My Lai Massacre, << mee ly MAS uh kuhr, >> was a military action during the Vietnam War (1957-1975) in which United States soldiers deliberately killed many unarmed civilians. On March 16, 1968, at the height of the war, U.S. Army troops entered the small South Vietnamese community of My Lai 4 in search of enemy forces. In past weeks, there had been many U.S. casualties in the area. The troops found only women, children, and elderly men in My Lai. The soldiers, who were partly under the command of Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr., rounded up and then shot and killed hundreds of the civilians. The soldiers first tortured or raped some of them.
The U.S. military tried to cover up the massacre, but information about it became public in November 1969. Although 25 men were charged with crimes, only Calley was found guilty. In 1971, he was sentenced to life in prison. Some Americans said Calley was unfairly singled out. They argued that Vietnam combat was so stressful that cruelty was inevitable. Calley’s sentence was repeatedly reduced, and in 1974, he was released. The My Lai action caused Americans’ support for the war effort to drop, at a time when support was already low. American combat troops left Vietnam in 1973.
See also Vietnam War (Growing protest) .
