-Jomini

The Art of War

On March 16, 1968, Charlie Company of the Americal Division moved into the hamlet of My Lai and committed one of the most brutal atrocities in the Vietnam War and American history. However much their actions resulted from inherent stresses of the war, their brutal targeting of noncombatants was said to be an exceptional deviation from orders. Some 500 civilians were killed and it was not until a year later, with a letter from Ron Ridenhour, that the Criminal Investigation Division of the US Army checked the validity of the accusation. Then General Peers was asked to head a Commission to determine what happened and who was at fault. Since then, countless attempts have been made to explain how such an atrocity could have occurred. One of the strongest suggests that as an attempt to lift the demoralized spirit after the Tet offensive, the Charlie company platoon leader, Lt. Calley, led a mission to elim

To understand why the My Lai incident happened, one must understand the events leading to it. In 1967 the North Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front (NLF) decided the time had come to launch an all out offensive aimed at the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and US forces. In December of 1967 the North Vietnamese attacked the US marine base at Khe Sanh. General Westmoreland, the commanding US military officer in Vietnam, wanted the outpost at Khe Sanh held at all costs. As a result, 50,000 troops were called to the area thus weakening positions further south. The main thrust of Tet began on January 31, 1968 at the start of the Vietnamese lunar New Year celebration when a cease-fire had been agreed upon. It was the greatest celebration, it was "Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July all rolled into one, was how it was explained to American GIs."4 Most of the ARVN troops had gone home on leave and the US troops were on stand down in most areas. Over 85,000 NLF soldiers simultaneously struck almost every major city and provincial capital across South Vietnam sending defenders reeling. Previously thought invulnerable, the US Embassy in Saigon was taken over by the NLF. The imperial capital of Hue witnessed the bloodiest fighting of the entire war during this offensive.

little villages over there, and I never

During the Tet offensive, Charlie Company was stationed at the American base LZ Dottie and put on alert. "The flashes in the west and the rolling concussions of explosions brought to Charlie Company a numbing sense of their own vulnerability. The enemy were all around."5 From LZ Dottie, Charlie Company was moved south to block the enemy's line of retreat. Between where Charlie Company was stationed and the sea lay the villages of My Lai. Having succumbed to American forces, the Viet Cong's 48th Local Force Battalion had retreated towards Charlie Company. Because Charlie Company was in ARVN territory, they were unable to open fire against the retreating 48th Battalion until they received permission from South Vietnamese authorities. "I distinctly remember watching them suckers march out of there and we could not touch them, Fred Widmer remembered"6 the enemy would never again be such an easy target. Charlie Company was frustrated, because after letting the Viet Cong retreat in the direction of My Lai, they were ordered to find them. "They were chasing phantoms. There was nothing to show for the long, hot, exhausting days tramping through paddy fields and friendless villages."7 Clearly this must have been a frustrating endeavor for Charlie Company.

This brutal activity was compounded with rape, sodomy, and various cases of torture. According to one eyewitness account, at least one member of Charlie Company later bragged about his feats at My Lai. Dennis Conti, "boasted how Calley had earlier caught him with his pants down and his penis out trying to get a blow job from the Vietnamese woman, while threatening her child with a gun."17 Suffice to say, the horror of the individual and collective acts on March 16, 1968, border on the unimaginable.

We'd go ask them, 'Where are the VC?'

Some common words found in the essay are:
Charlie Company, Viet Cong, Charlie Company's, Lt Calley, Company Compounding, Peers Commission, Dennis Conti, VC' VC, Paul Boehm's, Division Army, charlie company, lt calley, viet cong, march 16, 16 1968, tet offensive, march 16 1968, lai incident, charlie company's, james randy roberts, company stationed, north vietnamese, olson james randy, tet offensive charlie, lt william calley,
Approximate Word count = 2722
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)