like this work!
It was determined at Nuremburg that ''following orders'' is NOT a valid excuse or reason for murder. I have served in the US Army, and this is NOT how it works. The orders he received and what they did is a clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He was no scapegoat. He's no better than a Waffen SS officer who receives orders to burn down a Russian village and shoot up the villagers. It is too bad they didn't go up higher in the chain of command and find out who really is responsible for this shameful atrocity.
No. He should have let the dog off the leash, only to the point where he determined there was no enemies on station. Instead, he let the situation control him, instead of keeping his focus on a legitimate fight, he lost his mind and unleashed hell.
rape mass murder isn't an order its an organisation of violence. if they defence didn't wash in Nuremburg how can you suggest 3 years home arrest is proportionate .
My uncle once said to me that I did what I had to do to survive and in that type of environment ya had to be a monster and some people are good at being a monster. But he said to me in way that he was not proud of it. I'll never forget those words.
Oddly enough the Brits who did bloody Sunday and 5 months before that in ballymurphy said the same thing, maybe that's why last year they laughed at trial how they used one of the dead men's skulls at ballymurphy as an ashtray. Yanks and Brits are a marriage made in hell.
Yeah, sure, but my lai had bad intelligence and the units that entered those areas including arial units did not encounter resistance. Not sure what the point of your comment was but, it surely has no relation to this massacre.
I was a Crewchief on a UH-1H helicopter in 1969. Our mission was to bring in a group of reporters, cameramen to the My Lai area which was in our area of operation (AO). At the time we were asking ourselves, why My Lai of all South Vietnamese hamlets/villages? Anyway, My Lai was always a hostile area. No military aged men - just old folks women and children yet you could ways count on being shot at if flying anywhere in the vicinity of that area. The media folks we brought in to investigate were all obviously scared in spite of the fact there were I believe two armored Cav units with a very large number of armored vehicles with their heavy machine guns, and what not pointed out and only about 10 feet between each vehicle. This investigation tied up a lot of Infantry and Cav to protect the news media. Anyway, roughly 2 weeks after we dropped off these media folks, the shit hit the fan and we all learned about the massacre. As a side note, my helicopter was not the only one to drop off and pick up the various media and investigative folks but I believe we were among the first (if not the first).
Wow James what a story sir. What was your initial reaction when you heard about the massacre.? It could of done the American troops already based there any favours whatsoever? I’d love to hear more of your experiences in Vietnam. Please.
But did you ever consider that was a tactic of the Vietnamese? To lure fire into civilian areas? Frustrating both civilians and the soldiers? Pretty sure that was the point. To cause such cases and turn the civilians against the southern government. My father served in the Americal Divison. The same one involved. He wasn't part of it, but he served with a few guys that were part of the massacre. Said back home at base, one of them would pace back and forth at night even in the pouring rain.
LBJ and his wife took control of Bell helicopter and made large investments in Genral dynamics just before he sent troops to Vietnam Vietnam was never a threat to USA are anyone else Just like Afghanistan and Iraq Vietnam was the crime of the 20th century Yall shoved that war down the throat of the Vietnamese people for money
@@billywylie3288 What does that have anything to do with this conversation? Nobody is denying it, but also, nobody was talking about that whatsoever. Its great you finally read a book, but, pipe down when its irrelevant to the conversation please. You know who is doing the same today? Russia. Now go make yourself useful in those threads champ.
I was 10 years old when this happened. My brother was in Vietnam 2nd tour. 8 years later I was called a baby killer while in California in the Marines. It left a horrible stain on the military for years to come.
@@everydayisabadday My Fantastic Brother was in Nam, I remember very well, the day we picked him up at the bus depot. Their had been a few Cowards that said a couple things to him, He just shrugged it off. He heard it that shit on many stops along the way getting home. I was however some what pissed off. People still done that garbage when I went in the Army in 77 also. People are just idiots I suppose. My Brother passed away due to complications he received in Nam. Mark Allen Stewart ...... Sgt Army Vietnam Dec 17th 1950 to Dec 17th 2007 Rio Grande Valley State Veterans .... Hidalgo County Tx Section 34 Row B Site 22 God Bless and keep you my dear Brother Amen
People are already savages. The only reason you don't think you are is because you have 3 hots and a cot, and think you live a nice cozy suburban life. Take that all away, put you in the worst environment known to man, and I will train a peerless messenger of death in 3- 6 weeks. Been there, done that, have the T shirts.
..which is what I keep saying to all the people who are blindly supporting the Ukrainian government just because Russia sucks. In WW2, my American grandfather was dropping bombs on my grandmother in Berlin. After the war, he married an Italian. She married a Brit. They all became Americans and made my parents. I don't ever take sides in a war. I pray for the victims and curse the governments.
@@manofaction1807 I'm trying my best to understand what you're saying, trying to imagine what it must have been like over there. Of course as a civilian of the armed forces, I can't, not really. All I feel sure of is that nothing and no-one, could train me to kill an innocent child.
@@annA48126 If I took you into the jungle, desert, hell even your home town- dropped a few artillery rounds on you, shot you a few times in the middle of the night while your sleeping, dropped mortar rounds and killed half of your unit, sniped you, hit you with booby traps, and general all around bad stuff- YOU WOULD kill your own mother if the situation presented itself. It all goes to how far is your breaking point. EVERYONE has one. It's just a matter of how far you're willing to take the hell of being in this situation that you found yourself in. In that frame of mind- NO ONE is innocent, and the enemies lose human value. When that breaking point comes- it comes with no warnings or ideas that its coming. Solder just says fuck it, and puts it on rock and roll. I know, because I've seen it. And it doesn't take much in the real world to see true evil.
@@manofaction1807 The reason I didn't include women along with the children was because I once read that occassionally the women could be as lethal as the men they were fighting. Did that make it easier to kill them too? Probably? As you point out, everyone has their breaking point, and the terrible things they saw, and had to do, doesn't bear thinking about. I will say this.I'm a totally non-violent person, but if anyone was a serious threat to me or mine, I like to think I would do all within my power to stop them..and that would include killing them. But a child is different. Totally.
I remember this, I was living in Chicago , I was about to graduate from High School. Now at 73, I think back at that and think about the Russian Ukraine War going on now. Makes me think, do we have to right to bad mouth the Russians for their war crimes, or the Ukrainians if they are doing some as well. War is hell, things cannot be controlled, let's just try the most to stay away from these horrible events!
Well, Calley was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced for his war crime. So, yes, we most certainly do have a right. To say otherwise is to just turn a blind eye to every crime against humanity and just let it repeat itself over and over again until this planet runs out of people.
@@spvillano I think if you are a soldier with a weapon shotting at people both military and civilians and getting shot at by enemy military and civilians you have the right to bad mouth anything or anybody, because you are there and see what's going on. I you are sitting at home and watching all these goings on TV with a beer in your hand you have absolutely no right to badmouth anyone and just keep your trap shut! You wanna have the right to comment, join the armed forces and go fight!
@@cycologist7069 I am totally proud of you, very good you have all the right to agree or disagree with me or anybody else. You are exercising your constitutional freedom of speech, unlike one of our political parties that will not allow you this right, best regards and keep doing the "right thing" !
@@dc10fomin65 I did over 20 yrs and retired and I agree with you. It's hard for some to understand what's happening on the ground when they spend their career in the water.
What I've always found most egregious about this incident (other than the atrocities themselves, of course) is the way a disturbing number of ordinary Americans actually *DEFENDED* William Calley after the news eventually broke. "This is war!" "The enemy is the enemy!" It was absolutely disgusting. According to historian Rick Perlstein, one father and son who were watching reports of Calley's trial on TV perfectly exemplified the generation gap on this matter. The father growled, "If he'd done that in World War II, they'd have given him a medal." His teenaged son turned to him and retorted, "Yeah-if he were a Nazi."
It's the worst you've heard about. There were worse incidents but have been well covered up. Military intelligence made many horrible mistakes and what was thought as an enemy stronghold was nothing but an orphanage. You don't go knock on the door and see when your told this you wipe it out and move in on it. Sadly then it's to late. I knew men who suffered horribly for the rest of their lives because of this and not one ever had any children.
I went to the village in Vietnam in 2004 it is a really beautiful place with it's rice patties and palm trees. They kept the village as a kind of memorial.
IV also been a few times 🇲🇦🇲🇦 and the people are lovely and very affible. Again America got away with mass murder. They just couldn't ever beat the Vietnamese, and had no right getting involved 🤡
I've heard from other Americans who have been there that they don't hold a grudge against America either which is nice. It isn't rational to hold people responsible for what happened before their time, but emotions aren't rational. My grandfather hated every single German on Earth until his last breath.
@@MakerInMotion both the Vietnamese and Khmer people are very affible. IV been a few times. The reason they don't hold a grudge is because they 👊 the American's. My grandfather also hated the Germans,he was involved in Africa and obviously France 🏴🏴
Especially when you're in a kill or be killed environment. I can't speak to Vietnam but can about Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately you've gotta have a dark heart to function.
@@manofaction1807 no one's saying that. But you gotta dehumanize the enemy to be able to kill them. Again this is my Iraq and Afghanistan deployments, not Vietnam. Yes, everyone has it in them. People's who think otherwise are ignorant.
I was 40 miles north of My- lia in Phu-thi. When this happened. That whole area was hot the Korean Tiger Division. Shut down the road going south of our compound and the Ammo Dump we were guarding south twords that area. Every night because they lost a 50truck convoy. In that area at night. . They were feared by the VC AND North Vietnamese army NVA ...you see THE Tigers were bad. Born during the Korean war and where fierce fighters. You didn't mess with these people. Hell Phu/-thi 2miles from our compound was off limits to American troops off duty. The most American Force where killed in the Tet offense 1968 the night I got in country then My Lia was 3 months after I got in country. RVN 68-69. The press lied about everything we did in Vietnam. We never lost a battle. Some college graduates Draftees in the army came up with the bad intelligence on this village.a lot of things happen that should not have happened. But I was there in the Nam where you. They protested us coming home from Vietnam and called us baby killers now they are All pro choice. 100,000of my brother s have taken their own lives over that war VA stats 1996. In 1978: I was a 1st responder to Jones town Guyana. 900 people took their own lives for one man Jim Jones. Makes you wonder about humanity
I was growing up during that and watched both the media coverage and listened to my cousin when he finally got home from the war. And since, even read some still classified reports for some other duties that that information was relevant for. Conscript forces, shitty training in the laws of warfare, it was an absolute recipe for disaster that we should've learned from a similar case during the Korean War. But, we finally learned that lesson and this is used in our classes on lawful and unlawful orders. As in, a full day on it. Last I heard, Calley's living in Florida somewhere. OK, I have an idea, but really am not about to look it up, as that's over. He was convicted, he served his sentence until his Nixon commuted sentence was completed, it's done and over with, he paid his debt to society.
I was a kid but I remember this because we had family members over there fighting and they detested this. I went in the Army in July 1974 hoping to go but I never made it since we were pulling out. Very sad time
If only Americans would stop enthusiastically signing up to go kill babies in countries they never heard of, and whose names they cannot pronounce, then, then the world could have a chance for peace. As it is? No. And now you are going after Russia. Yanqui go home. Stay there.
My Uncle died from drugs and alcohol issues he developed as a Marine in Vietnam. Dad has always said his brother went to war and never really returned.
Respect to the soldiers who refused to kill the civilians,and thank you for sharing that,it lets us know that there are still good soldiers out there who have good morals🙏
None refused except those who caused self-inflicted wounds and escaped the event. Many were afraid if caught doing that (self-inflicted) they would be killed by their own. It was easy for Thompson to do what he did... He wasn't in the bush in fear of the enemy and their squad. So being a Hero is overstated by far.
It used not be the case, but I think over the 20th century on conflicts proportionally the number of military casualties fell, and the number of civilian deaths rose.Now you are far safer being a soldier, than a civilian near or on a battlefield.
12:40 So, the soldier in the middle, being helped by his buddies, was the only American casualty at Son My / My Lai that day. He had been shooting children with his Colt .45 pistol when it jammed. He accidentally shot himself in the foot while trying to clear the stoppage. Ref: "Four Hours in My Lai" (1993) by Michael Bilton and Kevin Sim
Excellent news! Lets hope the wound got infected. The thought of him being in excruciating pain and being badly affected for the rest of his miserable life can only be a comfort to many. Rest in terror you coward.
Very good summary sir. What you related is much like how I remember it at the time. Although none but those involved truly know exactly how it it went down the rest of us bore wittiness to the consequences.
I've never been in the military, so I can only try to imagine, being completely immersed in the deadly insanity of war... How long might it take for otherwise normal men to surrender themselves and become a part of the insanity? I suppose it just depends on what they've been through. Normal, healthy people wouldn't do this sort of thing just to be cruel. It would require being immersed in a reality that is utterly unimaginable to the rest of us.
That's usually the case. The Viet Cong also disguise themselves as civilians then attacking the Americans. Older soldiers were tired of this so they just look at whoever is suspicious and shoot them
@@robinhazell6019 well Robin, it's fookin obvious it's plain stoopid and sadistic to kill a baby. I don't have to spoon feed you every atom of explanation
As a military brat that grew up on Marine bases. even played army with them guys. have searched for decades what that war was really about I got my answer in audiobook. kill anything that moves.
Now, please check out these FACTS that are on the Web: "In 250 years of existence as a nation, the US has fought against 29 sovereign countries. (In Fact, since 1785, we have been involved, for 231 years, in some kind of war. And this wars, against all varieties of nations. From going against the Sultan of Morocco, to invading the tiny island of Grenada. Well, this means that in our entire history, we have only had 17 years of peace, and even fewer, cuz here the almost 5 years of our Civil War (Union/Confed 1861‒1865), are Not counted, since this war was not with another country, but against us. And the wars against the Native Nations of America either are not counted, for the same reason). Anyway: We fought against 29 countries. We have "Grown" 711 the size of our territory from the original 13 colonies. Our Economic, Political and Military development was established thanks to the Piracy, the Slavery, the Massacres, the Opium Trade or Cocaine Traffic, and the Weakness of many abused sovereign nations. We have provoked with total impunity, 12 Genocides ‒inside and outside our own borders‒, and Assassinations of Gov’t. Leaders, Coups d'État and Economic Blockades in 6 UN member nations. Between 1947 and 1989, the US tried to change other nations gov’ts 73 times. It includes 66 covert Ops. And 7 overt ones. In Civil Wars: The US has taken advantage of and intervened without justification in the following Civil Wars: In Marquesas Island. (Massacre. 1813). US Forces seize Nuku Hiva Island (French Polynesia 1813), and establish here «The First US Naval Base», in the Pacific. This historical fact is important, cuz in 1813, the US had NO Territorial Land nor Maritime Rights in the Pacific Ocean, until 1848, when the US seized California and other Mexican territories facing the Pacific. In Haiti (1813 and 1901 and then 1915-1934-2001). In Hawaii (1889 and 1890-1893 and 1901). ruclips.net/video/C2bjjwv4134/видео.html. In Cuba (1898 and 1901-1902 and 1906 and 1913 and 1952 and again 1960). In Colombia (1899-1902 and 1948). In Mexico (1836 and 1847 and 1886 and 1904 and 1914 and again in 1916). In Russia (1918). In the "Republic Banana Wars" of Central America. (Massacre. 1912-1934). In Honduras (1903 and 1912 and 1919 and 1924-1925 and again 2009). In Venezuela (1936 and 1945 and again in 1948). Military Coup in Peru (1948 and 1967). In China (1857, and 1900, and 1913, and again in 1945-1946-1949). In Korea (1950-1953). In Vietnam (Massacre and Genocide. 1959-1975). In Panama (1856, and 1903, and 1964-1968, and again 1989). In Brazil (1959 and 1964). Coup and Intervention in Guatemala (1944, and 1954, and 1966, and again 1982-1985). Coup and subsequent Fascist regime in Greece (1967). The Hunting for Che Guevara, in Bolivia (1968). The “Bombing of Laos” (1971-1973). US Military assistance in the Coup in Bolivia (Copper Mining Co. 1971). Entry of US Troops into Nicaragua (1937 and 1972-1973, and 1983 and again 1995). Coup in Chile. Salvador Allende. (Genocide. 1973). Terror in Uruguay. (Genocide. 1973). Support for the regime of Moboth, in Zaire (Genocide. 1974). Attack on Cambodia (Kampuchea. 1975). Argentina (1976-1986). Support for the cannibal Jean-Bédel Bokassa, in Central African Republic. (Genocide. 1979). We, the US, assistance Saddam Hussein against Iran. (One Million dead in ten years. 1980-1990). Support and funding of the Khmer Rouge. (Genocide 1980). In Bosnia (1995)... In Libya, Palestine, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, in Kosovo, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, etc. And more: We have almost 800 Military Bases scattered around the world; 93 of which are against China. On the other hand, China and Korea (The "Axis of Evil"), in 1,000 years of history have NEVER invaded anyone. These nations have fought their Civil Wars, defended themselves against foreign invasions, and secured their immediate borders, but they have never been meddling or aggressor countries. China is a Nation of Peace. China does NOT Attack anyone. China does NOT Invade nor does it Steal territories of other sovereign nations. China does NOT Intervene in any neighboring nor distant country. Do you know how many Military Bases China or Korea have outside their territory? None. Zero. Any. NADA! They do not have a single Base. These are verifiable facts. Neither China nor Korea will invade the world; We do... that's DONE, as we do in the Middle East. Iran also does not have a SINGLE MILITARY BASE outside its national territory, and it is surrounded by 16 US Bases, and it is we who call the Iranians Terrorists. LOL --And now, we have ANOTHER WAR on our doorstep, for trying to inaugurate another Military Base in the Ukraine... WHO CARES!!! "War is a Business".
@@billmasters385 Would be interesting how Chinas neighbours interpret some of this and any parallels with Mexico/Cuba etc. Tibet, India, SEA have experienced Chinese military
@@salvadorvizcarra769I’m sorry if what I said after this not related to My Lai Massacre, but I think you’re a little bit off the fact China is the same as America. As a citizen of Viet Nam, I have to disagree with you about the part that “china does not attack or invade any country”. If you do more research on the south east asia region, you’ll find out that china actually a dominant beast that conquered Viet Nam almost 1000 years in the 10th century and even to this day 2022. They also did that to Hong Kong and Taiwan too. According to Viet Nam’s Government, China currently attack and take possession of 80% of Paracel Island ( Hoàng Sa group islands) which originally belong to Viet Nam, some part of the furthest land in the north of Viet Nam too. Also in 1989, the secretly fund the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia to attack the border of Viet Nam, ending up is another massacre just like My Lai. That’s why America always has conflict with China, because they are the same dominant beast, only in different areas of the world.
I'm a proud Brit and we do have a wonderful history, but we also have dark periods in our long history, too, that no sane Brit could ever be proud of. This was a very dark day in America's young history & no sane American would make any excuse for it. It doesn't, however, change my mind that, on the whole, America & its people are a force for good. 🇬🇧 🇺🇲
Hi, there, this war made money for people who make weapons, boots, uniforms, aircraft, and helmets. It taught one of my brothers how to care for the wounded.
@@MrJuvefrank Agreed, it made a select few very wealthy. With all due respect to your brother, he could have learned that in medical school or at the local hospital as well.
Listen folks, for all of you who've really no clue about what it was like on the ground in Vietnam during that time please know this: THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY ZERO WAY TO DETERMINE WHO WAS VC, WHO WAS NVA, AND WHO WAS A CIVILIAN!!! And to most us troops they couldn't really care less anyway after watching the atrocities done by the vc and nva. If it breathed it died, that was it. And none of us who weren't there have no place even having an opinion. I was not there either, I was only a small child at that time, although I have people extremely close to me who were there, boots on the ground. I witnessed first hand the sleepless night, the nightmares, the ptsd that came of that war. It's just a shitty situation for all involved. Just know those young soldiers saw and experienced things that drove them, that forced them to that insanity....
The French had also been there and been beaten, just like the US. Difference was that the US did not take heed of an French knowledge ~ why should they , being the US Forces, who were also soundly beaten
The British prime minster at the time Harold Wilson adviced America to not get involved, he told them it was an unwinnable situation. Had they listened lots of brave American young lives woud have been prevented. But typical American bravado without thinking proved him right. It had nothing to do with Britain being afraid, it was more to do with common sense.
@@andyb.1026 We were not ”soundly beaten”. The American army won every single major engagement in that war. Every. Single. One. politicians wouldn’t let us win. They were more worried about public opinion than they were about our troops. Don’t comment on things which you obviously know nothing about. Makes ya look really stupid.🙄
I’ve never understood the brutality of men in war. These same men have mothers, sisters, daughters.. infant children. Another nation doing it is heinous but we all turn a blind eye when we’re in another country.
It is a sad thing but day after day of fear and seeing soldiers die. It changes them . Most still have humanity but some do not . Then under so much pressure they unwind and thier humanity falls away and they become unhinged. It happens in all wars to some extent but when the enemy might look like a civilian all civilian's become enemies. It I think helped bring about the public change needed to end the war. It was a terrible thing and went unpunished as far as I see.
My Lai is the most known american war crime in Vietnam, but there were countless others on much smaller scale. I did my military service 1978/79 serving in the (West) German Army Aviation. Once we were on maneuver with the helicopters of the US 1st Cavalry division which had served Vietnam. Since i had seen the films where the helicopter gunners fired at targets on the ground i asked one of the crew chiefs how they determined who was a combatant and who wasn´t. His answer was short and shocking: "We didn´t!"
@@caseykennedy9434 So your door gunners were trained snipers who would deliver a precise shot at an identified legal target instead of firing rounds of machine gun ammo at the presumed position of an enemy? And of course you would admit killing civilians, wouldn´t you?
Several items of interest emerge here that were not mentioned by the Press: 1. US Soldiers were being killed by villagers gathering information about the former and passing it on to the VC. 2.Innocent civilians and babies were used as walking time-bombs and explosives transports. 3. No effort was spared by the Chinese in aiding and abetting the NVA and the guerrilla VC. The Chinese were using the same tactics as the Arabs in Israel without regard for human life. While Lt. Calley's troops took reprehensible actions,nobody,but nobody, was ever court-martialed in North Viet Nam for using babies as shields.
@@zoltan7771 Interesting question. BUT, I can't tell you anything except it was just business. My point is that the press never covered both sides of the issues.
@@andyb.1026 If you want, I can give you the title of the books that explain how these practices took place and are still used today by terrorists or would you rather me just have a Nam vet explain it in great detail. Because unlike you, I have sat with Nam vets and listened to what they went through. What they do now when using babies and kids as bombs is they inject every know virus and big they can get their hands on, so when the child explodes, their bones become hazardous shrapnel laced with those viruses. So if you survive the blast, you're still dead from the pending infections.
There is a book called Tiger Force.. it talks about some of the atrocities committed by a small recon platoon of the 101st airborne... Interesting /revolting stuff...the book really shows you how much your environment and your fellow soldiers actions can turn you into a savage
I read Tiger Force a few years ago....still have it. It was an eye opening read about the military strategy of the Vietnam War. The difference between Tiger Force and My Lai was that Charlie Company was ordered into Son Mi to disperse a suspected group of Viet Cong. Tiger Force was organized solely to kill and destroy any Vietnamese who had already been ordered out of a select area, but ignored the order.
@@bigman88george3 some were but what I'm referring to are the guys u see detest the savagery and then slowly give in to it... You just have to read the book to understand
the helicopter crew and his own pals in the air above are heros BTW. you should make a video for them in tribute they saved life's at a cost to there's
I've seen or read a few things about Vietnam in general, and My Lai in particular. You have to read as many sources as you can, before you start to really get a grip on what happened. As far as My Lai, read the book "Kill Anything That Moves" (author ??). Like most crimes, it's NOT the first time it HAPPENED, just the first time they were CAUGHT. According to that book, atrocities were NOT unusual; the attitude was, "What HAPPENS in the field [i.e.Vegas] , STAYS in the field". And if somebody DOES make a report, or a charge, either the command squashes it, "reassigns"/penalizes somebody, or "kills the messenger". "Onesies and twosies", are NOT uncommon; whether it's a legitimate mistake, or a crime. And when nobody can tell "good-guys" from "bad-guys", pretty soon, EVERYBODY are "bad-guys", and consequently, nobody cares about them. My Lai was just the first time it happened on THAT scale, where the command COULDN'T squash it, and where there were pictures... COLOR pictures; so fresh the blood hadn't even congealed yet. It OCCURRED 2 months after Tet (Jan 68), but didn't come to light for another year; AFTER the assassination of Dr. MLK (April 68), and Senator RFK (June 68), and I THINK, after the release of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg. The reporter for "Stars and Stripes" who took the photos, surrendered the B&W camera he was issued, but KEPT his personal color camera, and agonized over a year, about what to do with the pics. If I recall correctly. As I heard one Vietnam vet put it, "In a war zone, ANYTHING can happen; people die ALL THE TIME. And if an order is GIVEN to kill people, and you're there to kill people ANYWAY, then what difference does it make? All you know is, you got drafted, fed a bunch of PR CRAP, that bears NO RESEMBLANCE to the truth you see on the ground; that nobody is serious about winning ANYWAY; and all you want to do is survive long enough to go "back to the world"; whatever that takes. That's why veterans don't talk about they see, or do. Because nobody would believe what happens, unless they were THERE; and SEEN it. And the last thing they're going to tolerate, is to have someone look at them, like they have a 3rd eye in the middle of their head. It's like a surreal nightmare, you can't ever wake up from. You could no more survive THERE, with civilized society's laws, than you could survive HERE with THOSE rules." It happens in EVERY war, on EVERY side, because the only rule, is to win; as NOT winning, means losing body parts, or going home in a box. Give a 19-year-old the power of life and death, train him to kill, let him see his friends get maimed, or killed; put him into a guerilla war, where friend/foe all look the same, and nobody is SERIOUS about winning, just "playing the game"; except that it's your LIFE, and WATCH what happens. You wonder why some vets become alcoholics, or drug addicts, or commit suicide? Because guilt is a terrible thing; and as the years go by, sooner or later, they start asking questions about why they went to war, and the circumstances around that decision. And as they are on a mission to know the truth, when it finally dawns on them, the justifications for what they may have done disappear, and all they're left with are pretty ribbons, photos, and a mountain of emotional baggage, that they can't fix, or tell anyone about. Remember that, next time you hear the gov't beating the war-drums. If it was YOUR son/brother/cousin, etc, you'd feel different. And that's WHY Congress is SUPPOSED to DECLARE WAR, and not just appropriate money for a never-ending "conflict".
LBJ, McNamara et all thought it could be won based on body count etc. our men fought well, but we could never break the enemy's will to resist, they held on till we had to leave due to polit. pressure at home, it was a terrible war for all
My Lai was only one of many similar incidents that continued throughout the time of the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam. With more than 3 million Vietnamese dead in the Vietnam War, 2 million of which were civilians, this can be easily seen. The American escalation of the war from 1965 onward insured that millions of Vietnamese civilians would be killed or injured, and they were.
All i could say to those US Troops who are responsible to what happened to this poor people.’KARMA IS COMING TO THEM’ whether they are alive right now or not!😡😡😡
Every member of the specific platoon responsible should be rounded up, and sentenced to life in prison, today. That goes for the troops who did it, and those who stood by and let it happen, instead of standing against it, or at least running completely away from it, and informing the proper authorities of the situation. Those that stood against it, should recieve the highest medal in the land because it takes way more courage to stand against your own troops when you know they are in the wrong, than it does to fight against a known enemy. The only reason I wouldn't push for an even tougher sentence is because in such a brutal, sadistic, and chaotic environment, there is no way to know exactly who did what, but since they acted as a rogue gang, they should be punished as a gang. No matter the war, civilians are off limits, period. Especially with America being #1 in the world, we have to be held to a higher standard. Can't let a few crazy soldiers put Americans in a position to be looked at as barbaric. That was barbarism. I wasn't even born at that time, and I'm embarrassed. Who ever the group of soldiers were, who committed such a vile act, they didn't serve their country, they embarrassed it.
Have you ever served in combat or even served at all if not keep your opinions to yourself war is terrible the stress is a killer turning against your own could get you fragged look it up if you don't know what fragged means
@@w.va.patriot9118 yes, war is terrible...I get it ..but why rape the young!!!???..no excuse dude..barbaric and evil...should be hanged .that was not an order from the superiors...do you have young daughters???..hope not...
@@w.va.patriot9118 I have & what happened is totally inexcusable! Fragging is a pussies way to get the behavior of what small minded people want. Much like a woman beater!
Hugh Thompson was a real man that day. Real men of war know are the end of the day war is just business. All of us dying for a belief and a side that we strongly believe in. Nobody is wrong nor right in the situation but one thing is for sure women and children shall and always will be off limits. Unless you pick up a weapon to harm me or mine you’re no foe to me.
@@charlesciminera5881 whole villages of women and children rounded up for non-cooperation. Burning them alive, placing their heads on stakes, etc. Their brutality was well documented. The civilians were in between a rock and hard place. Help the VC and be spared, or be neutral/help the U.S. and be killed by the VC. Read a non-biased history book. You'll find many on this subject.
Dad did three tours USMC 68-69-70 mom was a nurse USAF 69-70-71 they did not see each other nor were they married , mom is gone now but dad is still here. We are in forever dept to our vets.
While their actions were wrong i won't judge those that have seen hell and lived to tell about it. No doubt some of those men were severely affected by the horrors that were happening around them.
Do you judge the Russians soldiers invading Ukraine? Do you judge the German troops who invaded Russia in the 40s? The Japanese in China during then 30s?
That you're trying to understand what happens to men in combat is commendable. That still doesn't justify it. It does however go a long way towards explaining it. Something most that have never experienced war aren't able to understand. While many come home physically many never return psychologically.
I don't judge them, as they were already judged and convicted. I do judge some politicians, who denounced those who stopped the war crime as traitors, but not too much, as they're dead and on to other judgement.
@@clicheguevara5282 invading isn't the soldier's choice, they receive lawful orders to conduct warfare by their lawful superiors in the government. They don't get to choose their wars, they only get to follow their lawful orders. Debate is for the civilians, not the military. Their conduct while conducting said war is on them, the lawfulness or not of the orders to invade is on the leadership, each as it should be. So, Russians in Ukraine committing war crimes are criminals. Germans who invaded Russia and committed warcrimes were criminals. Japanese in China, boy, that's a laundry list of war crimes that were prosecuted thoroughly and quite a few hanged for their offenses.
@@spvillano You're missing my point. (Maybe I should have been more clear in my original comment) I'm simply asking if his principles are consistent. If he can be non-judgmental about My Lai, then he should also be non-judgmental about the Waffen SS in Eastern Europe. ..and I'm not talking about the invasion itself. I'm talking about the atrocities committed by soldiers during said invasion. That's why I used those specific examples.
The last minute explaining their hardship and fear as a primary motive to enact this massacre is not justification. Nor is it really logical. There are millions of guys in each war who served under way worse conditions and never could fathom doing this. This was a pure act of immature, sociopathic, indiscriminate violence. They knew better. In every single way they knew better. There is no excuse.
Over 2 million civilians killed. All by Americans? I think not. I’m sick of hearing about My Lai. What happened happened. It was war and bad things happen in war, any war. War knows no age, race or gender, everyone is fair game sad to say. It’s ugly, brutal and bloody. It’s the nature of the beast. I know I was there that year.
Although I don't have a lot of videos, I think you can at least to a reasonable degree conclude that I don't have a bias towards making videos that make one single nation or country being portrayed as inherently evil in some way. Unfortunately if the right conditions are met almost anyone is capable of commiting gruesome acts of violence. What I try to do with my videos is not only to honor the memory of victims of war, but also to determine what conditions make a normal individual lose control in certain situations. Again, that is what I am trying to do, but because of the limitations of this platform and my own lack of knowledge in many areas, maybe I do not achieve the goals I set out for myself. In conclusion I will plan to make many videos in the future that center around similar topics, and which won't have the narrative "America bad" labeled over it.
@ Seek History, it’s worth the research. My platoon was friendly with a family that we found murdered shortly before the tet. They killed about 20 people in their family village except for one 11yr old girl. She identified a man from a neighboring village (a vc known to the s Viet police) as being there when her family was murdered. As luck would have it, I killed a NVA major a few days later about 2 miles from there. The S Viet police had her look at his body, and she identified him the one who shot them with his pistol. That is in my gun cabinet, along with his recruiter flag. Many more examples out there peace to you and yours.
Being i was in the Army from 1977-1982 this story always bothered me. When I was 10 I remember this being on the tv and then I remember throwing up with the pictures they showed on tv of the massacre. When i was in the Army I learned a lot and met a person who was involved with the My Lai massacre. He and a few of his friends did not participate and they were shunned by the military and the Government for telling the truth, That haunted them until their deaths. When you tell your men to kill people then those who ordered it should be held responsible they said Caley was charged with 100 deaths when there were over 500 deaths that should tell you something. Our Government was screwed up then and are now period. Those innocent people in those villages did not deserve this and those who killed them all 26 should of being held accountable but they weren't and that is the sad facts.
The US government can't help themselves. They choose to tell lies when the truth would suffice. Vietnam, The Gulf Wars, Afghanistan: All we got was lies told to us. These people will never stop lying.
@@changnguyen3377 yes I've heard. I'm from Ireland have two friends who travelled through Asia they loved Vietnam said it's a must see. Some day il be there. ❤️
Chang Nguyen, why doesn’t the commie government mention the atrocities the VC and NVA committed? I was there I saw the results of their butchery. Are those that were around back then not allowed to speak out? Are they imprisoned or worse if they do? Those that rag solely on Americans are ignorant
@@davidgarcia-hq3el Could you provide me with some evidence to prove what you said? Do you know that My Lai massacre is only a tiny part of the great crimes committed by the US military in my country? Vietnamese has the freedom to speak out if the government does the wrong thing. Don't mistake Vietnam for China.
Body count was absolutely one of the worst ways to gauge the progress of victory in Vietnam. Soldiers, desperate to go home, and commanders, desperate to win, fully committed to providing as many bodies as possible. Why would it matter if it were 'innocent people' or ' enemy soldiers ' - by the time of My Lai, everyone was the enemy, and you wanted to go home.
"Some men were born to be killers and some were made to be killers but no ordinary men were killers" as quoted by a family friend, a Vietnam Vet who was a close friend to a soldier who disobeyed the order to kill civilians in My Lai
There is no legitimate reason for killing civilians. However, it is a shame that the war crimes of the Viet Cong and NVA against South Vietnamese civilians were never reported to the same degree as was the My Lai massacre.
It is legal to kill civilians who are acting in direct support of the enemy war effort, i.e. civilians working in an enemy munitions factory, civilian merchant mariners transporting war materiel, etc...
@@David_Rafuse No it is not. If they stop & you aim your firearm at them posing no immediate threat to you, you DO NOT have a right to take one's life. The same rules apply to combatants.
the Communists have set up a big museum in Mai Lai.....and a makeover of the community.....and a series of photos.....sadly they did not set up one, in Hue, where they killed 5,000 civilians, durning Tet, of 68...
Not much different than the more recent POW camp, is it? That one had several women who acted the same way There's a movie, "Taxi to the dark side" about a guy they were after without any evidence. Also, what was that old study at that college where the prof assigned various kids to be jailers or convicts? They do exactly the same as they can get away with. Interestingly, even former slaves will do just this. Whether for profit or other reasons.
I think back on that time and I remember the public support for Calley and hatred for him as well. I think its because most of us don't see it. If you saw a child head blown open or women raped, old men, women killed mothers. I think if we see it it effects us. I remember the terrorist in Paris a few years ago, who stole a truck an ran over and murdered many people. I saw a video the day after it happened of someone walking down that road filming the bodies, it was horrific the footage. Then it was removed for being to grafic. I believe they should show these raw events as they are. It would make good people want justice.
In 1977, in the US Army in Germany, I was in a class given by Calley's defense lawyer, about the treatment of civilians in wartime. He in no way wanted the job, defending Calley, but as a JAG lawyer, had no choice. His class was all about compassion and empathy.
Too graphic? We just had nineteen 10 year olds murdered in Uvalde, Tx by an 18 year old with an AR15….(like the M-16s that were used to murder the civilians in a GRAPHIC manner at Mi Lai ). Yes, the doctor that attended to the murdered children said that the condition of the children that were killed was GRAPHIC….if it would have been my child that was GRAPHICALLY murdered…..I would have insisted that pictures of my child no matter how graphic, be displayed on every billboard and tv station all over the world. Maybe this would stop the GRAPHIC MURDERS happening today in our churches, our schools and our society.
"Why did it happen?" C Comp. lost a few men in that area around my lai (in weeks before My lai) by ambush snipers and Bobbytraps, Frustration, Revenge, war brutalise young Men, dehumisation of the enemy a`la "Our side is the good side and the enemy is the pure evil in flesh they are not even Humans" ! Forgot Drill, extensive Drill is an important part to make them following orders even inhuman orders, makes them mercyless, harsh , hard and with Drill comes punishment, then let them loose and bad things happen. Eugen Kogon in his Book "The SS State" wrote about the effects of harsh Drill and punishment during SS guard training, the SS used such mearsure to make the Guards harsh and brutal , when they send them to KZ`s as Prisoner Guards they were in Payback modus . such massacres happen on every side in every conflict/war, for example NVA and VC massacred a Montagnard Village, with no mercy they killed Kids , Womans , Babys and elderly they "roasted" the native Tribefolks with Flamethrowers, Google at "Dak Son" massacre or another case, after NVA/VC was driven out/beaten in Hue during TET and Hue was secured by the Marines and ARVNs (Rangers?) they found massgraves with between 2000 -6000 bodys in dozens of massgraves. The skin of civilision is very thin and under the skin we are nothing more the animals.
@@b-ballfanatic7988 Yeah, also a former Croatian soldier, American born, who went back from the safety of Chicago to fight in the Croatian Homeland War in 1991 at the worse possible place - the Battle of Vukovar. I witnessed with my own eyes daily for over 3 months all the horrors of war and massacred women and children by the various fractions of the Serbian military. Also spent 137 days in the Serbian POW (read concentration) camp Stajicevo and Nis after the fall of Vukovar. I was beaten and tortured almost every day while imprisoned. Nevertheless, a thought hadn't even occurred to me during the siege of Vukovar to kill the Serbian civilians who were with us in Vukovar, nor did it occur to me later when Croatia won the war in 1995 and we liberated most of the country from the Serbian occupation during the Operations "Flash" and "Storm". NOBODY in any of my units touched any civilians and every prisoner of war was treated according to all the Geneva Convention Rules and beyond. When the ICTY in the Hague conducted the research of my unit during the war 1991-1995 I am proud to say that they found no foul play nor did anyone get indicted for anything. One of my soldiers even protected (risking his life) a Serbian woman who served as a Fifth Column and constantly called in artillery or air strikes on our positions with a hidden radio station at her condo. She stayed in large a bomb shelter which we defended with our lives, we shared our food and water with her and the other civilians and every chance she got, she went back to her place and called the Serbian Military on her hidden radio short-wave relay machine to tell them positions of my soldiers which resulted in the direct deaths of at least 4 of my soldiers and several civilians. How did we discover she was a spy? One of those artillery attacks she called in, her Serbian boys hit her condo with two 120mm mortar shells and when we went in to check if anyone was hurt we found the short-wave radio-station with her book of codes amongst the ruins of her bathroom. Upon hearing about this all the civilians who were in the shelter with us wanted to lynch her and I had to intervene with several of my soldiers in order to protect her . Later before the Serbs occupied the town, we just let her go because I couldn't let someone shoot her in the back (and there were plenty of volunteers). Of course, she later lied to the Serbian TV how we arrested and tortured her "for no reason but being a Serb" but she managed to escape. The reason why I'm telling all these details (and there were many other similar stories like this) is to show that even in the worse fog of war you can remain a human being. And if you are struggling to do so then the right group of guys you are fighting with will help you not go down the dark path. What happened in Mai Lai, there were too many mentally damaged guys who just wanted blood and sadistic revenge upon innocent people who had nothing to do with their comrades previously being killed. It just takes one "bad apple" to lead the rest of the guys to commit the most heinous atrocities. But at the same time it takes only brave guy to stop them also. Cuttos to the helicopter pilot and his gunner who threatened to shoot the Charlie Group war criminals.
@@RobertJamesChinneryH Did you forget about the Royal Enquiry of the Canadian militaries in Somalia where they killed and tortured a 14 years old. The Americans brasses were saying that they used to look up to the Canadian army, before. We shouldn't think to high of ourselves. Nobody is without flaws and mistakes happens. FYI I was in Vietnam 1971/72, as a Canadian civilian working for the CIDA. I also worked in Somalia/Somaliland between 2006 & 2010.
@@jacq4jet well you edited your comment and claimed to have been 2 places of military involvement...you have a first and last name...that are the same...if what you say is true why not give your real true name
What happened in Mi Lai was an everyday occurence during the Vietnamese Conflict. Nobody would have known about it if a TimeLife photographer hadn't been there.
U.S. Army photographer for Stars and Stripes, Sgt Ron Haeberle, who later sold his photos to Life magazine. Haeberle was shooting both b&w and colour film that day; the b&w was Army issued film and had to be surrendered to his chain of command after the operation. The colour film was his own personal property and the Army didn't take it from him.
in 1968 a hooch maid asked me if I had heard about it My Lai . she said many American soldiers died as a result. I asked how? she said several generations of people related lived in one home and that people even had ancestor worship. They knew their relatives. When babies were killed in broad daylight it put many many formerly neutral men in the field. The troops they killed were directly caused by that massacre, her words were not exactly as I wrote them but the point is accurate to what she was telling me.
I spent 4 weeks with the second in command in 1989 December and he was a troubled man who was deeply immersed in the bible. He was in very poor health due to a heart condition but I found him to be a good person. He told me that this happened due to higher command constantly telling the platoon to take the village time and time again only to constantly loose fellow soldiers and then retreat. He told me that there was no chance of it happening again because they would be no village left when they had finished the assault. I fully understand the reason for there actions, but again the main reason was because of the higher command. RIP Pop
The U;.S. should have not have beein in the Vietnam War. The Gulf of Tonkin was based upon lies. There are also many People who claim that one reason JFK was Assassinated is that he did not want the US to have a WAr in Vietnam The Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower had warned about several years earlier had other Ideas.
@@HoldenNY22 poor training has results - results like this. We ran into the same problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, what we did not do was what he did, he was actually part of a lesson on lawful and unlawful orders.
All the Viet vets told me the same thing, "I just wanted to do my time and get the fxxk out of there." They said over and over again, that the US was not trying to win the war. Douglas MacArthur begged Johnson on his death bed not to go to Vietnam.
With 58,000 dead and 300,000 wounded, Vietnam veterans left a brutal hell hole and returned home to an ungrateful nation, rejected by society, including fellow veterans of other wars. We returned emotionally scarred, arms and legs missing, and now, a half century later, our minds still in pieces, with rampant suicide. Not everyone who lost their life in Vietnam died there. Our war was far from over, as 300,000 more died from Agent Orange exposure. We fought for decades in congress and the courts for war related injuries and just compensation. We welcomed ourselves home; disease and death came with us, and our country fought us. We returned to an inadequate V A healthcare system that would give us a second chance to die for our country. The U. S. gave Vietnam 110 million dollars to clean up the contaminated Agent Orange soil at Da Nang, another projected 390 million for Bien Hoa, where the soil had a toxic equivalency of 1000 times the international limit, while Vietnam vets back home are still being denied appeal after appeal for Agent Orange medical benefits. Vietnam vets will always be half veterans, relegated as losers, whiners, drunks, dope heads, and baby killers. As horrible and inexcusable as the My Lai massacre was, our optimus maximus was Executive Order 11967, signed on Jimmy Carter's first day of office as president. It pardoned the draft dodgers who fled to Canada, but not the deserters in uniform who fled the war, highlighting the signs of the times, the hatred for soilders in uniform and Vietnam veterans who pledged allegiance to this country. The Order fulfilled Carter's campaign promise to the American public at large, who spit on returning veterans as they held out their arms for help. The American public's response was finally put in writing, a slap in the face heard around the world. Again, My Lai was inexcusable. So was the inexcusable hatred and treatment of soldiers and veterans by their own country, soldiers who chose to fight rather than run. The winds of the times created low morale in Vietnam and back home. The American soldier in Vietnam became the escape goat for society 's ills. Walk a mile in our shoes, or shut the hell up.
@@harrycallahan692 The conflict started as a civil war. The U.S. chose the side of less evil. The war was complicated. The Viet Cong massacred 164,000 civilians between 1954 and 1975 in South Vietnam, which no one talks about. Our allies, the South Koreans, also massacred thousands (80 massacres), South Vietnam killed 45,000 of their own civilians, through accidental shelling and massacre. There was abusive treatment of American POW's at Hoa lo Prison, by North Vietnames regulars. The villages at My Lai and surrounding area, were known Viet Cong sympathizers. Weeks before the massacre, American soldiers were killed by civilians in the area. This came out in the trial of Lt. Calley. No one knew who the enemy was. Children would roll grenades on the foot soldiers. Bodies were booby trapped, both American and VC, by the VC. Respect for life was lost amidst the carnage, and death became the norm, desensitizing the strongest. The fighting was so fierce that the only cause left for the poor American soldier was to get home alive. There were stories, unconfirmed, of mutiny, refusal to follow orders. Morale was made lower because the American public turned against the soldiers, who were only following orders, trying to stay alive one minute to the next. The kill ratio was 20:1, in some battles 50:1 (50 enemy killed verses 1 American), bravery unmatched in any previous war, yet the Vietnam soldier was losing the public relations war at home. That is what matters. The enemy used this to their advantage, broadcasting "Hanoi Hannah" radio messages across South Vietnam, reminding us that this was not our war, that America, our own nation, hated us---"GO HOME G.I. and mend your fences." Morale slumped lower. Hour after hour, day after day, messages from Hanoi Hannah, "G.I., hear this. 200 of your friends went to hell today. 200 more were killed." Returning soldiers were shunned, spit on, by the public, and their government refused to give them medical benefits. The vets were not crazy. They were sick. They were begging for help. PTSD was not officially diagnosed until 1980, five years after the war. The returning soldiers, sick and rejected, committed suicide by the tens of thousands. There were news media stories of a few Veterans of Foreign War's chapters that refused membership to returning, highly decorated soldiers, calling them baby killers. The liberal news media fed on the confusion, adding fuel to the fire, taking pictures of little Vietnamese children running from napalm, when it was South Vietnamese soldiers that attacked the villages, suspected of being VC sympathizers. Soldiers snapped on both sides, including our allies, and the enemy. Hollywood and the news media, who supported WW2, joined the circus and hoopla against our soldiers and the cause. This is the back drop to My Lai. History is written by the victors. Vietnam Veterans were the losers. They do not get to answer back.
@@barbwire7449 Well Said and I agree. Two factors stick out in my mind. Truman should have never blown off Ho Chi Minh in 1945. Ho Chi Minh's primarily motivation was unification and independence. Truman instead stuck by France and the other Europeans with the fear of the domino effect that was never real. President Johnson had a huge hard on from the get go to get into Vietnam. Limitations were placed on the U.S. Military such as not being able to bomb Sam sites prior to their operation and not being allowed to put ground troops along the Ho Chi Minh trail along with other factors. Bottom line is that I still blame Johnson for his escalation. I believe if JFK was never assassinated he would have never escalated the conflict. As JFK said "It is the Vietnamese people's war to fight."
@@harrycallahan692 agreed. Lady Bird was connected to Brown and Root, contractor out of Texas. Brown and Root made multiple millions from clearing jungles for Air Force Bases and hundreds of other jobs. She has also been accused of being connected to various ammunition suppliers in Vietnam. Maybe you can confirm this?
@@harrycallahan692 Most Vietnam historians agree that during the time of Diem's reign, if the Vietnamese people had an election nation wide, then Ho Chi Minh would have won by great majority, even though he was communist, because most Vietnamese were Buddhists, and Diem was Roman Catholic. This is of most importance. If this is true, the U.S. chose the wrong side to defend. We actually helped to set up a usurper. We should have stayed clear of it. Diem was for democracy but was corrupt to the bone.
What of the other 500 in Vietnam alone? You write because you were called out. You. Were. Caught. AND got away with it. Tell it to the 3yo toddlers with exploded brains you creep .. YOU GAVE NOT ONE WORD OF SYMPATHY.
America is a rogue state. You are all stained. Iraq was no threat. Neither was Panama. You wiped out 20% of the population in DPRK. Grenada? Really. Get real.
i don’t even have to watch to hear “ your “ explanation. Troops were sick of seeing buddies killed, unknown, unseen enemy, a war they didn’t want to be in, the heat, hunger, dear john letters,.. shall I continue?
Other good topics to look into are the Massacres at Hue, the Dak Son Massacre which was part of the Viet Cong and PAVN Terror Campaign, the Brutality South Korean Military in Vietnam, and the horrors of the POW camps.
At the start of the war, the yanks were being advised by the brits and making progress. Then came a change of american government. The generals didn't like the British advising them so they got rid of them. Hence the length of the war and the defeat of the yanks. The reason the brits were advising was because the brits were the only western power to defeat the communists at their own game.
Communism had nothing to do with anything. It was just a boogeyman that they used to get simple-minded people on board with their endless wars for global hegemony. And you totally fell for it too.
No actually the most shocking thing about the Vietnam War was Congress shared the military strategies with the United Nations which gave them to the enemy we were supposedly trying to defeat.
@@johnmontoya8160, where do you think that line came from, duh? It didn't just materialize out of thin air, but from the Massacre of My Lai. Get your facts straight BEFORE you lecture someone. It'll be much less embarrassing.
this is the best known of the many atrocities that occurred. The Mekong Delta/Ben Tre etc had relatively brutal slaughters. the book, Shoot Anything That Moves is an example.
Really?? It's kinda like our culture today where our police officers have to just about shoot at anything that moves just to stay alive from all the criminal concealed weapons. They're getting killed left and right, just like in the nam jungles. Ya just can't tell the good guys from the bad guys. Walk in their shoes, then tell me about atrocities.
@@trallfraz i was in Viet Nam. Read "Shoot Anything That Moves" about the genocide in the Mekong Delta---an area that i am quite familiar with. The My Lai Massacre is just one example of what was a wide spread occurance. (As far as the American cops are concerned, we would benefit from learning how cops are trained I the UK, Germany, etc. Do you know that approximately 1,000 civilians a year are killed by cops? I am not anit--police, but when we see a wrong, we should do something about correcting a very correctable problem>}
that's why US army paid heavy price for it Vietnam War was a winnable battle, people of Vietnam did hate US that much , but US brutality did make people fight to death
500 murdered. 1 person convicted. 3 years served. The US should not preach about human rights and justice. There are such incidences at all the wars the US has been involved in and the result is the same. Hardly any serious conviction and sentencing.
00:00 Intro
01:40 Part 1, The facts
10:04 Part 2, Why did it happen?
To this day, this is brought up and explained in painful detail on military education classes in lawful and unlawful orders.
And we're reminded, "I was only following orders" is not a defense, if we wouldn't accept it from the Nazis for a defense, we most certainly cannot use it.
And why Bush the Lesser trying to suggest the contrary was rejected by the entire US Armed Forces.
That Lt Calley was miseducated or uneducated in the subject, that's on us as a nation and we're doing better. Hopefully, he's learned and appreciates being shown in example of precisely how easy it is to go wrong and end up in a legal morass that has no winner.
Seriously, when your own people and especially a pilot of senior rank lands to stop you, you might want to reevaluate what you're trying to do.
Whenever I got a dodgy order, I questioned it, explained my objection and if the officer was insistent, requested it written and signed or now, digitally signed e-mail with that order. Never had one stick to his guns, as then it's documented and I won't be taking the HEAT rounds.
Because that's just how America wages war.
@@BillOweninOttawa proving to all the dangers of illiteracy.
Because, that not only isn't allowable under US law, it's expressly forbidden under the UCMJ and every case now that was attempted was prevented, save for a couple that ended up prosecuted and convicted of war crimes.
The two cases that were prosecuted, pardoned by Trump, after multiple previous administrations refused to do so.
And what the US Army
was looking for there? Did Vietnam threaten the big USA???🤔🤭 I don't think so...
@Ricky 😩😫😥So sad...of course I know that but...
Hugh Thompson is a hero. He should recieve the medal of honor. The lightened sentence of lt Caley, proves there is no justice for the innocent and goverments dont care about justice.
Thompson almost gave his troops orders to kill their protectors and fellow Americans. It could be his fault we lost the Viet-Nam War.
Why don't you care about these people?
What people are you talking about?
The people that refused to shoot these lesser thans are cowardly traitors and they are not fun at parties.
In 1998, 30 years after the massacre, Thompson and the two other members of his crew, Andreotta and Colburn, were awarded the Soldier's Medal (Andreotta posthumously), the United States Army's highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy.
God bless helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson. The man and his crew were heroes that day…
I wonder if we'd have ever even heard about the incident if they didn't stop to look around. and how many times did similar atrocities occur?
@@tonym994 unfortunately that’s a question we’ll never get the answer too. How many Vietnam vets are going to hold their hand up 50 years later and declare they committed war crimes? Would you, I wouldn’t.
@@matty6848 no, but it's an interesting thing to ponder. I just the other day, saw Bobby Kennedy just before he died, on 'Face the nation', saying the South weren't pulling their own load, and that we were investing more of ourselves into that war than they were.
That's the only Thompson I've ever heard of that was worth a damn!
@@tonym994 yes agreed.
My ex found her dad's old postwar journal and brought it to me because I'm a big history buff. Her father was a point man in a rifle company that saw a lot of action in Nam. He was also the close friend of a soldier involved in My Lai. The main focus of the journal was her dad's struggles to help his friend deal with all of the legal, emotional, and psychological fallout from the massacre. It weighed on him just as much as his own experiences in the war. It still does.
the marines are still the victims no matter how many they murder yeah got it
I suspect that the military would appreciate that journal, if the parties involved would agree to share it for education of our forces in the prevention of such an atrocity and to the fallout of when we get it wrong.
It's a piece of history that should be treasured and shared, not forgotten in an attic.
Know how we know you're lying? You didn't provide any names 🥴🙌 all cap 🧢
@@spvillano Excellent point! ..but the military is already well aware of all the information in the journal and it didn't really have anything worthwhile in it. (I didn't actually learn anything that I didn't already know.)
It was mainly just my father in law journaling about how much it hurt him to watch his friend go through all of the legal battles and fallout. His friend was one of the people who didn't participate in the killing, so he was traumatized both by the event and by getting lumped in with a group of killers.
An ex girlfriend of mine. Her father was a nam vet who used to brag about having 72 confirmed kills.he told me openly how they used to keep the vc ears on a key ring.
For the life of me I don't understand how any American soldier could think this was acceptable.
they don't, but watch the film Breaker Morant, on the battlefield esp. in guerrilla war, atrocities on both sides happen easily, good men do things in war due to stress, anger, revenge, or bad leaders -- as a civilian I've seen horrible bosses abuse me and others, imagine what they could do in war! VN war was not popular war, I 'm 66 and recall it well, our soldiers had to deal with a terrible mess and then come home and be forgotten or reviled for serving
what do plain American(?) street thugs do when they get fed up of being oppressed by their democrat government?? Go out and riot, burn down businesses, and shoot people. The BLM, antifa, etc., egged on by Nancy pelosi, Shuck schumer, Comey, adler, Mad Max Waters, etc. Unfortunately MOST democrat cities in the east are this way, and gettin worse. So what don't you "understand"???
Do your tour, you can then find out first hand.
Your best bet is to never ask...
A lot of those soldiers were on mind alternating drugs ( Acid) Every night when the national news came on the first story was always about the number of troops reported killed in Vietnam that day.
@@RWald8888 so you were there and you saw soldiers on acid? What a fucking lie.
One factor that is often overlooked......in WW2 the average age of a combat soldier was 26. In Vietnam, it was 19.
Very good point. At 19, you probably still think like a kid and will do what any adult tells you. If they say it's right, you believe them. Even by the age of 26, a lot of people have a better idea of right and wrong and are more able to stand up for it.
WWII US soldier committed many atrocities and massacres. None were ever prosecuted either. Victor's justice. Age has nothing to do with it. All war is atrocity after atrocity after atrocity. There are no good guys.
@@gary7vn Can you provide any examples of WW2 American atrocities....if not, your point is invalid.
@@Martin.Wilson You’re helping his point
@@Slayer119988 How so....I know of no documented cases of atrocities committed by US soldiers during WW2.....Do you?
"The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human." - Aldous Huxley
Nothing can justify disgusting barbarism!
I understand how that war "played" with the soldiers minds, but this is disturbing on a different level.
May i suggest you read "The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today" by Thomas E. Ricks. He goes into detail about this massacre and exposes some even more disturbing facts: how the platoon leaders did not reign in their troops, because the company commander encouraged indiscriminate killing but the break down of leadership went beyond that. The company that committed this crime was part of a division that was the dumping ground of all the army's unfit and incompetent soldiers who were serving in Vietnam at the time. How discipline eroded, slow but steady, how the command of the division came to adopt a "why bother" attitude towards the every day problems of commanding such a problematic formation.
And sadly...this was a massacre that was well known. Imagine the towns and people that where just rolled over...and forgotten.
500 OTHERS
Do you mean at Huế ?
Agree .. I think it was was just one of many such horrible atrocities committed during that war.
Yep... if it hadn't been for Hugh Thompson, this probably wouldn't have been known about. Imagine all the other instances where no-one spoke up or took action to stop it.
@@gavinhedleygreenslade8209 yeah, and out, of ALL, those, so called, "Massacres", which some, probably were, but out, of ALL, of them, how many, had civilians, cooperating, with the NVA and Vietcong, to kill American soldiers.?? This is war, in a third world country. Wtf, do ya expect??🤔😒🤷
Hue Thomson and his men are hero's and I hope he has now been commended for his actions
Yes sir, I agree.
He was awarded the Soldier's Medal 30 years late.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr.#Recognition_for_actions_at_M%E1%BB%B9_Lai
Buried with honors, including 3 volley salute in 2006.
Absolutely.
Hugh Thompson and his crew were recognised by the US for his actions on that day in 1998. He died of cancer at the age of 62 and had been subjected to years of abuse for his actions and for attempting to bring the massacre to public attention. A great man poorly treated.
@@johnstirling6597 yep sounds about right there law always protects the bad guys never the good ones
The problem with this type of warfare is that when your enemy looks like civilians, all civilians start looking like the enemy.
Babies ? Raping and killing girls.. are you for real?
Babies look like the enemy?
@@jasonwilliams4159 Some people kill babies because they think that if the war lasts another ten years, then the babies will be old enough to shoot them. War is detestable, Brother.
@@MrJuvefrank I’ve never heard that before. Nobody does that as a strategy. They do cause they are sick
@@jasonwilliams4159 You can deny killing all you want, but killing of anything or anybody is what war entails; baby or not; pregnant or not.
You have every right to actively disobey an order if you think it contravenes the rules of combat or the Geneva convention. These troops were stressed to the max but NOTHING excuses killing innocent civilians, especially babies. This episode is a stain on American history and it still astounds me to this day that no-one was held accountable for their actions. Calley was given three years house arrest for ordering this horrendous action, absolutely sickening.
That's not how real life works in the US. Just look up the amount of warcrimes they have committed over the years, and what happenened to the brave men who denounced it.
The US still does this today. America actively sided with pederasts in Afghanistan. When two Green Berets beat up an Afghan security police commander because he raped a boy, they were both relieved of duty. Look up bacha bazi. It was a practice banned by the Taliban, but was used by US local Afghan allies. It's part of the reason Afghan people never fully-sided with the US.
Edit: Should point many US soldiers interviewed have been appalled that they're forced to side with child rapists. This example isn't a crime of the average serviceman, but a crime of US bureaucrats and high command. I'm not sure if that's more or less concerning.
The USA still does this stuff in the Middle East and here in Bahariterra they launched attacks on Dolphin Cay La Su Preschool.
Many Vietnam veterans say the same thing.
Mind you, he didn't serve the full sentence.
Sleep deprivation, nightmares when you do manage to fall asleep. Endless walking, chafing on parts of the body you didn't realize you had, silence, heartburn from the constant stress of knowing at any time there will be contact with the enemy. Occasional odd angry shot lands a target, one of your own. He goes down screaming in agony from getting shot in the intestines. You do what you can to help but he is still in agony and eventually passes out from the pain and morphine. Returning fire you don't know where it came from. the "thump" of the muzzle report was muffled by the foliage. After a mad minute of suppressive fire you only managed to kill some trees. When you blink your eyelids scrape against your eyeballs because they are so dry from a serious lack of sleep.
This becomes routine, now mix in a Sargent and or Lieutenant that wants retribution and it only takes a a small incident to escalate into a well armed, violent mob mentality..
Professional soldiers do better at resisting the urge to kill indiscriminately. That being said they are not immune. Conscripts with a few weeks training and no desire to be there on the other hand... results vary.
This isn't excuses, just a little perspective.
Your bullet must have bounced off a tree
^ Ric gets it.
And what about war crimes in tens of other countries after Viet Nam? US is evil.
That was the biggest tactic of the Viet cong. You simply couldn’t see them.. they knew the lay of the land too well…
The American military has form on this. Even years later in Iraq, they raped a 14 year old girl them massacred her whole extended family to cover it up.
Our country and media always portray the military as honorable and working for good. This war opened many eyes to how disgusting they can be. If the news , television, movies and politicians always want to promote the military , they should also tell us the whole story , the faults we did. When we point fingers at other people and countries , we first should at ourselves .
Sorry, my friend, but the sons of Adam kill each other and the first person was our first uncle Abel the Good
I was with the US Army CID and we were assigned to track down every soldier involved here in the Untied States. I know first hand that many should have been charged with Murder and weren’t due to the political climate. We developed strong criminal cases that just weren’t prosecuted.
So I take it that you were never involved in any actual combat where your life was at risk during your service in the Army.
@@biggootz Probably not worth answering, but I was in Vietnam 1967-68 and on active duty for twenty years. They’re Murderers. Absolutely no excuse for their actions. Troubled by what seems like you think they can be excused for their actions.
@@24Mossberg We will just have to agree to disagree and leave it at that.
@@biggootz which has 0 to do with investigating a massacre.
@@amaroq69 When you go to trial or court martial as it might be and you are gathering details for the prosecutor, you are going to be asked by the prosecutor what frame of mind was the person in that is being charged. His lawyer is certainly going to bring it up. Whether or not you have been shot at is going to give the investigator an idea of the charged frame of mind. If you remember, Calley was given a pardon and released because the charges were pure bullshit by the military looking for a scapegoat. A 1975 US Senate subcommittee estimated around 1.4 million civilian casualties in South Vietnam because of the war, including 415,000 deaths. Did Calley kill all of those civilians. 26 U.S. soldiers were charged with murder during the war in Viet Nam. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated, and were as young as 12. Out of those 26 only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted. It was a kangaroo court and an embarrassment and 24Mossberg and everyone involved knew it was.
That is war in a nutshell. If you think there are rules, you are a fool.
Unfortunately Lt.Calley was following orders and then made the scapegoat, no matter what he did follow orders or refuse too he was on the loosing end of the orders!! Everyone who has served in the Military knows how things like this work!
It was determined at Nuremburg that ''following orders'' is NOT a valid excuse or reason for murder. I have served in the US Army, and this is NOT how it works. The orders he received and what they did is a clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He was no scapegoat. He's no better than a Waffen SS officer who receives orders to burn down a Russian village and shoot up the villagers. It is too bad they didn't go up higher in the chain of command and find out who really is responsible for this shameful atrocity.
You not learnt anything from the Nuremberg Trials huh? Following orders … 😂🤣
No. He should have let the dog off the leash, only to the point where he determined there was no enemies on station. Instead, he let the situation control him, instead of keeping his focus on a legitimate fight, he lost his mind and unleashed hell.
rape mass murder isn't an order its an organisation of violence. if they defence didn't wash in Nuremburg how can you suggest 3 years home arrest is proportionate .
So true
Absolutely amazing video about a terrible event in history. The ugly truth is most soldiers don’t need that much of a push to commit atrocities.
For some the ability to kill woth impunity is literally the point of enlisting.... not assigning a percentage, but a not insignificant number.
USA still does this across the middle east and Bahariterra islands
All these comments, people who have never stepped foot into the military in their lives, apparently think they're experts.
@@robertortiz-wilson1588 I served in the Army, went to Iraq twice. You?
@@robertortiz-wilson1588
This film makes it look as if these soldiers just went there and killed civilians for the hell of it. That is not true.
My uncle once said to me that I did what I had to do to survive and in that type of environment ya had to be a monster and some people are good at being a monster. But he said to me in way that he was not proud of it. I'll never forget those words.
Massacred like the bear river shoshoni
Oddly enough the Brits who did bloody Sunday and 5 months before that in ballymurphy said the same thing, maybe that's why last year they laughed at trial how they used one of the dead men's skulls at ballymurphy as an ashtray. Yanks and Brits are a marriage made in hell.
That's the amygdala. Who can control it ?
That's HEAVY man... 💔
Yeah, sure, but my lai had bad intelligence and the units that entered those areas including arial units did not encounter resistance. Not sure what the point of your comment was but, it surely has no relation to this massacre.
I was a Crewchief on a UH-1H helicopter in 1969. Our mission was to bring in a group of reporters, cameramen to the My Lai area which was in our area of operation (AO). At the time we were asking ourselves, why My Lai of all South Vietnamese hamlets/villages? Anyway, My Lai was always a hostile area. No military aged men - just old folks women and children yet you could ways count on being shot at if flying anywhere in the vicinity of that area.
The media folks we brought in to investigate were all obviously scared in spite of the fact there were I believe two armored Cav units with a very large number of armored vehicles with their heavy machine guns, and what not pointed out and only about 10 feet between each vehicle. This investigation tied up a lot of Infantry and Cav to protect the news media. Anyway, roughly 2 weeks after we dropped off these media folks, the shit hit the fan and we all learned about the massacre. As a side note, my helicopter was not the only one to drop off and pick up the various media and investigative folks but I believe we were among the first (if not the first).
Wow James what a story sir. What was your initial reaction when you heard about the massacre.? It could of done the American troops already based there any favours whatsoever? I’d love to hear more of your experiences in Vietnam. Please.
But did you ever consider that was a tactic of the Vietnamese? To lure fire into civilian areas? Frustrating both civilians and the soldiers? Pretty sure that was the point. To cause such cases and turn the civilians against the southern government. My father served in the Americal Divison. The same one involved. He wasn't part of it, but he served with a few guys that were part of the massacre. Said back home at base, one of them would pace back and forth at night even in the pouring rain.
Thank you for serving James, welcome home!!
LBJ and his wife took control of Bell helicopter and made large investments in Genral dynamics just before he sent troops to Vietnam
Vietnam was never a threat to USA are anyone else
Just like Afghanistan and Iraq
Vietnam was the crime of the 20th century
Yall shoved that war down the throat of the Vietnamese people for money
@@billywylie3288 What does that have anything to do with this conversation? Nobody is denying it, but also, nobody was talking about that whatsoever. Its great you finally read a book, but, pipe down when its irrelevant to the conversation please. You know who is doing the same today? Russia. Now go make yourself useful in those threads champ.
I was trained by some of these guys in 78 when I joined the Army. Sad sad sad day for the US army
I was 10 years old when this happened.
My brother was in Vietnam 2nd tour.
8 years later I was called a baby killer while in California in the Marines.
It left a horrible stain on the military for years to come.
@@everydayisabadday Even in 1983 I got glared at in an airport wearing class A’s by some older suit. The Hara Krishna’s were very friendly though.
@@everydayisabadday
My Fantastic Brother was in Nam, I remember very well, the day we picked him up at the bus depot. Their had been a few Cowards that said a couple things to him, He just shrugged it off. He heard it that shit on many stops along the way getting home. I was however some what pissed off. People still done that garbage when I went in the Army in 77 also. People are just idiots I suppose. My Brother passed away due to complications he received in Nam.
Mark Allen Stewart ...... Sgt Army Vietnam Dec 17th 1950 to Dec 17th 2007
Rio Grande Valley State Veterans .... Hidalgo County Tx
Section 34 Row B Site 22
God Bless and keep you my dear Brother Amen
@@hoppes9658 😆
I was a medic back then,and still got called a baby Killer,all because I wore a Uniform.
rightly mf so. This was a war crime.
Sadly this happens in all war,war makes people savages 😢
People are already savages. The only reason you don't think you are is because you have 3 hots and a cot, and think you live a nice cozy suburban life.
Take that all away, put you in the worst environment known to man, and I will train a peerless messenger of death in 3- 6 weeks. Been there, done that, have the T shirts.
..which is what I keep saying to all the people who are blindly supporting the Ukrainian government just because Russia sucks.
In WW2, my American grandfather was dropping bombs on my grandmother in Berlin. After the war, he married an Italian. She married a Brit. They all became Americans and made my parents. I don't ever take sides in a war. I pray for the victims and curse the governments.
@@manofaction1807 I'm trying my best to understand what you're saying, trying to imagine what it must have been like over there. Of course as a civilian of the armed forces, I can't, not really. All I feel sure of is that nothing and no-one, could train me to kill an innocent child.
@@annA48126 If I took you into the jungle, desert, hell even your home town- dropped a few artillery rounds on you, shot you a few times in the middle of the night while your sleeping, dropped mortar rounds and killed half of your unit, sniped you, hit you with booby traps, and general all around bad stuff- YOU WOULD kill your own mother if the situation presented itself. It all goes to how far is your breaking point.
EVERYONE has one. It's just a matter of how far you're willing to take the hell of being in this situation that you found yourself in.
In that frame of mind- NO ONE is innocent, and the enemies lose human value. When that breaking point comes- it comes with no warnings or ideas that its coming. Solder just says fuck it, and puts it on rock and roll.
I know, because I've seen it. And it doesn't take much in the real world to see true evil.
@@manofaction1807 The reason I didn't include women along with the children was because I once read that occassionally the women could be as lethal as the men they were fighting. Did that make it easier to kill them too? Probably?
As you point out, everyone has their breaking point, and the terrible things they saw, and had to do, doesn't bear thinking about.
I will say this.I'm a totally non-violent person, but if anyone was a serious threat to me or mine, I like to think I would do all within my power to stop them..and that would include killing them.
But a child is different.
Totally.
Underrated channel, I wish you success!
I remember this, I was living in Chicago , I was about to graduate from High School. Now at 73, I think back at that and think about the Russian Ukraine War going on now. Makes me think, do we have to right to bad mouth the Russians for their war crimes, or the Ukrainians if they are doing some as well. War is hell, things cannot be controlled, let's just try the most to stay away from these horrible events!
Well, Calley was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced for his war crime. So, yes, we most certainly do have a right.
To say otherwise is to just turn a blind eye to every crime against humanity and just let it repeat itself over and over again until this planet runs out of people.
@@spvillano I think if you are a soldier with a weapon shotting at people both military and civilians and getting shot at by enemy military and civilians you have the right to bad mouth anything or anybody, because you are there and see what's going on. I you are sitting at home and watching all these goings on TV with a beer in your hand you have absolutely no right to badmouth anyone and just keep your trap shut! You wanna have the right to comment, join the armed forces and go fight!
@@dc10fomin65 I'm a retired military veteran (Navy) and I completely disagree with you.
@@cycologist7069 I am totally proud of you, very good you have all the right to agree or disagree with me or anybody else. You are exercising your constitutional freedom of speech, unlike one of our political parties that will not allow you this right, best regards and keep doing the "right thing" !
@@dc10fomin65 I did over 20 yrs and retired and I agree with you. It's hard for some to understand what's happening on the ground when they spend their career in the water.
What I've always found most egregious about this incident (other than the atrocities themselves, of course) is the way a disturbing number of ordinary Americans actually *DEFENDED* William Calley after the news eventually broke. "This is war!" "The enemy is the enemy!" It was absolutely disgusting. According to historian Rick Perlstein, one father and son who were watching reports of Calley's trial on TV perfectly exemplified the generation gap on this matter. The father growled, "If he'd done that in World War II, they'd have given him a medal." His teenaged son turned to him and retorted, "Yeah-if he were a Nazi."
It's the worst you've heard about. There were worse incidents but have been well covered up. Military intelligence made many horrible mistakes and what was thought as an enemy stronghold was nothing but an orphanage. You don't go knock on the door and see when your told this you wipe it out and move in on it. Sadly then it's to late. I knew men who suffered horribly for the rest of their lives because of this and not one ever had any children.
And you call them mistakes?
The actual horror of this is that it wasn't an isolated incident. Many such slaughters occurred. This touches on that fact. It isn't pretty.
you don't actually have to commit a massacre just because intel was wrong...you know that right?
@@alfonsobaglioni1391 It was POLICY. This one was just the tip of the iceberg
“Policy”? Yeah sure lol
Hugh Thompson is a hero and his crew 🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊☮️☮️🦉🌈
I went to the village in Vietnam in 2004 it is a really beautiful place with it's rice patties and palm trees. They kept the village as a kind of memorial.
IV also been a few times 🇲🇦🇲🇦 and the people are lovely and very affible. Again America got away with mass murder. They just couldn't ever beat the Vietnamese, and had no right getting involved 🤡
I've heard from other Americans who have been there that they don't hold a grudge against America either which is nice. It isn't rational to hold people responsible for what happened before their time, but emotions aren't rational. My grandfather hated every single German on Earth until his last breath.
@@MakerInMotion both the Vietnamese and Khmer people are very affible. IV been a few times. The reason they don't hold a grudge is because they 👊 the American's. My grandfather also hated the Germans,he was involved in Africa and obviously France 🏴🏴
There is something dark in the human heart to willingly revert to brutality.
Especially when you're in a kill or be killed environment. I can't speak to Vietnam but can about Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately you've gotta have a dark heart to function.
That IS the human heart. There's nothing dark about it. It can happen to anyone, at any time.
@@manofaction1807 BINGO. Sad but true. Everybody is capable of the same tricks when given the means. Human nature.
@@manofaction1807 no one's saying that. But you gotta dehumanize the enemy to be able to kill them. Again this is my Iraq and Afghanistan deployments, not Vietnam. Yes, everyone has it in them. People's who think otherwise are ignorant.
I was 40 miles north of My- lia in Phu-thi. When this happened. That whole area was hot the Korean Tiger Division. Shut down the road going south of our compound and the Ammo Dump we were guarding south twords that area. Every night because they lost a 50truck convoy. In that area at night. . They were feared by the VC AND North Vietnamese army NVA ...you see THE Tigers were bad. Born during the Korean war and where fierce fighters. You didn't mess with these people. Hell Phu/-thi 2miles from our compound was off limits to American troops off duty. The most American Force where killed in the Tet offense 1968 the night I got in country then My Lia was 3 months after I got in country. RVN 68-69. The press lied about everything we did in Vietnam. We never lost a battle. Some college graduates Draftees in the army came up with the bad intelligence on this village.a lot of things happen that should not have happened. But I was there in the Nam where you. They protested us coming home from Vietnam and
called us baby killers now they are All pro choice. 100,000of my brother s have taken their own lives over that war VA stats 1996. In 1978: I was a 1st responder to Jones town Guyana. 900 people took their own lives for one man Jim Jones. Makes you wonder about humanity
GOOD
thank you for your service sir.
@@gavinhedleygreenslade8209 good what?
I was not there. What happened, good or bad cannot be taken back. And as always sir, thank you for your service to this great country.
I was growing up during that and watched both the media coverage and listened to my cousin when he finally got home from the war.
And since, even read some still classified reports for some other duties that that information was relevant for.
Conscript forces, shitty training in the laws of warfare, it was an absolute recipe for disaster that we should've learned from a similar case during the Korean War.
But, we finally learned that lesson and this is used in our classes on lawful and unlawful orders. As in, a full day on it.
Last I heard, Calley's living in Florida somewhere. OK, I have an idea, but really am not about to look it up, as that's over. He was convicted, he served his sentence until his Nixon commuted sentence was completed, it's done and over with, he paid his debt to society.
I was a kid but I remember this because we had family members over there fighting and they detested this. I went in the Army in July 1974 hoping to go but I never made it since we were pulling out. Very sad time
The actual horror of this is that it wasn't an isolated incident. Many such slaughters occurred. This touches on that fact. It isn't pretty.
If only Americans would stop enthusiastically signing up to go kill babies in countries they never heard of, and whose names they cannot pronounce, then, then the world could have a chance for peace. As it is? No. And now you are going after Russia.
Yanqui go home. Stay there.
I was too young for Vietnam but had a few older friends that served , poor guy's where never quite right after that .
My Uncle died from drugs and alcohol issues he developed as a Marine in Vietnam. Dad has always said his brother went to war and never really returned.
Respect to the soldiers who refused to kill the civilians,and thank you for sharing that,it lets us know that there are still good soldiers out there who have good morals🙏
None refused except those who caused self-inflicted wounds and escaped the event. Many were afraid if caught doing that (self-inflicted) they would be killed by their own. It was easy for Thompson to do what he did... He wasn't in the bush in fear of the enemy and their squad. So being a Hero is overstated by far.
In times of war it’s always the civilian population and the working class that suffer the most.
It used not be the case, but I think over the 20th century on conflicts proportionally the number of military casualties fell, and the number of civilian deaths rose.Now you are far safer being a soldier, than a civilian near or on a battlefield.
12:40 So, the soldier in the middle, being helped by his buddies, was the only American casualty at Son My / My Lai that day. He had been shooting children with his Colt .45 pistol when it jammed. He accidentally shot himself in the foot while trying to clear the stoppage.
Ref: "Four Hours in My Lai" (1993) by Michael Bilton and Kevin Sim
Excellent news! Lets hope the wound got infected. The thought of him being in excruciating pain and being badly affected for the rest of his miserable life can only be a comfort to many. Rest in terror you coward.
Very good summary sir. What you related is much like how I remember it at the time. Although none but those involved truly know exactly how it it went down the rest of us bore wittiness to the consequences.
Hugh Thompson is a friggin HERO
Hugh was a hero indeed. He passed away.
@@kortgreen7725 legends never die
In every sense of the word 💪
He should have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Rest in peace Mr. Thompson. If heaven exists, then surely thou art there.
I've never been in the military, so I can only try to imagine, being completely immersed in the deadly insanity of war...
How long might it take for otherwise normal men to surrender themselves and become a part of the insanity? I suppose it just depends on what they've been through. Normal, healthy people wouldn't do this sort of thing just to be cruel.
It would require being immersed in a reality that is utterly unimaginable to the rest of us.
That's usually the case. The Viet Cong also disguise themselves as civilians then attacking the Americans. Older soldiers were tired of this so they just look at whoever is suspicious and shoot them
@@work90 Anyone who looks suspicious? A baby for instance?
@@robinhazell6019 well Robin, it's fookin obvious it's plain stoopid and sadistic to kill a baby. I don't have to spoon feed you every atom of explanation
As a military brat that grew up on Marine bases. even played army with them guys. have searched for decades what that war was really about I got my answer in audiobook. kill anything that moves.
The actual horror of this is that it wasn't an isolated incident. Many such slaughters occurred. This touches on that fact. It isn't pretty.
It was hell there, drove our boy's nuts on both sides, none of it should've ever happened.
Thank you Hugh Thompson
Yes it was war but who really derective this 🤔
@@chrisduhaime5689 communism
Beasts deserve to be haunted by their savage acts
America made it a hell. And then did the same in a dozen other countries.
It's sad that some soldiers are ill enough to do this.
It's worse when the hierarchy doesn't do something about it.
Now, please check out these FACTS that are on the Web: "In 250 years of existence as a nation, the US has fought against 29 sovereign countries. (In Fact, since 1785, we have been involved, for 231 years, in some kind of war. And this wars, against all varieties of nations. From going against the Sultan of Morocco, to invading the tiny island of Grenada. Well, this means that in our entire history, we have only had 17 years of peace, and even fewer, cuz here the almost 5 years of our Civil War (Union/Confed 1861‒1865), are Not counted, since this war was not with another country, but against us. And the wars against the Native Nations of America either are not counted, for the same reason). Anyway: We fought against 29 countries. We have "Grown" 711 the size of our territory from the original 13 colonies. Our Economic, Political and Military development was established thanks to the Piracy, the Slavery, the Massacres, the Opium Trade or Cocaine Traffic, and the Weakness of many abused sovereign nations. We have provoked with total impunity, 12 Genocides ‒inside and outside our own borders‒, and Assassinations of Gov’t. Leaders, Coups d'État and Economic Blockades in 6 UN member nations. Between 1947 and 1989, the US tried to change other nations gov’ts 73 times. It includes 66 covert Ops. And 7 overt ones. In Civil Wars: The US has taken advantage of and intervened without justification in the following Civil Wars: In Marquesas Island. (Massacre. 1813). US Forces seize Nuku Hiva Island (French Polynesia 1813), and establish here «The First US Naval Base», in the Pacific. This historical fact is important, cuz in 1813, the US had NO Territorial Land nor Maritime Rights in the Pacific Ocean, until 1848, when the US seized California and other Mexican territories facing the Pacific. In Haiti (1813 and 1901 and then 1915-1934-2001). In Hawaii (1889 and 1890-1893 and 1901). ruclips.net/video/C2bjjwv4134/видео.html. In Cuba (1898 and 1901-1902 and 1906 and 1913 and 1952 and again 1960). In Colombia (1899-1902 and 1948). In Mexico (1836 and 1847 and 1886 and 1904 and 1914 and again in 1916). In Russia (1918). In the "Republic Banana Wars" of Central America. (Massacre. 1912-1934). In Honduras (1903 and 1912 and 1919 and 1924-1925 and again 2009). In Venezuela (1936 and 1945 and again in 1948). Military Coup in Peru (1948 and 1967). In China (1857, and 1900, and 1913, and again in 1945-1946-1949). In Korea (1950-1953). In Vietnam (Massacre and Genocide. 1959-1975). In Panama (1856, and 1903, and 1964-1968, and again 1989). In Brazil (1959 and 1964). Coup and Intervention in Guatemala (1944, and 1954, and 1966, and again 1982-1985). Coup and subsequent Fascist regime in Greece (1967). The Hunting for Che Guevara, in Bolivia (1968). The “Bombing of Laos” (1971-1973). US Military assistance in the Coup in Bolivia (Copper Mining Co. 1971). Entry of US Troops into Nicaragua (1937 and 1972-1973, and 1983 and again 1995). Coup in Chile. Salvador Allende. (Genocide. 1973). Terror in Uruguay. (Genocide. 1973). Support for the regime of Moboth, in Zaire (Genocide. 1974). Attack on Cambodia (Kampuchea. 1975). Argentina (1976-1986). Support for the cannibal Jean-Bédel Bokassa, in Central African Republic. (Genocide. 1979). We, the US, assistance Saddam Hussein against Iran. (One Million dead in ten years. 1980-1990). Support and funding of the Khmer Rouge. (Genocide 1980). In Bosnia (1995)... In Libya, Palestine, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, in Kosovo, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, etc. And more: We have almost 800 Military Bases scattered around the world; 93 of which are against China. On the other hand, China and Korea (The "Axis of Evil"), in 1,000 years of history have NEVER invaded anyone. These nations have fought their Civil Wars, defended themselves against foreign invasions, and secured their immediate borders, but they have never been meddling or aggressor countries. China is a Nation of Peace. China does NOT Attack anyone. China does NOT Invade nor does it Steal territories of other sovereign nations. China does NOT Intervene in any neighboring nor distant country. Do you know how many Military Bases China or Korea have outside their territory? None. Zero. Any. NADA! They do not have a single Base. These are verifiable facts. Neither China nor Korea will invade the world; We do... that's DONE, as we do in the Middle East. Iran also does not have a SINGLE MILITARY BASE outside its national territory, and it is surrounded by 16 US Bases, and it is we who call the Iranians Terrorists. LOL --And now, we have ANOTHER WAR on our doorstep, for trying to inaugurate another Military Base in the Ukraine... WHO CARES!!! "War is a Business".
@@salvadorvizcarra769 Nice summation.
@@billmasters385 Would be interesting how Chinas neighbours interpret some of this and any parallels with Mexico/Cuba etc. Tibet, India, SEA have experienced Chinese military
@@salvadorvizcarra769 China never invaded Tibet? interesting … Mao murdered 70M of his own people … I guess honesty in history doesn’t matter
@@salvadorvizcarra769I’m sorry if what I said after this not related to My Lai Massacre, but I think you’re a little bit off the fact China is the same as America. As a citizen of Viet Nam, I have to disagree with you about the part that “china does not attack or invade any country”. If you do more research on the south east asia region, you’ll find out that china actually a dominant beast that conquered Viet Nam almost 1000 years in the 10th century and even to this day 2022. They also did that to Hong Kong and Taiwan too. According to Viet Nam’s Government, China currently attack and take possession of 80% of Paracel Island ( Hoàng Sa group islands) which originally belong to Viet Nam, some part of the furthest land in the north of Viet Nam too. Also in 1989, the secretly fund the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia to attack the border of Viet Nam, ending up is another massacre just like My Lai. That’s why America always has conflict with China, because they are the same dominant beast, only in different areas of the world.
I'm a proud Brit and we do have a wonderful history, but we also have dark periods in our long history, too, that no sane Brit could ever be proud of.
This was a very dark day in America's young history & no sane American would make any excuse for it. It doesn't, however, change my mind that, on the whole, America & its people are a force for good. 🇬🇧 🇺🇲
An American might be a good person. America as a whole is an evil empire, nurturing and exporting corruption and degeneracy.
DJC, I agree completely. No country is without shame. No entire country should be blamed for the actions of a select group. Cheers, mate.
I totally disagree, I as well am proud Brit and if you knew half the shit America has done to all these countries you would be surprised.
In the end, the war achieved absolutely nothing.
Hi, there, this war made money for people who make weapons, boots, uniforms, aircraft, and helmets. It taught one of my brothers how to care for the wounded.
@@MrJuvefrank Agreed, it made a select few very wealthy. With all due respect to your brother, he could have learned that in medical school or at the local hospital as well.
God bless Hugh Thompson 🙏 🙌 ❤
Just shows you war crimes can and does happen NO matter what country and yes yanks even the US and for the US it did not stop with this.
Listen folks, for all of you who've really no clue about what it was like on the ground in Vietnam during that time please know this: THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY ZERO WAY TO DETERMINE WHO WAS VC, WHO WAS NVA, AND WHO WAS A CIVILIAN!!! And to most us troops they couldn't really care less anyway after watching the atrocities done by the vc and nva. If it breathed it died, that was it. And none of us who weren't there have no place even having an opinion. I was not there either, I was only a small child at that time, although I have people extremely close to me who were there, boots on the ground. I witnessed first hand the sleepless night, the nightmares, the ptsd that came of that war. It's just a shitty situation for all involved. Just know those young soldiers saw and experienced things that drove them, that forced them to that insanity....
The French had also been there and been beaten, just like the US. Difference was that the US did not take heed of an French knowledge ~ why should they , being the US Forces, who were also soundly beaten
The British prime minster at the time Harold Wilson adviced America to not get involved, he told them it was an unwinnable situation. Had they listened lots of brave American young lives woud have been prevented. But typical American bravado without thinking proved him right. It had nothing to do with Britain being afraid, it was more to do with common sense.
@@andyb.1026 We were not ”soundly beaten”. The American army won every single major engagement in that war. Every. Single. One. politicians wouldn’t let us win. They were more worried about public opinion than they were about our troops. Don’t comment on things which you obviously know nothing about. Makes ya look really stupid.🙄
I guess a three year old boy who had his head shot off looked like a real killer eh?
We can have an opinion given the information and facts on display.
Sadly we shouldn’t have been involved in that war. Many
Americans that were in that war have terrible consequences of nightmares and ptsd to this day
Agreed
Well, This was the Cold War and South Vietnam was our Ally.
Only 3 men had enough honor to do something?
No matter the country this just goes to show you how sick man can be!!
RIP Thompson, Colburn, and Andreotta.
I’ve never understood the brutality of men in war. These same men have mothers, sisters, daughters.. infant children. Another nation doing it is heinous but we all turn a blind eye when we’re in another country.
It is a sad thing but day after day of fear and seeing soldiers die. It changes them . Most still have humanity but some do not . Then under so much pressure they unwind and thier humanity falls away and they become unhinged. It happens in all wars to some extent but when the enemy might look like a civilian all civilian's become enemies. It I think helped bring about the public change needed to end the war. It was a terrible thing and went unpunished as far as I see.
Study human history and you will understand
I F I MADE TO LEAVE U.S.A. I CRY
Because you are not a man
@@wufongtanwufong5579 all rapists in war or not deserve beheading. There is no excuse to dehumanize someone’s mother or daughter or even son.
My Lai is the most known american war crime in Vietnam, but there were countless others on much smaller scale. I did my military service 1978/79 serving in the (West) German Army Aviation. Once we were on maneuver with the helicopters of the US 1st Cavalry division which had served Vietnam. Since i had seen the films where the helicopter gunners fired at targets on the ground i asked one of the crew chiefs how they determined who was a combatant and who wasn´t. His answer was short and shocking: "We didn´t!"
That is very disturbing, but not surprising. Vietnam should have ended any ideas Americans occupy a moral high ground in war. They
His reply is b/s i served in nam from 70 to 72 1st aircav your info if bull shit
@@caseykennedy9434 So your door gunners were trained snipers who would deliver a precise shot at an identified legal target instead of firing rounds of machine gun ammo at the presumed position of an enemy? And of course you would admit killing civilians, wouldn´t you?
@@brontewcat Yes the killing of civilians was disgusting Google Hue massacre that was much worse than this .
@@Elephantsss I will do that. As I under it there were quite a few war crimes that were not publicised.
Several items of interest emerge here that were not mentioned by the Press:
1. US Soldiers were being killed by villagers gathering information about the former and passing it on to the VC.
2.Innocent civilians and babies were used as walking time-bombs and explosives transports.
3. No effort was spared by the Chinese in aiding and abetting the NVA and the guerrilla VC. The Chinese were using the same tactics as the Arabs in Israel without regard for human life.
While Lt. Calley's troops took reprehensible actions,nobody,but nobody, was ever court-martialed in North Viet Nam for using babies as shields.
and your source is ???? US Media
@@andyb.1026 The same people who truthfully reported all the news that fits: US Media.
@raymond frye what the hell was America doing in a country more than 5000 miles away?
@@zoltan7771 Interesting question. BUT, I can't tell you anything except it was just business.
My point is that the press never covered both sides of the issues.
@@andyb.1026 If you want, I can give you the title of the books that explain how these practices took place and are still used today by terrorists or would you rather me just have a Nam vet explain it in great detail. Because unlike you, I have sat with Nam vets and listened to what they went through. What they do now when using babies and kids as bombs is they inject every know virus and big they can get their hands on, so when the child explodes, their bones become hazardous shrapnel laced with those viruses. So if you survive the blast, you're still dead from the pending infections.
There is a book called Tiger Force.. it talks about some of the atrocities committed by a small recon platoon of the 101st airborne... Interesting /revolting stuff...the book really shows you how much your environment and your fellow soldiers actions can turn you into a savage
I read '4 hours in MY LAI', and I recommend it.
I read Tiger Force a few years ago....still have it. It was an eye opening read about the military strategy of the Vietnam War. The difference between Tiger Force and My Lai was that Charlie Company was ordered into Son Mi to disperse a suspected group of Viet Cong. Tiger Force was organized solely to kill and destroy any Vietnamese who had already been ordered out of a select area, but ignored the order.
Maybe they were savages way before they set foot on a battlefield.
@@bigman88george3 some were but what I'm referring to are the guys u see detest the savagery and then slowly give in to it... You just have to read the book to understand
The actual horror of this is that it wasn't an isolated incident. Many such slaughters occurred. This touches on that fact. It isn't pretty.
the helicopter crew and his own pals in the air above are heros BTW. you should make a video for them in tribute they saved life's at a cost to there's
They were hated by most Americans at the time.
I've seen or read a few things about Vietnam in general, and My Lai in particular. You have to read as many sources as you can, before you start to really get a grip on what happened. As far as My Lai, read the book "Kill Anything That Moves" (author ??). Like most crimes, it's NOT the first time it HAPPENED, just the first time they were CAUGHT. According to that book, atrocities were NOT unusual; the attitude was, "What HAPPENS in the field [i.e.Vegas] , STAYS in the field". And if somebody DOES make a report, or a charge, either the command squashes it, "reassigns"/penalizes somebody, or "kills the messenger". "Onesies and twosies", are NOT uncommon; whether it's a legitimate mistake, or a crime. And when nobody can tell "good-guys" from "bad-guys", pretty soon, EVERYBODY are "bad-guys", and consequently, nobody cares about them. My Lai was just the first time it happened on THAT scale, where the command COULDN'T squash it, and where there were pictures... COLOR pictures; so fresh the blood hadn't even congealed yet. It OCCURRED 2 months after Tet (Jan 68), but didn't come to light for another year; AFTER the assassination of Dr. MLK (April 68), and Senator RFK (June 68), and I THINK, after the release of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg. The reporter for "Stars and Stripes" who took the photos, surrendered the B&W camera he was issued, but KEPT his personal color camera, and agonized over a year, about what to do with the pics. If I recall correctly.
As I heard one Vietnam vet put it, "In a war zone, ANYTHING can happen; people die ALL THE TIME. And if an order is GIVEN to kill people, and you're there to kill people ANYWAY, then what difference does it make? All you know is, you got drafted, fed a bunch of PR CRAP, that bears NO RESEMBLANCE to the truth you see on the ground; that nobody is serious about winning ANYWAY; and all you want to do is survive long enough to go "back to the world"; whatever that takes. That's why veterans don't talk about they see, or do. Because nobody would believe what happens, unless they were THERE; and SEEN it. And the last thing they're going to tolerate, is to have someone look at them, like they have a 3rd eye in the middle of their head. It's like a surreal nightmare, you can't ever wake up from. You could no more survive THERE, with civilized society's laws, than you could survive HERE with THOSE rules."
It happens in EVERY war, on EVERY side, because the only rule, is to win; as NOT winning, means losing body parts, or going home in a box. Give a 19-year-old the power of life and death, train him to kill, let him see his friends get maimed, or killed; put him into a guerilla war, where friend/foe all look the same, and nobody is SERIOUS about winning, just "playing the game"; except that it's your LIFE, and WATCH what happens. You wonder why some vets become alcoholics, or drug addicts, or commit suicide? Because guilt is a terrible thing; and as the years go by, sooner or later, they start asking questions about why they went to war, and the circumstances around that decision. And as they are on a mission to know the truth, when it finally dawns on them, the justifications for what they may have done disappear, and all they're left with are pretty ribbons, photos, and a mountain of emotional baggage, that they can't fix, or tell anyone about.
Remember that, next time you hear the gov't beating the war-drums. If it was YOUR son/brother/cousin, etc, you'd feel different. And that's WHY Congress is SUPPOSED to DECLARE WAR, and not just appropriate money for a never-ending "conflict".
Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam by Nick Turse. Keep an open mind for anyone who reads above mentioned book.
@@ew3rivera112 I've read the book and it's a damning indictment on Christian America.
Brilliant comment!
Well said
LBJ, McNamara et all thought it could be won based on body count etc. our men fought well, but we could never break the enemy's will to resist, they held on till we had to leave due to polit. pressure at home, it was a terrible war for all
Not even a mention of the Atrocities committed by the NVA/VC. Why???
Because the author is a safe space revisionist. Telling the story from only one biased angle.
Because this video is about American atrocities
No American ever chopped off arms of children that were given vaccines by the NVA/VC.
My Lai was only one of many similar incidents that continued throughout the time of the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam. With more than 3 million Vietnamese dead in the Vietnam War, 2 million of which were civilians, this can be easily seen. The American escalation of the war from 1965 onward insured that millions of Vietnamese civilians would be killed or injured, and they were.
The USA is still doing things in the middle east over oil and here in Bahariterra they tried to launch artillery into Dolphin Cay La Su Preschool.
All i could say to those US Troops who are responsible to what happened to this poor people.’KARMA IS COMING TO THEM’ whether they are alive right now or not!😡😡😡
And because of the VietCong essentially using civilians as human shields.
@@robertortiz-wilson1588 don't try to justify murder. Just go to Bahariterra and seem
@@robertortiz-wilson1588 that’s an old one 😂 sounds like u seem to support these crimes
Every member of the specific platoon responsible should be rounded up, and sentenced to life in prison, today. That goes for the troops who did it, and those who stood by and let it happen, instead of standing against it, or at least running completely away from it, and informing the proper authorities of the situation. Those that stood against it, should recieve the highest medal in the land because it takes way more courage to stand against your own troops when you know they are in the wrong, than it does to fight against a known enemy. The only reason I wouldn't push for an even tougher sentence is because in such a brutal, sadistic, and chaotic environment, there is no way to know exactly who did what, but since they acted as a rogue gang, they should be punished as a gang. No matter the war, civilians are off limits, period. Especially with America being #1 in the world, we have to be held to a higher standard. Can't let a few crazy soldiers put Americans in a position to be looked at as barbaric. That was barbarism. I wasn't even born at that time, and I'm embarrassed. Who ever the group of soldiers were, who committed such a vile act, they didn't serve their country, they embarrassed it.
Have you ever served in combat or even served at all if not keep your opinions to yourself war is terrible the stress is a killer turning against your own could get you fragged look it up if you don't know what fragged means
@@w.va.patriot9118 yes, war is terrible...I get it ..but why rape the young!!!???..no excuse dude..barbaric and evil...should be hanged .that was not an order from the superiors...do you have young daughters???..hope not...
@@Lovinlife1234 I do and I taught them to shot to kill
@@w.va.patriot9118 you taught them to shoot to kill...especially if they are being raped high??!!..now you get my point!!
@@w.va.patriot9118 I have & what happened is totally inexcusable! Fragging is a pussies way to get the behavior of what small minded people want. Much like a woman beater!
Did Medina go on record and confirmed that those are his words? “Anything walking, crawling…….”
Hugh Thompson was a real man that day. Real men of war know are the end of the day war is just business. All of us dying for a belief and a side that we strongly believe in. Nobody is wrong nor right in the situation but one thing is for sure women and children shall and always will be off limits. Unless you pick up a weapon to harm me or mine you’re no foe to me.
And for his trouble, most Americans, lost in a sea of war propaganda, and drunk on American exceptionalism, hate him for what he did.
The brutality reminds me of what the SS and their einsatsgroups did at the eastern front in WW2...
Any man who raises his hand in a threat to women and children deserves firing squad. Shame on those men.
How about when those same women and children are combatants?
@@sirridesalot6652 that obviously not the context of the video.. but I believe that everyone has the right to defend themselves if necessary
You should also be telling of all the atrocities of the VC on villages, which were more often and gruesome than this.
groan hope you have nice life
Your source ??? USA Media !!
How the f__k could they have been any worse?
@@charlesciminera5881 whole villages of women and children rounded up for non-cooperation. Burning them alive, placing their heads on stakes, etc. Their brutality was well documented. The civilians were in between a rock and hard place. Help the VC and be spared, or be neutral/help the U.S. and be killed by the VC. Read a non-biased history book. You'll find many on this subject.
Dad did three tours USMC 68-69-70 mom was a nurse USAF 69-70-71 they did not see each other nor were they married , mom is gone now but dad is still here. We are in forever dept to our vets.
While their actions were wrong i won't judge those that have seen hell and lived to tell about it. No doubt some of those men were severely affected by the horrors that were happening around them.
Do you judge the Russians soldiers invading Ukraine? Do you judge the German troops who invaded Russia in the 40s? The Japanese in China during then 30s?
That you're trying to understand what happens to men in combat is commendable. That still doesn't justify it. It does however go a long way towards explaining it. Something most that have never experienced war aren't able to understand. While many come home physically many never return psychologically.
I don't judge them, as they were already judged and convicted. I do judge some politicians, who denounced those who stopped the war crime as traitors, but not too much, as they're dead and on to other judgement.
@@clicheguevara5282 invading isn't the soldier's choice, they receive lawful orders to conduct warfare by their lawful superiors in the government. They don't get to choose their wars, they only get to follow their lawful orders. Debate is for the civilians, not the military.
Their conduct while conducting said war is on them, the lawfulness or not of the orders to invade is on the leadership, each as it should be.
So, Russians in Ukraine committing war crimes are criminals. Germans who invaded Russia and committed warcrimes were criminals. Japanese in China, boy, that's a laundry list of war crimes that were prosecuted thoroughly and quite a few hanged for their offenses.
@@spvillano You're missing my point. (Maybe I should have been more clear in my original comment) I'm simply asking if his principles are consistent. If he can be non-judgmental about My Lai, then he should also be non-judgmental about the Waffen SS in Eastern Europe. ..and I'm not talking about the invasion itself. I'm talking about the atrocities committed by soldiers during said invasion. That's why I used those specific examples.
The last minute explaining their hardship and fear as a primary motive to enact this massacre is not justification. Nor is it really logical. There are millions of guys in each war who served under way worse conditions and never could fathom doing this. This was a pure act of immature, sociopathic, indiscriminate violence. They knew better. In every single way they knew better. There is no excuse.
Over 2 million civilians killed. All by Americans? I think not. I’m sick of hearing about My Lai. What happened happened. It was war and bad things happen in war, any war. War knows no age, race or gender, everyone is fair game sad to say. It’s ugly, brutal and bloody. It’s the nature of the beast. I know I was there that year.
Does that include killing innocent little children and babies
B.S.
When are you going to make a documentary about the 3 or 4 thousand civilians murdered by the NVA during the tet offensive of 1968?
That goes against his “America bad” narrative.
Although I don't have a lot of videos, I think you can at least to a reasonable degree conclude that I don't have a bias towards making videos that make one single nation or country being portrayed as inherently evil in some way.
Unfortunately if the right conditions are met almost anyone is capable of commiting gruesome acts of violence. What I try to do with my videos is not only to honor the memory of victims of war, but also to determine what conditions make a normal individual lose control in certain situations.
Again, that is what I am trying to do, but because of the limitations of this platform and my own lack of knowledge in many areas, maybe I do not achieve the goals I set out for myself.
In conclusion I will plan to make many videos in the future that center around similar topics, and which won't have the narrative "America bad" labeled over it.
@ Seek History, it’s worth the research. My platoon was friendly with a family that we found murdered shortly before the tet. They killed about 20 people in their family village except for one 11yr old girl. She identified a man from a neighboring village (a vc known to the s Viet police) as being there when her family was murdered. As luck would have it, I killed a NVA major a few days later about 2 miles from there. The S Viet police had her look at his body, and she identified him the one who shot them with his pistol. That is in my gun cabinet, along with his recruiter flag. Many more examples out there peace to you and yours.
Being i was in the Army from 1977-1982 this story always bothered me. When I was 10 I remember this being on the tv and then I remember throwing up with the pictures they showed on tv of the massacre. When i was in the Army I learned a lot and met a person who was involved with the My Lai massacre. He and a few of his friends did not participate and they were shunned by the military and the Government for telling the truth, That haunted them until their deaths. When you tell your men to kill people then those who ordered it should be held responsible they said Caley was charged with 100 deaths when there were over 500 deaths that should tell you something. Our Government was screwed up then and are now period. Those innocent people in those villages did not deserve this and those who killed them all 26 should of being held accountable but they weren't and that is the sad facts.
The US government can't help themselves. They choose to tell lies when the truth would suffice. Vietnam, The Gulf Wars, Afghanistan: All we got was lies told to us. These people will never stop lying.
26 men killed 500 people?
You never heard of the massacre? try wikipedia.@@bluelax99able
I'm Vietnamese. I'm 27 years old. I couldn't stop crying while watching this video.
Absolutely horrific what they did. Heart goes out to your people 🙏
@@DC94359 Thank you
@@changnguyen3377 yes I've heard. I'm from Ireland have two friends who travelled through Asia they loved Vietnam said it's a must see. Some day il be there. ❤️
Chang Nguyen, why doesn’t the commie government mention the atrocities the VC and NVA committed? I was there I saw the results of their butchery. Are those that were around back then not allowed to speak out? Are they imprisoned or worse if they do? Those that rag solely on Americans are ignorant
@@davidgarcia-hq3el Could you provide me with some evidence to prove what you said? Do you know that My Lai massacre is only a tiny part of the great crimes committed by the US military in my country? Vietnamese has the freedom to speak out if the government does the wrong thing. Don't mistake Vietnam for China.
Body count was absolutely one of the worst ways to gauge the progress of victory in Vietnam. Soldiers, desperate to go home, and commanders, desperate to win, fully committed to providing as many bodies as possible. Why would it matter if it were 'innocent people' or ' enemy soldiers ' - by the time of My Lai, everyone was the enemy, and you wanted to go home.
There were T-shirts available at the time which had this printed on them, "Waste them all and let God sort them out".
"Some men were born to be killers and some were made to be killers but no ordinary men were killers" as quoted by a family friend, a Vietnam Vet who was a close friend to a soldier who disobeyed the order to kill civilians in My Lai
A soldier who does not carry out orders deserves punishment, he made his conscience and his mind control him
Very high quality content. Keep it up and you’ll be big one day
The vietnamese were screwed. They sided with the nva the us killed them and burned their village. If they sided with us. The nva did the same.
@@thomasrudd6435 what?
Okay, I used a generalization. Not all were so callus.
If you look, callys boss told him to do that. Callie was still responsible.
France wanted the us to nuke them.. We had no business their. My brother was killed their in a motor attack on their patrol.
@@thomasrudd6435 I have no clue what ur on abt I just said I liked the video 😂
There is no legitimate reason for killing civilians. However, it is a shame that the war crimes of the Viet Cong and NVA against South Vietnamese civilians were never reported to the same degree as was the My Lai massacre.
It is legal to kill civilians who are acting in direct support of the enemy war effort, i.e. civilians working in an enemy munitions factory, civilian merchant mariners transporting war materiel, etc...
@@David_Rafuse
No it is not. If they stop & you aim your firearm at them posing no immediate threat to you, you DO NOT have a right to take one's life. The same rules apply to combatants.
God bless Mr. Thompson and the rest of his crew !
the Communists have set up a big museum in Mai Lai.....and a makeover of the community.....and a series of photos.....sadly they did not set up one, in Hue, where they killed 5,000 civilians, durning Tet, of 68...
Not much different than the more recent POW camp, is it? That one had several women who acted the same way
There's a movie, "Taxi to the dark side" about a guy they were after without any evidence.
Also, what was that old study at that college where the prof assigned various kids to be jailers or convicts? They do exactly the same as they can get away with.
Interestingly, even former slaves will do just this. Whether for profit or other reasons.
Excellent video: thanks. Every war is a real hell , but Vietnam war was more ...God bless all victims
I think back on that time and I remember the public support for Calley and hatred for him as well. I think its because most of us don't see it. If you saw a child head blown open or women raped, old men, women killed mothers. I think if we see it it effects us. I remember the terrorist in Paris a few years ago, who stole a truck an ran over and murdered many people. I saw a video the day after it happened of someone walking down that road filming the bodies, it was horrific the footage. Then it was removed for being to grafic. I believe they should show these raw events as they are. It would make good people want justice.
In 1977, in the US Army in Germany, I was in a class given by Calley's defense lawyer, about the treatment of civilians in wartime. He in no way wanted the job, defending Calley, but as a JAG lawyer, had no choice. His class was all about compassion and empathy.
Too graphic?
We just had nineteen 10 year olds murdered in Uvalde, Tx by an 18 year old with an AR15….(like the M-16s that were used to murder the civilians in a GRAPHIC manner at Mi Lai ). Yes, the doctor that attended to the murdered children said that the condition of the children that were killed was GRAPHIC….if it would have been my child that was GRAPHICALLY murdered…..I would have insisted that pictures of my child no matter how graphic, be displayed on every billboard and tv station all over the world. Maybe this would stop the GRAPHIC MURDERS happening today in our churches, our schools and our society.
God will judge these murderers in the end.
Just learned something new today...
"Why did it happen?" C Comp. lost a few men in that area around my lai (in weeks before My lai) by ambush snipers and Bobbytraps, Frustration, Revenge, war brutalise young Men, dehumisation of the enemy a`la "Our side is the good side and the enemy is the pure evil in flesh they are not even Humans" !
Forgot Drill, extensive Drill is an important part to make them following orders even inhuman orders, makes them mercyless, harsh , hard and with Drill comes punishment, then let them loose and bad things happen.
Eugen Kogon in his Book "The SS State" wrote about the effects of harsh Drill and punishment during SS guard training, the SS used such mearsure to make the Guards harsh and brutal , when they send them to KZ`s as Prisoner Guards they were in Payback modus .
such massacres happen on every side in every conflict/war, for example NVA and VC massacred a Montagnard Village, with no mercy they killed Kids , Womans , Babys and elderly they "roasted" the native Tribefolks with Flamethrowers, Google at "Dak Son" massacre or another case, after NVA/VC was driven out/beaten in Hue during TET and Hue was secured by the Marines and ARVNs (Rangers?) they found massgraves with between 2000 -6000 bodys in dozens of massgraves.
The skin of civilision is very thin and under the skin we are nothing more the animals.
Speak for yourself buddy...a former Canadian soldier who served proudly -and was taught the rules of land warfare and the Geneva convention
@@RobertJamesChinneryH is this a draft dodger joke or are you being serious?
@@b-ballfanatic7988 Yeah, also a former Croatian soldier, American born, who went back from the safety of Chicago to fight in the Croatian Homeland War in 1991 at the worse possible place - the Battle of Vukovar. I witnessed with my own eyes daily for over 3 months all the horrors of war and massacred women and children by the various fractions of the Serbian military. Also spent 137 days in the Serbian POW (read concentration) camp Stajicevo and Nis after the fall of Vukovar. I was beaten and tortured almost every day while imprisoned. Nevertheless, a thought hadn't even occurred to me during the siege of Vukovar to kill the Serbian civilians who were with us in Vukovar, nor did it occur to me later when Croatia won the war in 1995 and we liberated most of the country from the Serbian occupation during the Operations "Flash" and "Storm". NOBODY in any of my units touched any civilians and every prisoner of war was treated according to all the Geneva Convention Rules and beyond. When the ICTY in the Hague conducted the research of my unit during the war 1991-1995 I am proud to say that they found no foul play nor did anyone get indicted for anything. One of my soldiers even protected (risking his life) a Serbian woman who served as a Fifth Column and constantly called in artillery or air strikes on our positions with a hidden radio station at her condo. She stayed in large a bomb shelter which we defended with our lives, we shared our food and water with her and the other civilians and every chance she got, she went back to her place and called the Serbian Military on her hidden radio short-wave relay machine to tell them positions of my soldiers which resulted in the direct deaths of at least 4 of my soldiers and several civilians. How did we discover she was a spy? One of those artillery attacks she called in, her Serbian boys hit her condo with two 120mm mortar shells and when we went in to check if anyone was hurt we found the short-wave radio-station with her book of codes amongst the ruins of her bathroom. Upon hearing about this all the civilians who were in the shelter with us wanted to lynch her and I had to intervene with several of my soldiers in order to protect her . Later before the Serbs occupied the town, we just let her go because I couldn't let someone shoot her in the back (and there were plenty of volunteers). Of course, she later lied to the Serbian TV how we arrested and tortured her "for no reason but being a Serb" but she managed to escape. The reason why I'm telling all these details (and there were many other similar stories like this) is to show that even in the worse fog of war you can remain a human being. And if you are struggling to do so then the right group of guys you are fighting with will help you not go down the dark path. What happened in Mai Lai, there were too many mentally damaged guys who just wanted blood and sadistic revenge upon innocent people who had nothing to do with their comrades previously being killed. It just takes one "bad apple" to lead the rest of the guys to commit the most heinous atrocities. But at the same time it takes only brave guy to stop them also. Cuttos to the helicopter pilot and his gunner who threatened to shoot the Charlie Group war criminals.
@@RobertJamesChinneryH Did you forget about the Royal Enquiry of the Canadian militaries in Somalia where they killed and tortured a 14 years old. The Americans brasses were saying that they used to look up to the Canadian army, before. We shouldn't think to high of ourselves. Nobody is without flaws and mistakes happens. FYI I was in Vietnam 1971/72, as a Canadian civilian working for the CIDA. I also worked in Somalia/Somaliland between 2006 & 2010.
@@jacq4jet well you edited your comment and claimed to have been 2 places of military involvement...you have a first and last name...that are the same...if what you say is true why not give your real true name
Hugh Thompson is a freaking hero that's the truth
Put Major Thompson on a plane to Viet-Nam. Don't let him come back until he's won the war.
What happened in Mi Lai was an everyday occurence during the Vietnamese Conflict. Nobody would have known about it if a TimeLife photographer hadn't been there.
U.S. Army photographer for Stars and Stripes, Sgt Ron Haeberle, who later sold his photos to Life magazine. Haeberle was shooting both b&w and colour film that day; the b&w was Army issued film and had to be surrendered to his chain of command after the operation. The colour film was his own personal property and the Army didn't take it from him.
in 1968 a hooch maid asked me if I had heard about it My Lai . she said many American soldiers died as a result. I asked how? she said several generations of people related lived in one home and that people even had ancestor worship. They knew their relatives. When babies were killed in broad daylight it put many many formerly neutral men in the field. The troops they killed were directly caused by that massacre, her words were not exactly as I wrote them but the point is accurate to what she was telling me.
I spent 4 weeks with the second in command in 1989 December and he was a troubled man who was deeply immersed in the bible. He was in very poor health due to a heart condition but I found him to be a good person. He told me that this happened due to higher command constantly telling the platoon to take the village time and time again only to constantly loose fellow soldiers and then retreat. He told me that there was no chance of it happening again because they would be no village left when they had finished the assault. I fully understand the reason for there actions, but again the main reason was because of the higher command. RIP Pop
Don't Blame the GRunts. Blame the HIgher Ups.
The U;.S. should have not have beein in the Vietnam War. The Gulf of Tonkin was based upon lies. There are also many People who claim that one reason JFK was Assassinated is that he did not want the US to have a WAr in Vietnam The Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower had warned about several years earlier had other Ideas.
@@HoldenNY22 BL
ME BOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@gavinhedleygreenslade8209 I don't know what your response means? Could you please clarify?
@@HoldenNY22 poor training has results - results like this.
We ran into the same problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, what we did not do was what he did, he was actually part of a lesson on lawful and unlawful orders.
All the Viet vets told me the same thing, "I just wanted to do my time and get the fxxk out of there."
They said over and over again, that the US was not trying to win the war.
Douglas MacArthur begged Johnson on his death bed not to go to Vietnam.
With 58,000 dead and 300,000 wounded, Vietnam veterans left a brutal hell hole and returned home to an ungrateful nation, rejected by society, including fellow veterans of other wars. We returned emotionally scarred, arms and legs missing, and now, a half century later, our minds still in pieces, with rampant suicide.
Not everyone who lost their life in Vietnam died there. Our war was far from over, as 300,000 more died from Agent Orange exposure. We fought for decades in congress and the courts for war related injuries and just compensation. We welcomed ourselves home; disease and death came with us, and our country fought us.
We returned to an inadequate V A healthcare system that would give us a second chance to die for our country. The U. S. gave Vietnam 110 million dollars to clean up the contaminated Agent Orange soil at Da Nang, another projected 390 million for Bien Hoa, where the soil had a toxic equivalency of 1000 times the international limit, while Vietnam vets back home are still being denied appeal after appeal for Agent Orange medical benefits.
Vietnam vets will always be half veterans, relegated as losers, whiners, drunks, dope heads, and baby killers. As horrible and inexcusable as the My Lai massacre was, our optimus maximus was Executive Order 11967, signed on Jimmy Carter's first day of office as president. It pardoned the draft dodgers who fled to Canada, but not the deserters in uniform who fled the war, highlighting the signs of the times, the hatred for soilders in uniform and Vietnam veterans who pledged allegiance to this country.
The Order fulfilled Carter's campaign promise to the American public at large, who spit on returning veterans as they held out their arms for help. The American public's response was finally put in writing, a slap in the face heard around the world.
Again, My Lai was inexcusable. So was the inexcusable hatred and treatment of soldiers and veterans by their own country, soldiers who chose to fight rather than run.
The winds of the times created low morale in Vietnam and back home. The American soldier in Vietnam became the escape goat for society 's ills. Walk a mile in our shoes, or shut the hell up.
We can blame President Johnson for most of this. His escalation of the conflict was outright wrong!
@@harrycallahan692 The conflict started as a civil war. The U.S. chose the side of less evil. The war was complicated. The Viet Cong massacred 164,000 civilians between 1954 and 1975 in South Vietnam, which no one talks about. Our allies, the South Koreans, also massacred thousands (80 massacres), South Vietnam killed 45,000 of their own civilians, through accidental shelling and massacre. There was abusive treatment of American POW's at Hoa lo Prison, by North Vietnames regulars.
The villages at My Lai and surrounding area, were known Viet Cong sympathizers. Weeks before the massacre, American soldiers were killed by civilians in the area. This came out in the trial of Lt. Calley.
No one knew who the enemy was. Children would roll grenades on the foot soldiers. Bodies were booby trapped, both American and VC, by the VC. Respect for life was lost amidst the carnage, and death became the norm, desensitizing the strongest.
The fighting was so fierce that the only cause left for the poor American soldier was to get home alive. There were stories, unconfirmed, of mutiny, refusal to follow orders.
Morale was made lower because the American public turned against the soldiers, who were only following orders, trying to stay alive one minute to the next. The kill ratio was 20:1, in some battles 50:1 (50 enemy killed verses 1 American), bravery unmatched in any previous war, yet the Vietnam soldier was losing the public relations war at home. That is what matters.
The enemy used this to their advantage, broadcasting "Hanoi Hannah" radio messages across South Vietnam, reminding us that this was not our war, that America, our own nation, hated us---"GO HOME G.I. and mend your fences." Morale slumped lower.
Hour after hour, day after day, messages from Hanoi Hannah, "G.I., hear this. 200 of your friends went to hell today. 200 more were killed."
Returning soldiers were shunned, spit on, by the public, and their government refused to give them medical benefits. The vets were not crazy. They were sick. They were begging for help. PTSD was not officially diagnosed until 1980, five years after the war. The returning soldiers, sick and rejected, committed suicide by the tens of thousands.
There were news media stories of a few Veterans of Foreign War's chapters that refused membership to returning, highly decorated soldiers, calling them baby killers. The liberal news media fed on the confusion, adding fuel to the fire, taking pictures of little Vietnamese children running from napalm, when it was South Vietnamese soldiers that attacked the villages, suspected of being VC sympathizers.
Soldiers snapped on both sides, including our allies, and the enemy. Hollywood and the news media, who supported WW2, joined the circus and hoopla against our soldiers and the cause. This is the back drop to My Lai.
History is written by the victors. Vietnam Veterans were the losers. They do not get to answer back.
@@barbwire7449 Well Said and I agree. Two factors stick out in my mind. Truman should have never blown off Ho Chi Minh in 1945. Ho Chi Minh's primarily motivation was unification and independence. Truman instead stuck by France and the other Europeans with the fear of the domino effect that was never real. President Johnson had a huge hard on from the get go to get into Vietnam. Limitations were placed on the U.S. Military such as not being able to bomb Sam sites prior to their operation and not being allowed to put ground troops along the Ho Chi Minh trail along with other factors. Bottom line is that I still blame Johnson for his escalation. I believe if JFK was never assassinated he would have never escalated the conflict. As JFK said "It is the Vietnamese people's war to fight."
@@harrycallahan692 agreed. Lady Bird was connected to Brown and Root, contractor out of Texas. Brown and Root made multiple millions from clearing jungles for Air Force Bases and hundreds of other jobs. She has also been accused of being connected to various ammunition suppliers in Vietnam. Maybe you can confirm this?
@@harrycallahan692 Most Vietnam historians agree that during the time of Diem's reign, if the Vietnamese people had an election nation wide, then Ho Chi Minh would have won by great majority, even though he was communist, because most Vietnamese were Buddhists, and Diem was Roman Catholic.
This is of most importance. If this is true, the U.S. chose the wrong side to defend. We actually helped to set up a usurper. We should have stayed clear of it. Diem was for democracy but was corrupt to the bone.
I feel awful for my brothers that served after this happened- this slaughter put a huge stain on those of us who served-
What of the other 500 in Vietnam alone? You write because you were called out. You. Were. Caught. AND got away with it. Tell it to the 3yo toddlers with exploded brains you creep .. YOU GAVE NOT ONE WORD OF SYMPATHY.
It wasn't too great for the villagers of My Lai either.
The actual horror of this is that it wasn't an isolated incident. Many such slaughters occurred. This touches on that fact. It isn't pretty.
America is a rogue state. You are all stained. Iraq was no threat. Neither was Panama. You wiped out 20% of the population in DPRK. Grenada? Really. Get real.
great video, horrible atrocity. keep it up man
The USA still does this, you know. Just look at Afghanistan and the Bahariterra islands.
i don’t even have to watch to hear “ your “ explanation. Troops were sick of seeing buddies killed, unknown, unseen enemy, a war they didn’t want to be in, the heat, hunger, dear john letters,.. shall I continue?
Other good topics to look into are the Massacres at Hue, the Dak Son Massacre which was part of the Viet Cong and PAVN Terror Campaign, the Brutality South Korean Military in Vietnam, and the horrors of the POW camps.
yes they were all shit
No one’s ever ready to discuss VC or NVA war crimes
@@SMERSH_BERSHYep, They are always ready to talk about an American Genocide that Never Even Happened
@@SMERSH_BERSH the VC and NVA dint come to America to murder you
Interesting video 👍 I like this channel! Hope to see alot more videos come out.
At the start of the war, the yanks were being advised by the brits and making progress. Then came a change of american government. The generals didn't like the British advising them so they got rid of them. Hence the length of the war and the defeat of the yanks. The reason the brits were advising was because the brits were the only western power to defeat the communists at their own game.
Citation needed
Communism had nothing to do with anything. It was just a boogeyman that they used to get simple-minded people on board with their endless wars for global hegemony. And you totally fell for it too.
The American Government didn't want to win that war; they wanted it to last longer.
No actually the most shocking thing about the Vietnam War was Congress shared the military strategies with the United Nations which gave them to the enemy we were supposedly trying to defeat.
Their philosophy was "Anyone who runs is a VC. Anyone who stands still is a well-diciplined VC." That is the worst part.
That’s a line from a movie…
Who you trying to fool. That's the scene from the movie full metal.
@@johnmontoya8160, where do you think that line came from, duh? It didn't just materialize out of thin air, but from the Massacre of My Lai. Get your facts straight BEFORE you lecture someone. It'll be much less embarrassing.
The My Lai massacre was in 1868. Full Metal Jacket came out in 1987, based on the 1979 book, "The Short-timers".
@@christophergraham3160 so the words come from a book. Right.
this is the best known of the many atrocities that occurred. The Mekong Delta/Ben Tre etc had relatively brutal slaughters. the book, Shoot Anything That Moves is an example.
Really?? It's kinda like our culture today where our police officers have to just about shoot at anything that moves just to stay alive from all the criminal concealed weapons. They're getting killed left and right, just like in the nam jungles. Ya just can't tell the good guys from the bad guys. Walk in their shoes, then tell me about atrocities.
@@trallfraz i was in Viet Nam. Read "Shoot Anything That Moves" about the genocide in the Mekong Delta---an area that i am quite familiar with. The My Lai Massacre is just one example of what was a wide spread occurance. (As far as the American cops are concerned, we would benefit from learning how cops are trained I the UK, Germany, etc. Do you know that approximately 1,000 civilians a year are killed by cops? I am not anit--police, but when we see a wrong, we should do something about correcting a very correctable problem>}
that's why US army paid heavy price for it
Vietnam War was a winnable battle, people of Vietnam did hate US that much , but US brutality did make people fight to death
Jesus christ man. God bless hugh Thompson.
A true American hero if there ever was one
@@SeekHistory What a good man he was! He needs Honouring.
500 murdered. 1 person convicted. 3 years served. The US should not preach about human rights and justice. There are such incidences at all the wars the US has been involved in and the result is the same. Hardly any serious conviction and sentencing.