My Lai Massacre Analysis

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The My Lai Massacre is an event rarely discussed in the context of American history, yet it remains as one of the many shames associated with the Vietnam War. Though reports vary, between three hundred and fifty to five hundred unarmed civilians were slaughtered in March 1968 by a company of American soldiers in the small village of My Lai. Prior to the slaughter, some of the women were found to be gang-raped with some of their bodies having been mutilated. The My Lai Massacre is representative of the Vietnam War in several ways, as it shows attempts at hiding the events from the general public and the influence that American-based political stakeholders have in information that is released to the media; it shows a depiction of the American military that is contrary to the narrative that had been perpetuated at that point; and it also highlights a significant point in history when the American public began to get a glimpse into a Vietnam War that was not necessarily the Vietnam War that the general public was told.
This analysis delves into how the My Lai massacre came to happen and what was revealed in the handling of the consequences of these actions. Through exploring the contents of Olson and Roberts’ My Lai: A …show more content…
The United States military no longer could be positioned as ‘the good guys’. The physical abuse, the rape, and the murder makes the United States’ military similar to any other national military or rebel group in the world, doing what they need to do to serve an agenda. The soldiers who acted on that day did not necessarily do so maliciously, but acted because they thought that it was what needed to be done according to the orders they were given. How the My Lai Massacre happened and why it happened are important to note, but analyzing the event after the fact reveals the Vietnam War as a new kind of war—a war that could no longer be hidden from the

My Lai Massacre Analysis

impacts O’Brien morally is the My Lai Massacre. O’Brien served in the same division of the infantry that had units involved in the massacre. My Lai Massacre was the mass killing of approximately five hundred unarmed civilians by U.S forces. Among victims, there were men, women that were gang-raped, children, and even elderly people. In regards to the massacre, twenty-six soldiers were charged with war crime. O’Brien recalls that when his unit reaches the area around My Lai: "we all wondered why the place…

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The My Lai Massacre Sources Of Sadism Analysis

Authority is what drives humans to make decisions, whether they agree with them or not. The article, “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience,” by Herbert Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton gives psychological insight in to the process which military personnel go through before committing war crimes sanctioned by an authority. People in war go through distinct processes: Authorization, Routinization, and Dehumanization before committing their crime under authority. Consequently, the article, “The…

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