Indochina 2009

Photos by Adam Jones

These photos were taken during two months in Indochina
(Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) from May to July 2009.

Photo Gallery 54: Vietnam - The My Lai Massacre Memorial & Environs

"My Lai" is the familiar term for an interconnected series of masssacres that took place
over four hours on the morning of March 16, 1968, in Son My District a few kilometres from Quang Ngai. Three US
infantry companies were helicoptered in to an area that they had been told was a hotbed of Vietcong guerrilla activity.
Once there, platoon commander Lt. William Calley oversaw the rounding up and massacre of hundreds of defenseless civilians
(the troops never came under fire; the only soldier wounded shot himself in the foot to avoid participating in the carnage).
Similar killing sprees occurred in other nearby hamlets, including Co Luy on the coast, depicted later in the
gallery. The Wikipedia page on the massacre provides an informative summary of the terrible events.
The cover-up was as shameful as the massacre itself; only eight months later did Seymour Hersh manage to break
the story in the New York Times, and a formal investigation was launched. Of all the soldiers involved,
only Calley was ever formally prosecuted for the slaughter. Sentenced to life, he served three years of house
arrest before being pardoned by President Nixon.

You should also view the gut-wrenching documentary, Four Hours in My Lai, available in seven parts
on YouTube. Among other things, the film makes clear how terrible was the psychological impact on a number of the
soldiers who participated, and only later realized the extent of their atrocity. Varnado Simpson is interviewed
at the outset and at several other points in the film, following his third suicide attempt; he finally killed
himself in 1997.

We now know that My Lai was just one of probably hundreds of similar massacres of innocent children, women,
and men during the near-extermination campaign that US forces conducted in South Vietnam in 1968-69, in the
wake of the National Liberation Front's Tet Offensive uprising. In 2001, former US Senator Bob Kerrey confessed his own
involvement in one such massacre; see the Counterpunch article by Douglas Valentine for further information,
as well as the book by investigative reporters Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss, Tiger Force: A True Story of Men at War.

I.

A sign announces the entry to Son My District.

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II.

A map of the massacre sites, clustered around My Lai village, but note also the Co Luy
site at bottom right; photo taken later at the War Remnants Museum in Saigon.

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III.

A mass grave for 17 massacre victims at the My Lai memorial site.

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IV.

Grave of a one-year-old baby killed in the massacre.

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V.

US troops burned most My Lai dwellings to their foundations. There were also numerous
cases of the gang rape and sexual mutilation of village women.

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VI.

A mosaic at the memorial site.

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VII.

Ronald L. Haeberle was a US Army photographer who accompanied troops during the first hour
of the My Lai massacre. He took a number of official black-and-white pictures with his Army camera, and a number
of indelible colour images of massacre victims with his back-up camera. This photo shows women and children shortly before
their mass murder. According to a GI publicist who accompanied the photographer, "Haeberle jumped in to take a picture
of the group of women. The picture shows the thirteen-year-old girl hiding behind her mother, trying to button the top of
her pyjamas. When they noticed Ron, they left off and turned away as if everything was normal. Then a soldier asked, 'Well,
what'll we do with 'em?' 'Kill 'em,' another answered. I heard an M60 go off, a light machine-gun, and when we turned all
of them and the kids with them were dead."

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VIII.

The most haunting sight at the memorial is this ditch, where 170 villagers were gathered
and massacred by machine-gun fire.

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IX.

Detail of the plaque visible at top left in the preceding photo.

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X.

A statue commemorates the massacre victims at the My Lai memorial.

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XI.

A diorama in the memorial museum depicts the up-close killing.

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XII.

Hugh Thompson, Jr. was a helicopter pilot conducting reconnaissance over My Lai as the
massacre unfolded. In an astonishing act of courage, described in detail in the article just linked,
Thompson landed his helicopter between a group of cowering civilians and the US soldiers advancing to massacre
them. Moving toward the soldiers, he shouted to his door-gunners: "Y'all cover me! If these bastards open up on me
or these people, you open up on them [with the helicopter's M60 machine guns]. Promise me!" "They [the US soldiers]
were the enemy that day, I guess," he later recalled. Thompson succeeded in securing the evacuation of eleven civilians and radioed
news of the massacre back to base, at which point orders came down to stop the killing. Ostracized by his comrades, only
thirty years later did Thompson receive recognition for his heroism in the form of the US Soldier's Medal. His
1998 return to the My Lai site was later the subject of an unforgettable 60 Minutes profile. Thompson died of cancer in 2006
at the age of 62. His heroic act is also commemorated in this display in the memorial museum; the bottom
photo was taken on his return to the site.

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XIII.

The memorial plaque in the museum lists 504 victims of the March 16, 1968 massacres.

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XIV.

Comments in the museum's visitor's book.

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XV.

Rifle cartridges from the massacre in a museum display case.

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XVI.

The sandal of a child victim of the massacre.

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All photos copyright 2009 by Adam Jones, unless otherwise indicated. These images may be freely used for educational and other non-commercial purposes, if the author is credited and notified. For commercial use, please contact the author. All photos are available in high-resolution versions suitable for print publication.

adamj_jones@hotmail.com