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My Lai, Kent State, Jackson State. Innocent civilians murdered in cold blood by red-blooded American boys. How could it happen? General Westmorland, who commanded American troops in Vietnam during the war was infamously quoted as saying something to the effect that the Vietnamese didn't treat life in the same way as we did in the west, that somehow they didn't value it as strongly as we did. This was supposed to explain their zeal in battle and the sacrifices, including death in battle, that they were willing to sacrifice for their freedom. And of course, to explain away why Americans just didn't want to die as much for their causes (or the General's causes).
What does go through the mind of an individual, such as Lt. Calley at My Lai as he shoots bullets into live flesh, like that of Ti On Truong, age 1, resident of My Lai, (see photo above with names of victims.) thus ending his life? What is the value of life at a moment like this. How can we begin to compare cultures? How and why do we make such judgements?
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When Bill arrived in My Lai, "The place was really deceptive because it was like the most beautiful day in June in Ohio. It was brilliantly sunny. The sky was very innocent and the clouds were rolling by. It was juxtaposed to the brutal memory of what transpired here." |
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What did happen on March 16, 1968 in the village of Son My in the hamlet of My Lai. For a pretty detailed and concise history link to The My Lai Massacre, a 3 part series from about.com. But, here are some of the basics:
 | 504 Vietnamese civilians killed, all unarmed, including women, children and infants. |
| American troops faced no resistance what-so-ever when they entered the hamlet of My Lai. |
| No attempt was made by the American Soldiers to identify any of the villagers as enemy. |
| Only three rifles were found in the village. |
| The villagers were forced out of their huts under threats of death and with grenades,
and pushed into two ditches where they were murdered. . |
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"I saw the ditch where the U. S. soldiers forced the Vietnamese to lay down and were therefore exterminated." " ...It was certainly emblematic of our policy. There were, I am sure, many other My Lais. This is where they got caught and it doesn't make any of the others more or less tragic than this atrocity." |
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Bills' tour guide was also a resident of My Lai. She was not yet born when the massacre occurred but Bill could tell that living in the hamlet, where it took place had an effect on her. She had "a very sad face, very kind. I think that she didn't radiate any of the depression that she presumably felt just growing up in that village...But she had that very, very lonely look in her eyes, very hurt. I was completely touched by that interaction." |
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While taking the tour Bill met "a gentleman ...at the [My Lai] museum [who] was an NVA soldier that brought his family like Americans might bring their family to a Civil War battlefield." "He was a communist soldier and we were just conversing. And I just felt so badly. I was so moved the whole time I was in My Lai. It was one of the most anguishing experiences, actually, of my life to be there, [to be] face to face with what my country had done and this was encapsulated , everything, in one moment of time in one place on the map. I began to cry, we were shaking hands. He let go of my hand and he hugged me and said, 'I love you.'" |  |
| "Just like anything else in life, it's not what you expect to encounter, but it was even more profound...[than] I expected. It was just a different experience than I anticipated. It was very cleansing and really purged some of my demons about the whole thing." |  |
The final leg of Bill's "Guilt Trip" takes him to Hanoi where he issues HIS official apology to the people of Vietnam after visiting a hospital in Hanoi where the scars of war are still yet unhealed. I am going to include a copy of Bill's handwritten apology from a link on this page. The story behind it, if not yet apparent, will be told in the final chapter of this narrative.
