My Lai...Haditha...and America's whitewashers
alarab: It was thirty-eight years ago that a platoon from Charlie Company (11th Brigade, Americal Division) commanded by a young Army lieutenant murdered hundreds of old men, women, and children in a small Vietnam village, presumably with the tacit approval of military higher-ups. A memorial later erected there by the Vietnamese lists 504 names as victims of the massacre, ranging in ages from 1 to 82.
My Lai had its victims, a gruesome display at par with the worst incidents that have come to light in the last century. It also had its gang of perpetrators; soldiers under the command of Lt. William Calley. And it even had four heroes; three from a helicopter crew (Thompson, Colburn and Andreotta) who saved the lives of a few villagers; and a man in Calley's platoon whose conscience would not permit him to take part in the massacre (Bernhardt). But beyond heroes and villains, for the next few years My Lai would also have a never-ending series of whitewashers, who in good conscience must also be considered villains...by choice or by default.
The whitewashers came in all ranks of importance, from the anticipated ever-present military brass, that initiated and maintained the cover-up, to a host of politicians and people in leadership, all the way to the Commander-in-Chief, President Nixon in this case. The incredible bottom line to this holocaust was, however, that the only person found guilty for this carnage was Lt. Calley, who ended up serving 3 ½ years of "house arrest" in his quarters at Fort Benning, Georgia. The entire sordid affair became not just a national disgrace for which the country could do penance, but a monumental whitewash that to date Americans prefer not to talk about.
In a way, the enablers to the entire whitewash were the American public. Not only were the villains and whitewashers de facto exonerated, but the four heroes in the plot became traitors...to their military comrades, and also to much of the population. Read more**
** If you use firefox you may need to revert to IE to get at this page - alarab is one of the few sites around that simply will not work with ff.
My Lai had its victims, a gruesome display at par with the worst incidents that have come to light in the last century. It also had its gang of perpetrators; soldiers under the command of Lt. William Calley. And it even had four heroes; three from a helicopter crew (Thompson, Colburn and Andreotta) who saved the lives of a few villagers; and a man in Calley's platoon whose conscience would not permit him to take part in the massacre (Bernhardt). But beyond heroes and villains, for the next few years My Lai would also have a never-ending series of whitewashers, who in good conscience must also be considered villains...by choice or by default.
The whitewashers came in all ranks of importance, from the anticipated ever-present military brass, that initiated and maintained the cover-up, to a host of politicians and people in leadership, all the way to the Commander-in-Chief, President Nixon in this case. The incredible bottom line to this holocaust was, however, that the only person found guilty for this carnage was Lt. Calley, who ended up serving 3 ½ years of "house arrest" in his quarters at Fort Benning, Georgia. The entire sordid affair became not just a national disgrace for which the country could do penance, but a monumental whitewash that to date Americans prefer not to talk about.
In a way, the enablers to the entire whitewash were the American public. Not only were the villains and whitewashers de facto exonerated, but the four heroes in the plot became traitors...to their military comrades, and also to much of the population. Read more**
** If you use firefox you may need to revert to IE to get at this page - alarab is one of the few sites around that simply will not work with ff.
posted by exoplanet at 2:28 AM
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