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My Lai Massacre "The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one."(Martin Luther King Jr.). In this short quote Martin Luther King Jr. perfectly described what happened at Vietnam and what many people thought of the war. As the war progressed many viewed it as a mistake and one of the reasons why was the alarming fact that many innocent people had died. What made things worse was that the government tried to hide this information from the people. One of the many appalling stories that made this war so gruesome was the My Lai Massacre. Many proclaim that the My …show more content…
The Vietnam soldiers were no exception. They were trained to follow orders that were given to them. The soldier had no right to question an order. If they did, strict consequences followed. William Calley explains this when he says during his trial, “all orders were to be assumed legal, that the soldier's job was to carry out any order given him to the best of his ability.” (Lt. William Calley). All of the orders were given because the leaders thought these commands would help the Americans defeat the enemy. Everyone at Vietnam was doing what they thought was expected of them. As Kendrick Oliver states when trying to explain why Charlie Company would kill civilians at My Lai “they had considered their conduct consistent with the attitudes and practices of their GI peers, with the policies of the military command, and with the conscience of the political nation at home.” (Oliver 252). People thought in order for America to win we just had to kill as many people as possible because that had worked in previous wars. John Kerry explains this situation when he says that in order for America to remain the superpower we “couldn’t lose”, “couldn't retreat”, no matter “how many American bodies were lost”. However, the soldiers also never knew who was or wasn’t the enemy. For that reason, if the civilian looked like the enemy, they must be involved with the enemy, therefore they were the enemy. As a result of this mindset the soldiers were convinced that they were killing the enemy. The My Lai Massacre was a consequence of American involvement in Vietnam because of the way the soldiers were
Kerry brings about this argument in many ways including when he states, “Someone has to die so that president Nixon won’t be, and these are his words, ‘the first president to lose a war.’” By showing how Americans lives are being lost due to “America’s Pride” this poses the question: What is the true motivation for the war? He poses this question once again when he states, “We watched pride allow the most unimportant battles to be blown into extravaganzas, because we couldn’t lose, and we couldn’t retreat, and because it didn’t matter how many American bodies were lost to prove that point” He once again drills the lack of moral motivation behind the war into his audience’s heads. He refers to American’s lives as “American Bodies” showing once again how soldiers are being dehumanized ultimately to “prove a point”. In both of these statements Kerry intentionally leaves out the mention of a moral purpose because he is trying to get at the loss of those intentions. By revealing the Vietnam War for what it is, he hopes to shake his audiences reasoning for letting the war
Another atrocity that occurred during this war was the My Lai Massacre. This was the mass murder of unarmed civilians in South Vietnam during March 16, 1968. Around November 1969, the world saw this and was outraged with the killings of innocent civilians prompting and giving the public more reasons to stop the war. Although the war was very unpopular, men and women were still fighting and dying for America. Heroes such as Captain John W, Ripley of Dong Ha, Medal of Honor recipients, and overall troops that gave the ultimate sacrifice were forgotten for a brief period.
It is very reasonable to say that American soldiers entering the Vietnam were not disciplined enough. The average age of a soldier in Vietnam was eighteen. Nobody found it necessary to train these kids to handle all the problems they run into. The service ruined their late childhood and they had to grow up early! If anything went wrong, they would simply blame the officer in charge. Tim O'Brien illustrated this nicely in his story In The Field. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross felt guilty for Kiowa's death. He blamed himself for not thinking about his troops even though he did what he was supposed to do. Couple of soldiers were pissed off about Kiowa's death. They blamed it all on Lieutenant even though they knew it was not his fault. Then they let their emotions out and the situation turned to be out of control. O'Brien describes it syntactically. He is trying to persuade us that all the soldiers knew Jimmy was not guilty, but some soldiers just had to blame it on somebody.
Martin Luther king states 7 arguments to show his opposition to the Americans aiding the Vietnam at war. One of the reason he is against the war is that, he is against violence and America is promoting violence by fighting against the Liberation Front. It states as he walk among the ghettos of the North, and saw these “desperate, rejected and angry young men” using the “Molotov cocktails,” using violence he told them that violence is not the solution to their problems, rather they should approach a nonviolent solution. They asked him, then “what about Vietnam?” (King, 152) this question provoked him to speak against the war. In conclusion, in order for the violence to stop, in America, the government have to take the first step, so that the
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 and baring superiority.
On March 16, 1968, in the Quang Ngai region of Vietnam, specifically My Lai, the United States military was involved in an appalling slaughter of approximately 500 Vietnamese civilians. There are numerous arguments as to why this incident even had the capacity to occur. Although some of the arguments seem valid, can one really make excuses for the slaughter of innocent people? The company that was responsible for the My Lai incident was the Charlie Company, and throughout the company, there were many different accounts of what happened that reprehensible day. Therefore, there are a few contradictions about what had occurred, such as what the commanding officers' exact instructions for the soldiers were.
...ments and desensitized of their civilian mentality, making them walking, breathing killing machines. During war, this became apparent with the countless war crimes committed by soldiers; they were trained to not have any apprehension in regards to killing the Vietnamese, because they were “gooks” and of lesser form than a human. These violent events have scarred and traumatized some soldiers for the rest of their lives. Some soldiers have developed mental illnesses, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression. Some veterans will always live their lives damaged and in fear. Some have already taken their own life because the burden of knowing and reliving what they went through during the Vietnam War was too much to bear. The only goal of the war was to gain a victory, another notch on America’s belt, regardless of how many lives it cost, including American.
The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam. Sadly, this is not what happened. The Viet Cong (VC) had far better tactics than the US. The VC was told to 'nibble at the enemy' so that he could 'neither eat or sleep'. This worked very well. Another demoralizing tactic the VC used was their landmines; they were designed to blow the limbs off the soldiers without killing them. This tied up hospital beds and meant the soldiers had to carry the wounded back to the base.
Tragic events occur not only in the United States, but also all over the world. From these tragic events communities, families, and the government decide to place memorials for people that were lost and as a thank you for people protecting the citizens of the country. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Wall, in Washington D.C. is one of these cases. However, what exactly was the purpose of this memorial? The purpose of putting up the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was not only to thank the veterans for their bravery, but to remind future generations about happened during the Vietnam War. Also, the memorial is important to help people and the veterans to accept the fact that the war actually
The Vietnam War was one of the longest and most expensive wars in American history. It started from 1955 till April 30, 1975. This war lasted for almost 20 years. According to the article "How the U.S Got Involved In Vietnam" by Jeff Drake the U.S attacked Vietman and this wasn't supposed to happen. This war could have been avoidable. The 58,000 Americans didn’t have to die, nor did the 2,000,000 Vietnamese. The U.S government was responsible for their deaths. What the government told the public from the very beginning was that they were going to war because they had to stop the communist menace in Vietnam or other countries would follow suit; that they had to defend the democratic South Vietnamese government against the gathering Red hordes. While other people say it was an attempt by the U.S to suppress a heroic Vietnamese national liberation movement that had driven French colonialism out of its country (Drake, 1993).
March 16th 1968 oversaw a unit of highly trained US soldiers savagely execute several hundred Vietnamese civilians. They killed majority of the South Vietnamese Hamlet of My Lai. The My Lai massacre is remembered as one of the most vicious episodes of the Vietnam War. The victims of this merciless attack ranges from men, women to even small children. Many of these civilians were additionally sexually assaulted, tortured or injured severely. The plan was put into motion once the “Charlie” Company proposed a plan to torch the village that we’re suspicious of the Viet Cong. “The Viet Cong is a member of the communist guerilla movement in Vietnam that fought the South Vietnamese government forces along with the support of the North Vietnamese arms and opposed the South Vietnamese and US forces in the Vietnam War”( My Lai Massacre. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2014, from http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/my-lai-massacre). Their mission was to burn houses, kill off livestock, spoil crops, and pollute wells. Thus denying them of food, water, and shelter. The massacre of My Lai was ruthless and downright illegal, breaking the basic rules of Internal Humanitarian Law. Later on in the year of 2003 a similar massacre to My Lai took
Throughout the Vietnam War, the soldier's often saw Vietnam as dangerous territory full of the enemy. Truda Gray and Brian Martin, both specialized in sociology and are frequent contributors of Sociological articles; in addition, the reading My Lai: The Struggle over Outrage detailed an analysis of various parts of the My Lai Massacre. William Calley (the General of the
Most of the soldiers did not know what the overall purpose was of fighting the Vietnamese (Tessein). The young men “carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place” (O’Brien 21). The soldiers did not go to war for glory or honor, but simply to avoid the “blush of dishonor” (21). In fact, O’Brien states “It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather, they were to...
...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.
A war crime is an unjust act of violence in which a military personnel violates the laws and acceptable behaviors of a war. Despite all the violence in a war, a soldier shooting another is not considered a war crime because it is not a violation to the laws and practices of a war, and it is considered just. A war crime is defined as a “violations [violation] of the laws and customs of war” (“War Crimes”), and are attacks “against civilian populations, prisoners of war, or in some cases enemy soldiers in the field” (Friedman). War crimes are typically committed with weapons or by uncommon, cruel, devastating military methods and are “…Committed primarily by military personnel” (Friedman). There are many different types of war crimes one can commit, including “murder, ill treatment…murder or ill treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages or devastation not justified by military necessity” (Friedman). Originally constructed as international law by the London Charter on August 8th, 1945 and further developed by the Hague Conventions of 1899, 1907 and the Nuremberg trials, war crimes are aggressive, unacceptable and unjust actions performed by military workforce that occur during a war.