The My Lai massacre, one of the darkest pages of the Vietnam War, was the mass murder of civilians carried out by US soldiers in the villages of My Lai, My Khe and Son My in the Quang Ngai region on March 16, 1968. The incident occurred simultaneously not only in these three villages, but also in neighboring settlements.
The US troops responsible for the attack were carried out by a group of soldiers under the command of Lieutenant William Calley. According to the official records of the US army, this tragedy, in which 347 civilians were murdered, went down in history as one of the bloodiest civilian disasters of the war. The massacre, which was announced to the world public with the news of a British journalist a year after the incident, was also documented with photographs by the US army.
Most of those killed were innocent civilians living within South Vietnam's borders and who were not Viet Cong members. This situation led to increasing reactions both within the United States and internationally.
Stopping the massacre happened by chance. Hugh Thompson Jr., who made a reconnaissance flight with the USA's light Hiller OH-23 Raven model military helicopter. When he and his team witnessed the horror on the ground, they realized they had no choice but to intervene. In addition to reporting the situation to headquarters, Thompson threatened to shoot US soldiers if the massacre continued.
He and his team carried some Vietnamese civilians he was able to save to a safe zone. However, Thompson's report was ignored; He was even ostracized by his colleagues and subjected to death threats. This silence within the US military also showed itself during the investigations that followed the incident.
During the lawsuit, a lawsuit was filed against Lieutenant William Calley and 14 soldiers accompanying him. However, the US judicial system eventually acquitted almost all of these soldiers. Calley's life sentence was commuted to only two years of house arrest with the amnesty issued by US President Richard Nixon. This decision was met with great reaction both within the United States and around the world, and started a permanent debate about how inadequate the punishments for war crimes could be.