Lee Kim Lai

another's authority. Following the orders of authority blindly can have many negative effects. My Lai Massacre, Jonestown Massacre, Millgram Experiment and Nanking Massacre are some incidents that have caused negative consequences as a result of obedience to authority. My Lai Massacre took place in 1968. On the morning of March 16, 1968, soldiers of Charlie company, arrived in the hamlet of My Lai in the northern part of South Vietnam. Over the next 3 hours, 504 Vietnamese civillians were…

Killer in the Mirror" by Crispin Sartwell and "The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience" by Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton. The film depicts a classic struggle between moral correctness and militarized obedience. In "The Genocidal Killer in the Mirror," Sartwell describes that in certain situations and circumstances even the most moral people could be swayed into acts of wrongdoing. Kelman and Hamilton write about the My Lai Massacre, a bloody and atrocious annihilation of the…

The brutality of the My Lai massacre and the official cover up fuelled anti- Vietnam War sentiment in the USA to a great extent. The My Lai massacre could be considered one of the most horrific incidents of violence committed against unprotected civilians all through the Vietnam War. A syndicate of American soldiers brutally killed most of the people—women, children and old men—in the village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. More than 500 people were slaughtered in the My Lai massacre, as well as…

inefficient and impulsive leader of the company allowed for the justification of the cruelties at My Lai. While the direct orders for the search and destroy came from those higher in the chain of command than Calley, his characterization as a poor leader allowed for the American public to believe he was solely responsible. The predetermined image of Calley caused the American public to support…

be inferred that O’Brien is trying to describe the horrors that he saw in both the My Lai area and Vietnam in his tour of duty there. The way the events that transpired in Vietnam are described in the book is there is a section of narrative,…

On the morning of March 16, 1968 in a small village called My Lai in the Quang Nai province of Vietnam, small families of mothers, young children, and elderly were naively enjoying their breakfasts and chattering amongst themselves. Not long after, soldiers of the Charlie Company commanded by Lieutenant William Calley Jr. invaded the hamlet in a search and destroy mission (Robertson 465). American soldiers relentlessly and mercilessly attacked unarmed, unresisting Vietnamese families. The air…

The events that occurred at My Lai on the morning of March 16, 1968 were tragic. Hundreds of men, women, and children fell victim to the massacre. There were many situations where obedience came into play, and the inexperiences of the soldiers made these factors stand out. The uncertainty of the situation, time pressure, routinization, and dehumanization were all factors that contributed to the obedience at My Lai. Uncertainty in the situation, in my opinion, is the biggest factor that…

When is Enough? Both articles “Just Do What the Pilot Tells You” written by Theodore Dalrymple and “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience” written by Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton are linked together by the movie A Few Good Men. The article “My Lai Massacre” is about the My Lai Massacre that occurred during the Vietnam War in 1968. The article also includes the author's viewpoints on the military’s stance on the following order. The article “Just Do What the Pilot Tells…

national interest and security in committing itself to the Vietnam War. The opinion polls taken during 1965 to 1968 clearly show that most Australian’s were in favour of the war, with the opinion polls only starting to change after the horrifying My Lai massacre, the invasion of Cambodia and later the Kent State…

internal tensions, the crippling and terrifying environment, drug use, unwillingness to fight, and the sense that the war was for nothing. Also, there was no doubt that battlefield atrocities were being committed by Americans, especially after the Mai Lai massacre. Finally, even more chilling and demoralizing was the practice of fragging. Fragging is military slang for the killing or wounding of a soldier or officer deliberately. Debate about their seriousness and frequency of incidents…