We help commemorate
the 40th Anniversary of the My Lai Massacre

Recently my wife Judi and I flew to Hanoi and spent 10 days in Vietnam. We were part of a small group of Americans helping to commemorate the 40th anniversary of My Lai massacre. We learned about the commemoration from Mike Boehm, a fellow member Veterans for Peace who had been helping the Quakers on community development projects. I hadn’t been to Vietnam for forty years so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to go.

Background
News of the massacre broke in November 1969 along with grisly photographs showing piles of dead civilians executed by US troops. On March 16, 1968 members of Charlie Company rounded up villagers from My Lai hamlet-mostly women, children and the elderly. The area had been a hotbed of Viet Cong activity and the grunts had gotten the order to clean it out. On that day, in what can only be described as a frenzy of killing, 504 civilians were murdered. The villages were destroyed, the bodies buried in mass graves and news of the incident was suppressed. When the massacre became public people everywhere were horrified. A platoon commander, Lt. William Calley, was he only person charged. He received a long sentence but was later pardoned by President Nixon. (Click the small photos to read more.)