November 12 in History
1969 – Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre by US forces
In a cable filed through Dispatch News Service and picked up by more than 30 newspapers in the USA on this day in 1969, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh exposed the My Lai Massacre, a war crime committed by the United States Army on March 16, 1968, involving the mass murder of unarmed civilians in Sơn Mỹ village, Quảng Ngãi province, South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War.
At least 347 and up to 504 civilians, almost all women, children, and elderly men, were murdered by US soldiers from C Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade and B Company, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the 23rd (Americal) Division (organized as part of Task Force Barker). Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated, and some soldiers mutilated and raped children as young as 12. The incident was the largest massacre of civilians by US forces in the 20th century.
The original investigation—which had been conducted in April 1968 by members of the 11th Infantry Brigade, the unit involved in the affair—concluded that no massacre had occurred and that no further action was warranted. However, when the cover-up was discovered, the Army Criminal Investigation Division conducted a new investigation. Additionally, Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland appointed Lt. Gen. William R. Peers to “explore the nature and scope” of the original investigation to determine the extent of the cover-up. He found that 30 persons either participated in the atrocity or knew of it and failed to do anything about it. In the end, only 14 were charged with crimes. All eventually had their charges dismissed or were acquitted, except 1st Lt. William L. Calley, who was found guilty of murdering 22 civilians and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, Calley’s sentence was eventually reduced and he was released from prison in 1974.
However, Hersh in his dispatch wrote: “The Army says he [Calley] deliberately murdered at least 109 Vietnamese civilians during a search-and-destroy mission in March 1968, in a Viet Cong stronghold known as ‘Pinkville.’”
-ENCL
Photo Caption – Photo taken by United States Army photographer Ronald L. Haeberle on March 16, 1968, in the aftermath of the My Lai massacre showing mostly women and children dead on a road –Wikipedia
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