My Lai
My Lai, a hamlet in Quang Ngai Province was the site of a war crime involving the killing, by U.S. troops, of several hundred women and children in March 1968, just after the Tet offensive.
Circumstances
A U.S. Army platoon commanded by Lt. William Calley forced unarmed Vietnamese into ditches and killed them. The platoon had taken several casualties and had poor discipline.
The massacre stopped when a U.S. helicopter, flown by Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, landed and its crew physically intervened.[1]
U.S. criminal process
He and his immediate superior Capt. Medina were both tried in military courts. Medina was found innocent, but Calley was found guilty and served four years in prison; his sentence of life imprisonment was commuted in 1975 by President Richard Nixon. The case became a focus of national guilt and self-doubt, with antiwar leaders alleging there were many atrocities that had been successfully covered up.[2]
References
- ↑ "My Lai residents remember war's bloodshed", CNN, March 14, 1998
- ↑ "Famous American Trials: The My Lai Courts-Martial 1970"