Fifty years ago, on March 16, 1968, US soldiers attacked the Vietnamese village of My Lai. Even though the soldiers met no resistance, they slaughtered more than 500 Vietnamese women, children and old men over the next four hours, in what became known as the My Lai massacre.
After the massacre, the US military attempted to cover up what happened. But in 1969 a young reporter named Seymour Hersh revealed a 26-year-old soldier named William Calley was being investigated for killing 109 Vietnamese civilians. Memorials have been held in My Lai to mark the 50th anniversary of this horrific attack. The video below, Democracy Now! looks at the issue (you can also read the full transcript).
As a group of Vietnam War veterans and peace activists travel back to Vietnam to mark the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre, Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman and Juan González spoke with three members of the delegation: Vietnam veteran Paul Cox, who later co-founded the Veterans for Peace chapter in San Francisco; Susan Schnall, former Navy nurse who was court-martialed for opposing the Vietnam War; and longtime activist Ron Carver, who has organized an exhibit honoring the GI antiwar movement at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City. The video is below (and you can also read the full transcript.)
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