My Lai Massacre: the Need for an International Investigation
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Catering to the Silent Majority the My Lai Massacre As a Media Challenge
JANA TOPPE Catering to the silent majority The My Lai massacre as a media challenge Free University of Berlin 10.10.2011 Intensive Program: "Coming Together or Coming Apart? Europe and the United States in the Sixties" September 12 – 24, 2011 Session 6: Lessons of Vietnam and Military Reform Session Chair: Professor Dr. Mark Meigs, Université de Paris-Diderot Table of contents 1 Introduction…………………………………………………..…1 2 Vietnam, the administrations and the media…………….….…..2 2.1 Bone of contention: media coverage of Cam Ne…….……..2 2.2 Nixon, Agnew and the troubles of television………………4 2.3 Expendable lives: Media dehumanization………...………..7 3 Uncovering the atrocities of My Lai……………………….….10 3.1 The media‟s role in publishing the massacre – a tale of hesitancy and caution……………………………....11 3.2 Source: “The My Lai Massacre” - Time, Nov. 28, 1969….17 4 Conclusion…………………………………………………….19 5 Bibliography…………………………………………………..22 5.1 Sources……………………………………………...……..22 5.2 Secondary Literature………………………………..……..22 6 Appendix………………………………………………………23 Jana Toppe 1 Catering to the silent majority 1. Introduction In March 1968, the men of Charlie Company entered the village of My Lai under the command of First Lieutenant William Calley with the objective to „search and destroy‟ the Viet Cong believed to reside there. The village was instead populated by unarmed South Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children, who were then massacred by Charlie Company. The incident was kept under wraps by the military for a year until an investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh, uncovered the story in 1969. The revelation of the My Lai cover-up and the expanding press coverage was not the watershed moment or turning point in press coverage as one may be tempted to think. -
Bearing Witness to the Inhuman at Mỹ Lai: Museum, Ritual, Pilgrimage
Vietnam: Memories and Meaning How to Cite: Tamashiro, Roy. 2018. Bearing Witness to the Inhuman at Mỹ Lai: Museum, Ritual, Pilgrimage. ASIANetwork Exchange, 25(1), pp. 60–79, DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/ane.267 Published: 31 May 2018 Peer Review: This article has been peer reviewed through the double-blind process of ASIANetwork Exchange, which is a journal of the Open Library of Humanities. Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Open Access: ASIANetwork Exchange is a peer-reviewed open access journal. Digital Preservation: The Open Library of Humanities and all its journals are digitally preserved in the CLOCKSS scholarly archive service. The Open Library of Humanities is an open access non-profit publisher of scholarly articles and monographs. Roy Tamashiro ‘Bearing Witness to the Inhuman at Mỹ Lai: Museum, Ritual, Pilgrimage’ (2018) 25(1), pp. 60–79 ASIANetwork Exchange, DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/ane.267 VIETNAM: MEMORIES AND MEANING Bearing Witness to the Inhuman at Mỹ Lai: Museum, Ritual, Pilgrimage Roy Tamashiro Webster University, US [email protected] This article explores how the Sơn Mỹ Memorial and Museum and its associated community activities and programs commemorate and memorialize the 1968 Mỹ Lai Massacre and its aftermath. The museum provides space for reflection and bearing witness to the profound suffering in the Massacre. -
My Lai Massacre 1 My Lai Massacre
My Lai Massacre 1 My Lai Massacre Coordinates: 15°10′42″N 108°52′10″E [1] My Lai Massacre Thảm sát Mỹ Lai Location Son My village, Son Tinh District of South Vietnam Date March 16, 1968 Target My Lai 4 and My Khe 4 hamlets Attack type Massacre Deaths 347 according to the U.S Army (not including My Khe killings), others estimate more than 400 killed and injuries are unknown, Vietnamese government lists 504 killed in total from both My Lai and My Khe Perpetrators Task force from the United States Army Americal Division 2LT. William Calley (convicted and then released by President Nixon to serve house arrest for two years) The My Lai Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Mỹ Lai [tʰɐ̃ːm ʂɐ̌ːt mǐˀ lɐːj], [mǐˀlɐːj] ( listen); /ˌmiːˈlaɪ/, /ˌmiːˈleɪ/, or /ˌmaɪˈlaɪ/)[2] was the Vietnam War mass murder of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, by United States Army soldiers of "Charlie" Company of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal Division. Victims included women, men, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies were later found to be mutilated[3] and many women were allegedly raped prior to the killings.[] While 26 U.S. soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at Mỹ Lai, only Second Lieutenant William Calley, a platoon leader in Charlie Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but only served three and a half years under house arrest. -
Sexual Violence and the Us Military: the Melodramatic Mythos of War
SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND THE U.S. MILITARY: THE MELODRAMATIC MYTHOS OF WAR AND RHETORIC OF HEALING HEROISM Valerie N. Wieskamp Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University April 2015 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee _________________________ Chair: Robert Terrill, Ph.D. _________________________ Purnima Bose, Ph.D. _________________________ Robert Ivie, Ph.D. _________________________ Phaedra Pezzullo, Ph.D. April 1, 2014 ii © Copyright 2015 Valerie N. Wieskamp iii Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of colleagues, friends, and family, a few of which deserve special recognition here. I am forever grateful to my dissertation advisor, Dr. Robert Terrill. His wisdom and advice on my research and writing throughout both this project and my tenure as a graduate student has greatly enhanced my academic career. I would also like to express my gratitude to my dissertation committee, Dr. Robert Ivie, Dr. Phaedra Pezzullo, Dr. Purnima Bose, and the late Dr. Alex Doty for the sage advice they shared throughout this project. I am indebted to my dissertation-writing group, Dr. Jennifer Heusel, Dr. Jaromir Stoll, Dave Lewis, and Maria Kennedy. The input and camaraderie I received from them while writing my dissertation bettered both the quality of my work and my enjoyment of the research process. I am also fortunate to have had the love and support of my parents, John and Debbie Wieskamp, as well as my sisters, Natalie and Ashley while completing my doctorate degree. -
The My Lai Massacre: the Tragedy and Its Triumphs
The My Lai Massacre: the Tragedy and its Triumphs Rena Liu Senior Division Historical Paper Paper Length: 2,498 words Liu 1 As the Vietnam War raged in 1968, American soldiers killed 4071 Vietnamese civilians in the hamlet of My Lai. The atrocities committed were immediately covered up by the US military and not brought to light until 1969, when a freelance journalist exposed the massacre and its coverup. As the My Lai story developed through consequent court-martials and investigations, the massacre and its aftermath grew to become symbolic of American involvement in Vietnam2, revealing the brutal reality of the conflict and laying bare3 the corruption present in American institutions. Because of My Lai, public opinion shifted toward favoring withdrawal from Vietnam while the military was galvanized to reexamine itself and reform. Though the My Lai massacre eventually faded from the headlines, its legacy continues to affect its victims and shape America. In Vietnam, the scars of the war and its brutality remain, while in the US, American trust in its institutions has been irreversibly eroded. However, because of the action taken in the wake of tragedy, My Lai also has a legacy of triumph. My Lai demonstrated the critical function of journalism, directly influenced the US military’s present-day ethics, and served and continues to serve as a potent warning of the consequences of poorly waged war and institutional failure. Setting 1 Hersh, Seymour M. “Scene of the Crime” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/30/the-scene-of-the-crime. Accessed 5 Jan. 2019. 2 Levesque, Christopher J.”The Truth Behind My Lai”. -
Found, Featured, Then Forgotten: U.S. Network TV News and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War © 2011 by Mark D
Found, Featured, then Forgotten Image created by Jack Miller. Courtesy of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Found, Featured, then Forgotten U.S. Network TV News and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War Mark D. Harmon Newfound Press THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE LIBRARIES, KNOXVILLE Found, Featured, then Forgotten: U.S. Network TV News and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War © 2011 by Mark D. Harmon Digital version at www.newfoundpress.utk.edu/pubs/harmon Newfound Press is a digital imprint of the University of Tennessee Libraries. Its publications are available for non-commercial and educational uses, such as research, teaching and private study. The author has licensed the work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/. For all other uses, contact: Newfound Press University of Tennessee Libraries 1015 Volunteer Boulevard Knoxville, TN 37996-1000 www.newfoundpress.utk.edu ISBN-13: 978-0-9797292-8-7 ISBN-10: 0-9797292-8-9 Harmon, Mark D., (Mark Desmond), 1957- Found, featured, then forgotten : U.S. network tv news and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War / Mark D. Harmon. Knoxville, Tenn. : Newfound Press, University of Tennessee Libraries, c2011. 191 p. : digital, PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. [159]-191). 1. Vietnam Veterans Against the War—Press coverage—United States. 2. Vietnam War, 1961-1975—Protest movements—United States—Press coverage. 3. Television broadcasting of news—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. HE8700.76.V54 H37 2011 Book design by Jayne White Rogers Cover design by Meagan Louise Maxwell Contents Preface ..................................................................... -
STRIKE HISTORY (Citation’S and Awards)
STRIKE Vietnam War Weekly History August 13th – August 19th, 2017 Issue: 61 st nd nd st Brief History of the 501 , 502 and 2 Brigade (101 ABN DIV) The 502nd, or “five-oh-deuce”, was activated July 1, 1941 at Fort Benning, Georgia as the 502nd parachute infantry battalion, as an experimental unit formed to test the doctrine and tactics of parachute assaults. The 502nd entered combat in World War II on June 6, 1944, by jumping into Normandy, with allied forces landing on D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. Between 1945 and 1964. A major reorganization took place on 3 February 1964, when the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne was activated at Fort Campbell, replacing the 1st Airborne Battle Group, 501st Infantry Regiment. The reorganization from the battle groups to brigades and battalions placed two battalions of the 502nd in different brigades of the 101st. The 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry was in the 1st Brigade with 1-327th and 2-327th Infantry. Which deployed to Vietnam and arrived at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam on 29 July 1965, they were commanded by the most notable commander LTC Hank “The Gunfighter” Emerson. The new 2nd Brigade’s original organic battalions were the 1st and 2d Battalions, 501st Infantry, and the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry. December 1967 the 501st, 502nd and 2nd Brigade deployed by C-141 aircraft and arrived at Bien Hoa Airbase on 13 December 1967. Over the next five years, Soldiers of the “Ready to Go” Brigade participated in twelve campaigns, compiling of a distinguished combat record as well as an enviable reputation for success in the rehabilitation of a war-torn nation. -
Paper 2 HISTORY REVISION GUIDE
Name __________ Paper 2 HISTORY REVISION GUIDE THE USA AND VIETNAM: FAILURE ABROAD AND AT HOME 1964-1975 NOTE: This guide only prepares you for the Paper 2 Section B questions on Vietnam. You must use your other guide to prepare for questions on the Roaring Twenties and America in the 1930’s. If you no longer have this guide it can be downloaded from the school website Learning/Humanities/History/year 11. You have two questions to answer on Vietnam • one 8 mark Explain question • one 12 mark Analysis and Explanation question The USA and Vietnam: Failure Abroad and at Home, 1964 – 1975. 1. How effective were guerrilla tactics during the Vietnam War? Topic Revised The theory of guerrilla warfare Guerrilla tactics, 1964–1968 The US response to guerrilla tactics: operation rolling Thunder; ‘Hearts and Minds’; Agent orange and Napalm; Search and Destroy The My Lai Massacre, 1968. 2. How did the coverage of the Vietnam War in the USA lead to demands for peace? Topic Revised TV and media coverage of the war, from the gulf of Tonkin to the evacuation of Saigon Protest movements in the USA, 1968–1973 The public reaction to the My Lai Massacre, the trial of Lieutenant Calley The Kent State University protest, 1970 The Fulbright Hearings, 1971. 3. Why were the US actions to end the Vietnam War unsuccessful? Topic Revised The Tet offensive and its impact on the war, 1968 Attacks on Laos and Cambodia, 1970 US bombing of the North and attacks on Laos and Cambodia, 1970 –1972 The Paris Peace Conference and US withdrawal The fall of Saigon, 1975. -
Militaryhistory CS3.Indd
Teaching Strategy Michael W. Flamm From Testimony to Tragedy: My Lai in Personal Perspective Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/maghis/article/22/4/54/962344 by guest on 29 September 2021 n March 16, 1968, U.S. Private Dennis command immediately after they occurred, Conti personally witnessed the events and, if not, why not? Did senior officers Othat took place in the South Vietnamese conspire to cover up the killings? Should village of My Lai. As he later testified, he and the killings at My Lai be prosecuted as war rifleman Paul Meadlo were guarding a group of crimes? Was the eventual court-martial of prisoners—mostly women and children—when Calley justified, or did the U.S. Army turn Second Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr., ap- him into a scapegoat after the incident be- proached them. According to Conti, Calley asked came known? Should the testimony against when he and Meadlo planned “to take care of Calley and Medina—not to mention their them.” Conti explained what happened next: own accounts of what happened—be con- “I said: ‘We’re taking care of them.’ And he sidered credible? Who, if anyone, was ul- [Calley] said: ‘I mean kill them.’ Meadlo fired timately responsible for what happened at awhile. I don’t know how much he fired, a clip, My Lai? Even after lengthy military court I think. It might have been more. He started to proceedings, the answers to these ques- cry, and he gave me his weapon. I took it, and he tions remain ambiguous at best. -
Tiger Force Series
$ 1 . 5 0 e 3 2 1 P A G E S T O L E D O , O H I O , S U N D A Y , O C T O B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 3 F I N A L Lunch effort A BLADE INVESTIGATION A four-day special report examines BURIED SECRETS one platoon’s atrocities in Vietnam works to end and how the U.S. military concealed BRUTAL TRUTHS them from the American public global hunger White H ous e s upp orts idea, but funding is in jeop ardy By KAREN MacPHERSON year, an estimated 7.7 million BLADE WASHINGTON BUREAU children in 38 countr ies par tici- WA S H I N G T O N — D e c a d e s p a t e d i n t h e i n t e r n a t i o n a l ago, two senators with strongly school-lunch program. The pro- opposing political views joined g r a m h e l p e d b o o s t s t u d e n t to help shape several landmark enrollment, par ticularly of girls, a n t i - h u n g e r e f f o r t s, i n c l u d i n g in schools in Pakistan, Lebanon, food stamps, a nutr itional plan Ba n g l a d e s h , a n d o t h e r c o u n - f o r p r e g n a n t w o m e n a n d tr ies, according to Depar tment i n f a n t s , a n d t h e n a t i o n a l school-lunch program. -
An Absence of Accountability for the My Lai Massacre Jeannine Davanzo
Hofstra Law & Policy Symposium Volume 3 Article 18 1-1-1997 An Absence of Accountability for the My Lai Massacre Jeannine Davanzo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlps Part of the Military, War, and Peace Commons Recommended Citation Davanzo, Jeannine (1997) "An Absence of Accountability for the My Lai Massacre," Hofstra Law & Policy Symposium: Vol. 3 , Article 18. Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlps/vol3/iss1/18 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hofstra Law & Policy Symposium by an authorized editor of Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NOTE AN ABSENCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE MY LAI MASSACRE I. INTRODUCTION The legacy of My Lai leaves behind many unanswered ques- tions concerning accountability. For instance: Why in the aftermath of the massacre was there a failure to charge all those soldiers and high-ranking officials responsible for the carnage? Why was there a failure to convict those charged? Why were the sentences of the convicted not sustained? This article will discuss the breaking of the silence surrounding the massacre, the formal investigation led by Lieutenant General William R. Peers, the actual events that have become known as the "My Lai Massacre," the disposition of charges, the convictions, the apparent lack of United States accountability, the United States cover-up, as well as the United States government's disregard for the Nuremberg Principles. II. THE BEGINNING In the fall of 1969, war-weary America received a shock from the distant land of Vietnam.' On November 13, newspapers across the country printed accounts of a gruesome massacre that occurred eighteen months earlier in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai by the United States infantry unit known as "Charlie Company." The Charlie Company was a unit of the American Division's 11th Infan- try Brigade. -
LCSH Section O
O, Inspector (Fictitious character) O-erh-to-ssu Basin (China) O-wen-kʻo (Tribe) USE Inspector O (Fictitious character) USE Ordos Desert (China) USE Evenki (Asian people) O,O-dimethyl S-phthalimidomethyl phosphorodithioate O-erh-to-ssu Desert (China) O-wen-kʻo language USE Phosmet USE Ordos Desert (China) USE Evenki language O., Ophelia (Fictitious character) O family (Not Subd Geog) Ō-yama (Kanagawa-ken, Japan) USE Ophelia O. (Fictitious character) Ó Flannabhra family USE Ōyama (Kanagawa-ken, Japan) O/100 (Bomber) USE Flannery family O2 Ranch (Tex.) USE Handley Page Type O (Bomber) O-kee-pa (Religious ceremony) BT Ranches—Texas O/400 (Bomber) BT Mandan dance OA (Disease) USE Handley Page Type O (Bomber) Mandan Indians—Rites and ceremonies USE Osteoarthritis O and M instructors O.L. Kipp State Park (Minn.) Oa language USE Orientation and mobility instructors USE Great River Bluffs State Park (Minn.) USE Pamoa language Ó Briain family O.-L.-V. Basiliek van Tongeren Mariaretabel (Sculpture) Oab Luang National Park (Thailand) USE O'Brien family USE Mariaretabel van Tongeren (Sculpture) USE ʻUtthayān hǣng Chāt ʻŌ̜p Lūang (Thailand) Ó Broin family O Le Fagaloa (American Samoa) Oad Rajput (South Asian people) (May Subd Geog) USE Burns family USE Pago Pago Harbor (American Samoa) UF Oads (South Asian people) O.C. Fisher Dam (Tex.) Ó Lochlainn family Od Rajput (South Asian people) BT Dams—Texas USE Laughlin family Odhs (South Asian people) O.C. Fisher Lake (Tex.) O Loughran family Orh Rajput (South Asian people) UF Culbertson Deal Reservoir (Tex.)