Mỹ Lai massacre

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Residents of M Bewohner Lai shortly before they were murdered (March 16, 1968)
Vietnamese Civilians Murdered in the My Lai Massacre (March 16, 1968)

The Mỹ Lai (Son My) massacre was a US war crime committed on March 16, 1968 in the Mỹ Lai parish of the village of S Dorfn Mỹ , called My Lai 4 , during the Vietnam War . The US Army initially covered up the massacre of 504  civilians . Only after research by the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh did the event come to the public, although the publication of the report had initially been rejected by all media for about a year. Hersh received the Pulitzer Prize in 1970 , and the publication was instrumental in changing public opinion about the war.

A criminal court proceeding against the armed forces involved did not take place.

course

On March 16, 1968, a group of American soldiers from Task Force Barker had the order to capture Mỹ Lai, village of Sơn Mỹ, Sơn Tịnh county, Quảng Ng Provinzi province and to search for fighters of the Viet Cong , as the residents from the point of view of the US The military were seen as potential supporters of the Viet Cong.

The soldiers raped women and murdered almost everyone in the village: 504 civilians, including numerous children, women and old people. All animals were also killed. Only a few soldiers refused to order the murder. It was not until the US helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson , who was on a reconnaissance flight, that the soldiers were forced to spare eleven women and children: he threatened to let his gunner Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn fire their MG at the American soldiers if they continued killed. Then he brought the rescued to safety. The helicopter crew was honored for their intervention; the honors were upgraded to the Soldier's Medal thirty years later .

Dealing in the US Army

When Captain Ernest Medina prepared the units of Task Force Barker for the next day's operation in Quang Ngai Province on March 15, 1968, he belittled the "Excursion to Pinkville," the Army nickname for My Lai it is a matter of using his “common sense” and cleaning up an area “in which Charlie has no business”.

Immediately after the crime, senior officers tried to cover up the massacre. According to official reports, “around 20 civilians were accidentally killed” in My Lai in the course of fighting against the Viet Cong.

In April 1969, Ronald Ridenhour , a war veteran who had heard of the massacre while on duty, sent letters to various members of Congress and General for Vietnam, William Westmoreland . This prompted an internal investigation, which in September led to the indictment of William Calley , officer in charge of the operation . A Defense Department press release said Calley had been charged with offenses against an undetermined number of South Vietnamese civilians.

Public disclosure

The first reporting took place 14 months after the massacre, but did not yet reflect the full extent of the incident. When the Department of Defense issued a press release on Calley's indictment, the major American newspapers published the news but did not attach particular importance to it.

Significant for the perception were research by Seymour Hersh, who had been made aware of the internal investigations of the army, visited Calley and had detailed discussions with him. At first, the major media did not want to print Hersh's reports, which is why he distributed them in November 1969 through a small news agency called Dispatch News Service . These first reports coincided with the major anti-war demonstrations in Washington, DC. Only later did a detailed article about the massacre appear in Life magazine . Newsweek and Time magazine then reported on the incident. The world public reacted in shock. Seymour Hersh received the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1970.

The articles were illustrated by shocking images by photographer Ron Haeberle . He took part in the operation as an official army reporter to provide evidence for the military statistics known as " body counting ". The officers identified the photographed corpses as fallen Viet Cong fighters. However, no Viet Cong were found in the village and there was no resistance. Nevertheless, the army was extremely satisfied with the operation, as there were no deaths on the part of the US army and only one injured soldier. It was the soldier PFC Herbert Carter , who is said to have shot himself in the foot in order to be evacuated from the scene by MedEvac . According to official announcements, there were allegedly 128 Viet Cong dead on the other side. The helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson, who stopped the massacre by force of arms, spoke in interviews of 400 to 500 bodies he had seen.

Only four soldiers were tried in a military tribunal. Only Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court on March 31, 1971 , but was put into house arrest by US President Richard Nixon the following day , before he was pardoned in 1974 .

effect

Nguyen Thi Tau, killed in the My Lai massacre

The publication marked a significant turning point in public opinion on the Vietnam War, both in the United States and throughout the western world, and was instrumental in mobilizing the anti-war movement .

Today there is a small documentation center on the site, in which the events of that time are objectively presented. Next to the former village there are two well-kept buildings, a school and a cultural center. They are built and maintained by American Vietnam War veterans.

Tim O'Brien has processed the events of the My Lai massacre in his novel Secrets and Lies .

See also

Film and radio documentaries

Film adaptations

  • Paolo Bertola: Company of Death (original title "My Lai Four" / feature film from 2011 and based on the book by Seymour Hersh)

literature

Web links

Commons : My Lai Massacre  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 15 ° 10 ′ 27.7 ″  N , 108 ° 52 ′ 54.2 ″  E

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Murder in the name of war - My Lai. In: news.bbc.co.uk. BBC, July 20, 1998, accessed September 30, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Michael Marek: When the dams of the human broke NZZ Online, April 14, 2008.
  3. ^ Lutz Herden: Excursion to Pinkville . Friday March 14, 2008.
  4. ^ Hammond, William: Reporting Vietnam. Media and Military at war (Lawrence 1998), 188.
  5. ^ Hammond, William: Reporting Vietnam. Media and Military at war (Lawrence 1998), 189.
  6. ^ Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1998, (in the American original: In the Lake of the Woods ).