Thursday, June 16, 2016

The Worst Mass Shooting in U.S. History

My Lai massacre.jpg
Lest we forget. On March 16, 1968, in a single morning, U.S. soldiers murdered between 347 and 504 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians, including women, children, and infants. Only one U.S. soldier was ever convicted for the crimes. He ended up serving only three and a half years under house arrest.


Wikipedia
"Harry Stanley, a machine gunner from the Charlie Company, said during the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division's (CID) inquiry that the killings started without warning. He first observed a member of the 1st Platoon strike a Vietnamese man with a bayonet. Then, the same trooper pushed another villager into a well and threw a grenade in the well. Further, he saw fifteen or twenty people, mainly women and children, kneeling around a temple with burning incense. They were praying and crying. They were all killed by shots in the head. ...
A large group of approximately 70–80 villagers was rounded up by the 1st Platoon in Xom Lang, and then led to an irrigation ditch to the east of the settlement. All detainees were pushed into the ditch and then killed after repeated orders issued by Lieutenant Calley, who was also shooting. Paul Meadlo, a Private First Class (PFC), testified that he expended several M16 magazines. He recollected that women were allegedly saying "No VC" and were trying to shield their children. ...
William Thomas Allison, a professor of Military History at Georgia Southern University, wrote, "By midmorning, members of Charlie Company had killed hundreds of civilians and raped or assaulted countless women and young girls. They encountered no enemy fire and found no weapons in My Lai itself"."




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