My Lai Massacre Research Paper

“Strength, understanding, generosity.” These are the three words that the U.S. military chose to convey to their soldiers through the Nine Rules for Personnel of the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, however, these rules were written in wallet cards that may have never been opened by most soldiers. Although the wallet cards were distributed to every marine upon their arrival to Vietnam, they were not required to read them, and the cards’ content was not emphasized in their training. This lead to many soldiers having no recollection of instruction on the nature of war crimes. This, in part, lead to the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968. When the massacre and the cover-up were exposed, people saw more than just the atrocities of the Vietnam War, they were able to see the vulnerabilities of American and danger of futile political war. The My Lai Massacre didn’t just happen, instead it was a disaster in the making, with several events foreshadowing and jump starting the event. The most obvious prelude was the Vietnamese Tet Offensive strike in January 1968. …show more content…
To disrupt these soldiers’ emotions and mental state even more, they held a memorial for the fallen soldiers near My Lai only two weeks before the massacre would ensue. Additionally, from the perspective of Lieutenant William Calley, he had seen the inside of a helicopter full of body parts of his dead soldiers and that unquestionably instilled him with “a deeper sense of hatred for the enemy.” Unfortunately, hatred for the enemy and an inability to identify the enemy, resulted in a hatred for all of Vietnam regardless of their side. Each of these events that took place before the My Lai massacre, resulted in dehumanization, distrust, and hatred of the Vietnamese, which were important elements in enabling the massacre to actually