My Lai Massacre

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Lessons learned in war have helped shape the world’s most powerful military force into what it is today. Perhaps no event in the history of our military serves to show the importance of adhering to the laws of war, and maintaining order and discipline as the lessons learned from the My Lai Massacre. In what would be considered one of the most notorious operations in the history of the United States Military, a company of soldiers committed multiple war crimes while systematically killing unarmed civilians in the hamlet of My Lai. While the events that occurred in My Lai represent the antithesis of the values of the United States Military it is imperative to derive lessons learned to prevent such incidences from becoming cyclical with in our …show more content…
The area of Son My was thought to be held by the 48th Viet Cong Battalion and inhabitants not belonging to the Viet Cong were believed to be supporters of the national Liberation Front (Chambers, John W, 2000). Soldiers of Charlie Company’s 2nd Platoon led by Lieutenant William L. Calley expected to meet extreme resistance upon entering My Lai but only found unarmed villagers consisting mostly of woman and children. Lieutenant Calley, saying he acted under director orders, began organizing his men to destroy the village. What happened next would serve as the biggest black eye to the United States Military since its establishment. On that morning, Soldiers from Charlie Company acted with extreme brutality while torturing, raping, and murdering villagers. First hand participants would later go on to describe dragging woman and children to ditches where they were executed in mass (My Lai Massacre, 2009). Over a three hour period, it is believed that Charlie Company killed over 200 villagers. The massacre was put to an abrupt in thanks to the heroics of an OH-23 Observation Helicopter crew piloted by Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson who landed between advancing soldiers and retreating villagers. He was able to successfully put an end to the massacre by ordering his M60 …show more content…
efforts in Vietnam. Already weary of military operations in Vietnam, My Lai served to solidify antiwar sentiment back at home. Additionally, it cast a shameful cloud over United States war efforts in its fight to solidify an independent South Vietnam. Ultimately, the shadow cast by the My Lai Massacre would play an instrumental part in the United States abandonment of the war in Vietnam. Within the military as details of the incident were released it had a confounding effect on professionalism and spirit de corps with in the United States Army (Addicut, J. Hudson, W. 1993). The American people have historically prided themselves as righteous and military operations virtuous in nature. Outside of individual culpability, what was the reason for the events that unfolded on that faithful morning? The subsequent investigation known as the peers report detailed several contributing factors that has altered how the United States Army trains and leads its fighting forces (Herring, George
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