The Mai Lai Massacre

A detailed Summary of The Mai Lai Massacre


The Mai Lai Massacre was most likely the best-known act of violence of the war against communists of Vietnam. The Objective of the American military mission was clear:search and destro the Mai Lai hamlet of Son Mai village in Quang Ngai Province of South Vietnam. What was not clear was what to do with all the civillians who might be encountered at Mai Lai. On March 16, 1968, Captian Ernest Medina ordered Cahlie Company into combat. The 150 soldiers, led by Lieutenant William Calley, stormed into the hamlet, and within four hours more than 500 civilians-unarmed woman, children, and old men-were dead. Charlie Company had not encountered a single enemy soldier, and only three weapons were confiscated.

When the soldiers in Charlie Company pushed into the hamlet, they expected to be locked into fierce combat with a Viet Cong battalion believed to be at Mai Lai. Charlie Company met no resistance-there were no Viet Cong soldiers at Mai Lai. Calley then ordered the slaughter of the civilians. People were rounded up into ditches and machine-gunned. They lay five feet deep in the ditches; any survivors trying to escape were immediately shot. When Calley saw a baby crawling away from a ditch, he grabbed it, threw it back into th


Many Americans thought the Calley verdict was unjust. Some believed he was a scapegoat used to mask enormous blunders made by the US Army. Others felt he was a hero, fighting a battle against communism. Calley's life sentence was reduced to twenty years, and then reduced to ten years.

Eighty soldiers were initially under investigation for the Mai Lai Massacre. Twenty-five officers and enlisted men, including Lt. Calley and his superior officer Capt. Medina, were charged with crimes. Only six cases were ever tried. In some cases, the evidence was overwhelming. Some of the defendants admitted killing the civilians, but only one soldier, William Calley was found guilty of murder. The jury found Calley guilty of murdering 22 civilians at Mai Lai and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Too many soldiers knew what really happened at Mai Lai. Ronald Ridenhour, a Vietnam veteran who was not at Mai Lai, heard about the operation from several of his friends who had served in Charlie Company. A year after Mai Lai, Ridenhour wrote a letter about the atrocity and sent it to his congressman. He also sent a copy of the letter to thirty other prominent officials, including President Richard Nixon.

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Approximate Word count 810
Approximate Pages 3 250 words per page double spaced

Category: History

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