Comments have mentioned the heroic helicopter commander who intervened in the slaughter. But let's not forget that there is blame here: Lieut. William Calley ordered the execution of as many as 150 Vietnamese civilians during the massacre. He was originally sentenced to life in prison with hard labor. President Nixon commuted his sentence to three years house arrest. He died last year at the age of 80.
The fact that the perpetrators of this massacre (and rapes) were not really punished was one of the things in my young life that opened my eyes to the reality of what the US was and is.
Previously I had been super into military history. I read everything I could about WWII, felt very good about most of that, like we were the “good guys” for real.
Then I read about the Korean War and after I learned enough felt good about that as well, though I disagreed with MacArthur’s push to the Yalu River as well as his rhetoric… it seemed unnecessarily provocative to me and contributed to the war being worse and longer than it had to be at that point… so I felt like him being removed from power was a good response from our country.
Next I started learning about Vietnam and there were red flags from the start. Fact after fact and event after event left me wondering what the heck had happened to being on the right side of history and being that “good guy” from previous wars. I saw how a certain sort of person in the US tended to pick a side based not on the right or wrong of the situation or the reality of things but rather on the simple fact that they were on a side and would back that side no matter how cruel or wrong it was. This confused me as a kid because I had been operating on a sense that moral correctness and doing things for the greater good was the goal and now the Vietnam War was showing me that this was no longer the case. We were clearly and unambiguously the “bad guys”. Simply learning the details of what happened leading up to and during the war and how we got to be there led to an inescapably damning conclusion that this was so. This particular event and this photo really flipped a switch in young me and solidified my now very critical opinion of both the Vietnam War and America as a whole.
It was disgusting and inexcusable and cruel on the same level as the cruelty of our enemies in other conflicts. A hell of a mirror to have thrust into a kid’s face. Unfortunately it provided lessons that we did not learn from, as evidenced by what came in the intervening decades. Lessons I’m not sure we, or really anyone else, will ever learn.
These_Foolish_Things on September 1st, 2025 at 14:41 UTC »
Comments have mentioned the heroic helicopter commander who intervened in the slaughter. But let's not forget that there is blame here: Lieut. William Calley ordered the execution of as many as 150 Vietnamese civilians during the massacre. He was originally sentenced to life in prison with hard labor. President Nixon commuted his sentence to three years house arrest. He died last year at the age of 80.
Moni_HH on September 1st, 2025 at 15:25 UTC »
These women were raped first. I hope the soldiers that did this are burning in hell.
gaoshan on September 1st, 2025 at 16:16 UTC »
The fact that the perpetrators of this massacre (and rapes) were not really punished was one of the things in my young life that opened my eyes to the reality of what the US was and is.
Previously I had been super into military history. I read everything I could about WWII, felt very good about most of that, like we were the “good guys” for real.
Then I read about the Korean War and after I learned enough felt good about that as well, though I disagreed with MacArthur’s push to the Yalu River as well as his rhetoric… it seemed unnecessarily provocative to me and contributed to the war being worse and longer than it had to be at that point… so I felt like him being removed from power was a good response from our country.
Next I started learning about Vietnam and there were red flags from the start. Fact after fact and event after event left me wondering what the heck had happened to being on the right side of history and being that “good guy” from previous wars. I saw how a certain sort of person in the US tended to pick a side based not on the right or wrong of the situation or the reality of things but rather on the simple fact that they were on a side and would back that side no matter how cruel or wrong it was. This confused me as a kid because I had been operating on a sense that moral correctness and doing things for the greater good was the goal and now the Vietnam War was showing me that this was no longer the case. We were clearly and unambiguously the “bad guys”. Simply learning the details of what happened leading up to and during the war and how we got to be there led to an inescapably damning conclusion that this was so. This particular event and this photo really flipped a switch in young me and solidified my now very critical opinion of both the Vietnam War and America as a whole.
It was disgusting and inexcusable and cruel on the same level as the cruelty of our enemies in other conflicts. A hell of a mirror to have thrust into a kid’s face. Unfortunately it provided lessons that we did not learn from, as evidenced by what came in the intervening decades. Lessons I’m not sure we, or really anyone else, will ever learn.