My Lai Massacre Research Paper

The Vietnam War was very gruesome, and took many lives. One of the events of the Vietnam War was the My Lai Massacre, which occurred on March 16, 1968. A group of U.S soldiers murdered about half of the population of a village called My Lai (History.com). The soldiers were a part of Charlie Company, which is just the name of the unit they were involved with. They were on a “search and destroy” mission to kill Viet Cong who were thought to be occupied there (Digital History). They found no Viet Cong members, but that didn’t stop them from killing hundreds of civilians for no apparent reason. A sergeant involved in the massacre even reported that he didn’t see anyone who could have been considered to be of military age in the village (History Learning Site). There was no apparent danger for the U.S soldiers because there was no evidence of opposing fire, according to PBS. “Only one American was injured - a GI who had shot himself in the foot while clearing his pistol” (Digital History). The question that remains is why did this happen, and what caused the members of Charlie Company to slaughter tons …show more content…
One common excuse for their behavior was that the Charlie Company had lost five men just a few days before the massacre from booby traps, so they were upset, and sought vengeance (Digital History). One soldier claimed that the massacre happened because “in a guerilla war, the line between legitimate and illegitimate killing is blurred. The policies of free-fire zones in which a soldier is permitted to shoot at any human target, armed or unarmed, further confuse the fighting man’s moral senses” (History Learning Site). These excuses may be a part of the reason of why they did what they did, but it doesn’t explain going on a rampage and killing innocent people just because you can for three hours straight. So what happened when the troops returned home, and how did they get punished for their