My Lai Massacre free essay sample

The Massacre At My Lai Starting in 1964, the war at Vietnam seemed necessary and useful, in the minds of the public. After years of combat, the American opinion slowly worsened, and by 1967, the war was highly questionable. The public support was completely lost after the information of the gruesome massacre at My Lai was leaked. During all of this, the American public was trying to figure out how the Americans who partook in this event became so evil. While secondary sources provide information about the United States soldiers, the details of the My Lai Massacre, and the trial of Lieutenant Calley, oral history grants the historian a wider perspective by showing the soldiers’ motives for revenge and the emotions of those involved. The United States soldiers in Vietnam experienced a war unlike any other in America’s history. One of the main reasons that this war was so different was that the conditions of the soldiers were so terrible. One soldier described what it was actually like living in Vietnam. We lived out in the jungle and patrolled three villages. We moved from one village to another all the time. You didnt want to stay in one spot for too long. The enemy would try to find out where we were and try to ambush us. So, usually at about 2 a. m. we started to move around from one village to another† (Alex Ditinno). This man shows how terrible their living conditions are. After having a constant fear of being ambushed, having to sleep in dirty and uncomfortable environments for days, and having to wake up in the middle of the night to leave villages, the soldier’s minds are going to be effected. The average age of a soldier in the war was nineteen years old. Before their brains are even fully developed they experience such atrocities that they grow an enormous hatred inside. The only people that they can bring out that hatred on were the Vietnamese. The enemies were known to the Americans as the Viet Cong. They were different than in previous enemies in that an American soldier could never tell if they were the enemy, or not. They would blend into society so well that everybody would just see them as civilians, until or course, when they came out at night as Viet Cong ready to kill any American in sight. They were known as â€Å"Rice farmers by day, guerillas by night† (Al Doyle). In not knowing who the enemy was, there were often misunderstandings, leading to mass murder of civilians. In an attempt the not kill civilians, many soldiers tried to be lenient in their killing, and only kill when absolutely sure it was the enemy, which didn’t happen too often (Vietnam War: Oral Histories). One soldier had an unbelievably remarkable experience with this. â€Å"We found this young womanin her  early 20s at most lying on the road as we swept it for mines†¦Ã‚  She had been shot at point blank range sometime during the night. It was alleged that she was a Viet Cong sympathizer†¦ It was hard to believe someone as young and innocent looking as she could be the enemy but we soon learned that we could never be sure who to trust. She was the first dead person I ever saw in my life, but there would be many more† (Steven Curtis). This man had just entered war and the effects of it had just started. Supposedly this woman was an enemy, but he never could have known that. Of all of the people in his village, she was one of the least suspicious, though one could never tell with the Viet Cong (The Enemy). The Viet Cong, although only at night, were fierce, and sneaky fighters. The Viet Cong mainly used methods of booby traps and rocket firing. Since they were so sneaky, they would rarely go up and shoot somebody with a gun, and risk the loss of their own death. One man experienced a terrible form of this. â€Å"We received shelling (rocket fire) constantly every day. We had to live underground in trenches. We had to live with the rats† (Tom Hall). This man withstood constant rocket fire without being able to do anything. Killing people wouldn’t help him to relieve his anger, because he would never be able to know who to kill. He lived in the dirty trenches for days, with nothing to do, but wait for it all to be over. The Viet Cong also used mines. They would lay them all over the forest and the Americans would never know where was safe. Since the Viet Cong lived there, they had an advantage in knowing where everything was, and being able to cope with the forest environment. Nobody could see in the forest at night, so not knowing the area was a huge disadvantage. One man couldn’t even differentiate a human being from a dog in one of his experiences at Vietnam. â€Å"We waited all night and we shot at them, but most of the time you couldnt see what you were shooting at†¦ Early the next morning, the bushes started rattling and we out loaded in the bushes. It ended up being a dog† (Larry MacIntire). After this man and his group thought they were shooting at the enemy all night, it turned out that they had only shot at a dog. Their efforts had been diminished, and what they were fighting for became useless. The Viet Cong were cruel fighters and killed many Americans without even being noticed (Vietnam War: Oral Histories). What Charlie Company did was a terrible thing, but could not be blamed entirely on them because they didn’t know exactly what they were actually doing. In the many weeks before the massacre, the group had suffered many deaths via mines, and other booby traps. After going through so much Captain Hodges decided it was enough. He stated, â€Å"This was a time for us to get even. A time for us to settle the score. A time for revengewhen we can get even for our fallen comrades. (Captain Hodges). Although now it might seem terrible that they let out there anger by killing innocent people, it was not known at the time that they were innocent, and they simply wanted to kill the enemy. The exact details of the mission were to search and destroy everything in the village. Everybody was ordered to kill everybody in sight, because they were thought to be Viet Cong. Most o f the men killed people out of their sheer anger, but not one of them killed as much as Lieutenant Calley. He got more than one hundred people and forced them all to go into a ditch. He shot, and killed every single one of them. He even shot a baby right in the head at point blank. (Massacre at My Lai) On that March 16th 1968, 504 people were killed. Fifty of whom were younger than three, sixty-nine were between the ages of four and seven, ninety-one were between eight and twelve, and twenty-seven were in their seventies of eighties (People Killed in the Massacre). The massacre had a lasting effect on the men both mentally and physically, and on America’s opinion on the war. After the massacre, the public opinion on the war went down. Although the government tried to cover it up, the public got a hold of the pictures and it was instantly the most important things in all of the newspapers. Titles were posted on front pages like â€Å"Viet Mass Slaying† (The Plain Dealer). Although, while the public was so obsessed by how terrible the people were, they did not understand what they had gone through. They did not understand how difficult it was to see who the Viet Cong were. All they saw were murderers so became known as the bad guy, just for a bad mistake. In turn, this made the public hate the whole entire war. The massacre also had a mental effect on the people who fought in it. Most of them had killed innocent people, and did not even know what they had done until it was over. For the rest of their lives, not only the American public, but they will look at themselves as monsters (Massacre at My Lai). One person was an everlasting effect called post traumatic stress syndrome. â€Å"When a person has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and is in a situation where theyve been drinking or using drugs, their judgment is impaired† (Vince Baron). This man withstood so much, that with a little bit on alcohol his memories come back to him. AS with most Vietnam veterans, they never forget what happened to them in war. They carry it with them everywhere, and if something happens to make them angry, they will go insane. While there are some people who take there experience at war in this way, there are others who end up taking a better approach towards it. Many of the men got their inspiration from war, and believe that war itself made them a man. This man believes that that war, and his experiences at My Lai changed his life around, but in a good way. â€Å"When I came back, I was much more serious about life. I knew how easy one life could be taken away from you. It wasnt important to be out partying. It was important to do something with your life and try to make a difference. So, when I came back from Vietnam, I went to college; that was my whole plan. I went to college year round and I didnt stop until I got my Masters. I earned my Bachelors and Masters in four years because that was my plan. I didnt need to stop† (Tony Taylor) Unlike most of the veterans, especially those who were a part of My Lai, he took a different approach by trying to forget what happened in the war, and My Lai, but remember the lessons that he learned. While sometimes having a mental effect that was encouraging, or hindering, all My Lai veterans were left with some mental difference (Vietnam War: Oral Histories). While that was apparent, only one person suffered a physical effect that day. That man was a recent recruit in the army. He was still in his young twenties, but he couldn’t take the massacre any longer. He shot himself in the foot and bled to death, just to evade the sight of it (Massacre at My Lai). Lieutenant Calley got what he deserved for the murder that he committed, but everybody else was let off easy. After the massacre had been over for a few months, the court marshaling begun. There were over 100 people who were investigated to see if they committed war crimes. Of those people, only thirty were sent to trial. Of all those men, only one man was actually sentenced to prison, this man was Lieutenant Calley (Massacre at My Lai). Lieutenant Calley’s trial was so complicated, and needed so much time to display all of the evidence, that it ended more than three years after the actual massacre at My Lai. When it started, Lieutenant Calley was charged with murder of â€Å"Oriental Human Beings† (William Calley Court-Martial). Although they were clearly thought of as sub-human, they were still human and similar rules applied toward killing them. Everybody came into the court with a tainted opinion after seeing his televised interview. In that interview, he was exposed and everybody knew that he had committed murder. His argument, which was quite valid, was for the most part this: â€Å"I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job that day. That was the mission I was given. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women, and children. They were all classified the same, and that was the classification that we dealt with, just as enemy†¦ I felt then and I still do that I acted as I was directed, and I carried out the orders that I was given and I do not feel wrong in doing so. † Although he was right in that he was ordered by a higher officer to kill everybody in sight, he did worse than that. He killed the most out of everybody, he killed babies, he killed them even after he knew that they were civilians and not related to the Viet Cong at all. The Captains orders could be inferred that you should stop killing if you understood that they weren’t the enemy. Since he neglected the obvious fact that they were civilians, and just thought of them as sub-human, just because of their race, he was sent to jail. Although, the court did take into account that he was ordered to kill. Although he killed over 100 people, he was only charged with killing twenty-two. It was assumed that by the time he had killed more than eighty people, he probably knew that they were civilian. Even after only being convicted for about a fifth of his murders, he was still sent to jail for life. He was the only person from Charlie Company to go to jail. Although he was the worst of them, many others disserved it, but barely got out of going to trial (Court Martial). My Lai was a battle that had to be fought. There was so much tension between the Viet Cong and the Americans needed to take out there anger and get back at them. The American public saw it as the Americans being evil, eventually causing in the end of the war. The My Lai massacre portrayed the average American soldier as an evil person, and wounded America’s reputation as a country. Oral history is very useful for the telling of the My Lai massacre. A mere writer cannot understand the emotions that were experienced in the actual battles. Although oral history proves to be extremely useful to see the emotions and feelings during the time of the war, it does don’t always portray the correct facts. Secondary sources always have the facts right and can give historic background to help understand a situation and the politics during the period, rather than public opinion. In conclusion, the massacre at My Lai was a huge accident that had to happen eventually. â€Å"William Calley Court Martial. † Jrank. org. 1972. Noble Trials and Court Cases. 19 May 2013 lt;http://law. rank. org/pages/3208/William-Calley-Court-Martial-1970. htmlgt; Thomas E Murray. â€Å"The Vietnam War: Oral Histories. † fcit. usf. edu. 2009. Florida Center For Instructional Technology. 19 May 2013. lt;http://fcit. usf. edu/vietnam/index. html Steven Curtis. â€Å"The Vietnam I Remember. † www. stevencurtis. com. 2009. Steven Curtis. 2 Ma rch 2010. lt;http://www. stevencurtis. com/vietnam/Stories/enemy. htmgt; McDonald, Joe. â€Å"504 People Killed In The My Lai Massacre. † www. countryjoe. com. 1970. Country Joe’s Place. 19 May 2013. lt;http://www. countryjoe. com/massacre. htmgt; Esterhan, Joseph.