Revisiting the My Lai Massacre

18 September 2023

Dear Readership,

Last night I spent over an hour reading an article concerning the Vietnam War focusing on the My Lai incident.  It was a very absorbing and detailed description.  It was well-developed in particulars that pertain to the subject.  I cannot disagree with the article as the research and testimonies were real. The shooting of civilians, especially old men, women, and children, is repugnant.  However, I would like to make a few comments about the other side of the coin for readers’ consideration.

1. The biggest problem in this entire war was President LBJ.  Without any doubt, he didn’t know what he was doing.  Overriding the advice of his Flag Officer Staff, he micromanaged the war and his ego got too involved in not losing.  (I have spoken to in-country Captain-level Air Force officers who were called directly by LBJ from the White House).  Sometimes winning is a truce, saving lives of Americans and their foes. 
2. Very dear to my heart are the names of five of my friends on the Vietnam Wall included with their 58,220 fellow warriors. I’ve been there.  I served in Thailand during the war and we touched upon many close encounters with the enemy, but not quite as risky as the Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia Theater.  War is HELL, truly (General William Tecumseh Sherman).  Imagine your best buddy being shot by a sniper right in front of you or watching him stepping on a booby trap and having his legs and penis scattered thirty feel away?  Imagine experiencing that for one year with only a few breaks.  Picture being a middle-class American troop, or a farm boy, or a female military member from a ghetto, suddenly being sent for one year minimum to a third-world nation and being threatened 24/7.  Envision rockets coming into your base or fire base at random.  Rockets and mortar shells scream and do little harm, but mortar shells can kill you.  Men, women and children were fitted and embedded with vests of satchel charges.  They would wander into a crowd of US military, and allies with smiles on their faces would freely explode the ordnance, killing or wounding many.
3. Importantly, all who served there experienced the following dilemma.  Our friend by day was our assassin by night.  Trusted Vietnamese were famous for this.  Gentle villagers appeared to be trustworthy as they tended their fields and rice paddies but at night became cutthroat slayers of our fellow Americans.  Booby traps abounded.  Who planted them? Local folks!  A Google search reveals, “Antipersonnel booby traps ranged from sharpened ‘punji’ stakes, venomous snakes, and scorpions buried in camouflaged holes, to Communist and American mines and artillery rounds, and even coconuts packed with explosives.”  This was the fifth column (defined as “a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders”) that gutted our American and allied warriors.  Who had our backs?  Us only.
4. Countless Americans today suffer from PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) from the mess described in the article and my writing above.  This is unquestionable proof that this was a nearly impossible situation from all angles.  I wonder how the Vietnamese are suffering?  Military people do not start wars; politicians start wars and the military pays the price.

Perhaps some saw the My Lai violations as a slaughter of civilians and violations of the Rules of Engagement and the Geneva Convention Accords, but I am simply providing another view of a depraved situation which politicians got our country into; the public needs to monitor geopolitical approaches by our elected officials so malicious history doesn’t repeat itself. 

Regards,

James M. Hoover, CACM
Captain, USAF (Ret)