My Lai massacre

On the morning of March 16, 1968, soldiers of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, entered the hamlet of My Lai, part of Son My village in Quang Ngai province, South Vietnam. Expecting to find a Viet Cong battalion, they found only civilians, mostly women, children and old men. Over about four hours they killed between 347 and 504 people, according to U.S. Army and Vietnamese counts, shooting them in ditches and huts and committing rapes. No weapons were found. Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson landed between the soldiers and fleeing villagers and ordered his crew to cover them, saving some lives.¹²⁴

The killings happened in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, in a province where Charlie Company had lost men to mines and snipers and where commanders measured success by body counts. The official report described a victory with 128 enemy killed. A brief inquiry by the division found nothing wrong, and the Army's reports buried the truth for more than a year. In March 1969 former soldier Ronald Ridenhour, who had heard accounts from comrades, sent letters to Congress and the Pentagon.⁴⁵

In November 1969 Seymour Hersh broke the story, and photographs taken by Army photographer Ronald Haeberle appeared in print. A commission led by General William Peers concluded in 1970 that there had been a massacre and a cover up at multiple levels, finding that at least 30 people knew of the atrocity, of whom 14 were charged. Only Lieutenant William Calley was convicted, in March 1971, of murdering 22 civilians. Sentenced to life, he served about three and a half years, mostly under house arrest.²³⁴⁵