The My Lai Massacre - Vietnam War

1199 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: War between Vietnam and us

On March 16, 1968 a terrible massacre occurred at My Lai, called The My Lai Massacre. The following massacre should have never happened and the event's that followed the massacre are typical of any American wrongdoing. That's why it wasn't in my US History book. They covered it up and the people involved in the massacre received no punishment except for one soldier.

My US History book: The Story of America Volume 2 doesn't even touch on this dark moment in US history. The closest that they come to my topic is the eight pages about the Vietnam War. Within these pages they talked about Nixon being elected to presidency in 1968. He received 43 percent of the popular vote only 1 less than Humphrey. He sought to please the middle class income voters and people who were neither radicals nor reactionaries. The middle class was worried about the high taxes and rising prices. So Nixon concentrated on ending the inflation, he ordered a wage-and-price freeze for 90 days. In this 90 days he set up a special committee to supervise wages and prices. Then announced guidelines to place maximum limits on future increases in wages and prices. This did slow down inflation. Another key point was Vietnamization that was the idea to remove American troops and put South Vietnamese troops in instead. At the start of the Vietnam War there were over 540,000 American troops in Vietnam and by spring 1970 there were under 430,000 American troops there. Nixon planed to pull out another 150,000 men within a year. But then Nixon became a hypocrite by sending American troops to Cambodia to destroy bases being used by North Vietnamese (Volume 2 The Story of America 535-538). That is the summery of what else occurred ...

... middle of paper ...

... Story of America 1865 to Present. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Wiston, Inc., 1992.

Articles in Magazines:

Rogers, Patrick. "The Massacre at My Lai." Newsweek 30 Mar. 1998: 99.

Stella, Kim. "The Bridge at No Gun Ri." Time 7 Jan. 1999: 62-63.

Encyclopedias

"My Lai Incident." Grolier. 1993.

Material Accessed Through the Internet

Heroes & Massaacres. http://www.oz.net/~vvawai/sw/sw36/hereos-massacre.html.

Vietnam Online. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trences/mylai.html.

Wallechinsky, David. "The My Lai Massacre.", http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/mylai.htm.

Show More
Related

  • Roosevelt Vs Hoover Essay

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    After nearly a decade of optimism and prosperity, the United States took a turn for the worse on October 29, 1929, the day the stock market crashed, better known as Black Tuesday and the official beginning of the Great Depression. The downfall of the economy during the presidency of Herbert Hoover led to much comparison when his successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, took office. Although both presidents had their share of negative feedback, it is evident that Hoover’s inaction towards the crisis and Roosevelt’s later eccentric methods to simulate the economy would place FDR in the positive limelight of fixing the nation in one of its worst times. Herbert Hoover was sworn into office when the economic status of the country stood at its highest and the nation was accustomed to a prosperous way of living. When the stock market plummeted and took its toll on the citizens from coast to coast, it was out of his control.

    Read More

  • Comparative Analysis of A Few Good Men

    1375 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kelman, Herbert C., Hamilton, V. Lee. “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience”. Writing & Reading for ACP Composition. Ed. Thomas E. Leahey and Christine R. Farris. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2009. 266-277. Print.

    Read More

  • President Clinton vs. President Nixon

    491 Words  | 1 Pages

    President Clinton and President Nixon both associated themselves with criminal actions. Both the presidents misled the American public, causing personal as well as professional problems. For instance, President Clinton released a false statement about his affair with Monika Lewinsky, causing a lengthy and costly trial, and greatly affecting his presidential career. Also, President Nixon caused a scandal associated with Watergate, which ended up with his leaving the office. Even though they caused trouble for themselves and others around them, Clinton and Nixon did influence the American economy to a great degree. Clinton practically saved the economy and lowered the US inflation rate, through gradual and advocated plans of reform. Moreover, Nixon was the first to go into China territory for negotiations. Ultimately, they have attracted the media with their antics, making themselves? targets of controversy and embarrassment. In fact, President Clinton and Nixon have become the subjects of public mockery and have been an embarrassment to the American people in the office of the President. Moreover, both men have been involved in humiliating situations.

    Read More

  • Kent State Shootings

    1512 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 1968 Richard Nixon was elected President. One of the promises he made was to end the Vietnam War. When the My Lai massacre was exposed in November of 1969 there was worldwide outrage and reduced public support for the war. Then a month later the first draft lottery was instituted since WWII. In April 1970, Nixon told the public he was going to withdraw large numbers of U.S. troops from Vietnam. So when he made his television address on April 30 to say we had invaded Cambodia the American people reacted strongly. In the speech Nixon addressed not only Cambodia but also the unrest on college campuses. Many young people, including college students, were concerned about the risk of being drafted, and the expansion of the war into another country appeared to increase that risk. Across the country protests on campuses became what Time magazine called "a nation-wide student strike."

    Read More

  • The Corruption and Deception of the Watergate Breeak In

    2013 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the United States was experiencing disorder and hysteria as domestic and foreign issues; created stress and tension within the nation. In the late 1960s, when Richard Nixon was running for president, the nation saw the death of two influential people, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, brother of John F. Kennedy. Following the death of King, race riots broke out across the country. To add to the anger and tension, many students and young Americans began to protest the war in Vietnam. Nixon promised to restore order to the country if he were to be elected. Unfortunately for Nixon, the Democrats, who had control of both sides of Congress, were prepared to block many of Nixon’s initiatives. Thus, CREEP (the committee to re-elect the president) began its corrupt path towards getting Nixon into office, even going as far as to break into the Democratic Party's National Committee headquarters located in the Watergate office in the nation’s capital ("Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon"). The Watergate scandal, which led to the first resignation of a United States President, changed the political landscape of the nation through its impact on Americans' trust in the government and its employees, its effect on government ethics, and its influence on journalism and the rise in investigative reporting.

    Read More

  • Presidents of the 1930s

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the stock market crash of 1929 struck, the worst economic downturn in American history was upon Hoover’s administration. (Biography.com pag.1) At the beginning of the 1930s, more than 15 million Americans--fully one-quarter of all wage-earning workers--were unemployed. President Herbert Hoover did not do much to alleviate the crisis.(History n.pag.) In 1932, Americans elected a new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who pledged to use the power of the federal government to make Americans’ lives better.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Perils Of Obedience

    1257 Words  | 3 Pages

    the guards began mistreating the prisoners, not physically, but emotionally and psychologically, taking advantage of the power and authority appointed to them by the experimenter (Zimbardo 109). Crimes of obedience and mistreatment to other human beings are not only found in Milgrim’s and Zimbardo’s experiments. In 1968, U.S. troops massacred over 500 villagers in My Lai. The incident is described by social psychologist Herbert C. Kelman and sociologist V. Lee Hamilton in the article “The My Lai Massacre: a Crime of Obedience.” Lt. William Calley, charged with 102 killings, claims to have followed orders from his superiors, only accomplishing his duty, which is also a theme throughout the movie, A Few Good Men. After presented with a request from William Santiago, a marine on his base, to be transferred, Jessup refuses. The film depicts, through Colonel Jessup 's authority, the refusal to obey a reasonable request as well as the pride one possesses when fulfilling his duty

    Read More

  • Why Did Nixon Want To End The Vietnam War

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    Towards the end, Nixon ended up signing the peace treaty. We promised the North Vietnamese reparations, but after our troops came back home, Nixon revoked them, so as consequence, the North Vietnamese revoked their promise to give us all their information on POWs and MIAs, so we still don't know what happened to several thousand of

    Read More

  • My Lai Massacre

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    of the rape of a 14 year old girl by twenty GIs ... in front of the

    Read More

  • The Vietnam War - The 1968 Tet Offensive

    1585 Words  | 4 Pages

    In fact, the Tet Offensive broke out on the Tet's Eve - in the early

    Read More

  • How Did The Vietnam War Affect The Economy

    368 Words  | 1 Pages

    During the Vietnam War in 1965 the US began sending troops and platoons to fight the war. However, since war expenses overly affected the economy in the US the businesses began to become affected. American businesses were concerned about the cost of the war in Vietnam since they perceived the conflict to be of high costs. They were worried that this would eventually hurt the domestic economy and cause inflation among the country. Businesses had to adjust to the increased inflation and therefore they had to offer higher wages to their employees and increased prices of their products. The amount the US government was spending on war and tax increases hurt American businesses. At the end of the war the US suffered from economic

    Read More

  • The Vietnam War

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...nd innocent villagers of My Lai, it was a time when American’s questioned their own as being “bad guys” or “good guys”. Were America’s tortuous and cruel acts to be considered patriotic or dishonorable? Some Americans, with bitter feelings for all the American lives lost in the Vietnam War, gave credit to Lieutenant Calley for leading troops in participating in such an atrocious event. History shows that there is still much debate on some facts of the massacre and many stories and opinions, although we will never know the facts exactly, what we do know is that America will never forget this tragic event, it will be talked about in American History for many years to come, and the Vietminh hearts will always fill with sadness when they think of the many lives that were lost on that tragic day in history, their minds will always have unspeakable memories of that day.

    Read More

  • The Massacre at Wounded Knee

    628 Words  | 2 Pages

    by Colonel James W. Forsyth. An argument started with a deaf Sioux named Black Coyote. The

    Read More

  • The Vietnam War Of Vietnam

    1561 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Vietnam War took action after the First Indochina War, in fact the Vietnam War is also known as the Second Indochina War. This war included the communist North Vietnam and its allies of the Viet Cong, the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies going against South Vietnam and its allies, the Unites States, Philippines and other anti-communist allies. It was a very long and conflicting war that actually started in 1954 and ended in 1975. The war began after the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist party in North Vietnam. More than three million people were killed during the war, this included approximately 58,000 Americans and more than half of the killed were actually Vietnamese civilians. The Vietnam War ended by the communist forces giving up control of Saigon and the next year the country was then unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Many people, including both men and women were directly and indirectly involved within the war itself. Women worked many different roles in the Vietnam War, and they are most definitely not credited enough for all that they actually did.

    Read More

  • Short Summary of Vietnam

    470 Words  | 1 Pages

    The paranoia and fear of death never left them. The My Lai Massacre occurred in 1968, when the village of My Lai was completely destroyed, although it did not contain a single enemy troop. Over a hundred villagers were slaughtered. It became clearer to Americans how soldiers were losing control, and how there was no easy way to win this war.

    Read More

More about The My Lai Massacre - Vietnam War

Open Document