My Lai: An American Atrocity in the Vietnam War

by William Thomas Allison

Overview

Allison tells the story of a terrible moment in American history and explores how to deal with the aftermath.

On March 16, 1968, American soldiers killed as many as five hundred Vietnamese men, women, and children in a village near the South China Sea. In My Lai William Thomas Allison explores and evaluates the significance of this horrific event. How could such a thing have happened? Who (or what) should be held accountable? How do we remember this atrocity and try to apply its lessons, if any?

My Lai has fixed the attention of Americans of various political stripes for more than forty years. The breadth of writing on the massacre, from news reports to scholarly accounts, highlights the difficulty of establishing fact and motive in an incident during which confusion, prejudice, and self-preservation overwhelmed the troops.

Son of a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War—and aware that the generation who lived through the incident is aging—Allison seeks to ensure that our collective memory of this shameful episode does not fade.

Well written and accessible, Allison’s book provides a clear narrative of this historic moment and offers suggestions for how to come to terms with its aftermath.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421406459
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2012
Series:	Witness to History
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	995,841
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

William Thomas Allison is a professor of history at Georgia Southern University. He is author of Military Justice in Vietnam: The Rule of Law in an American War.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 Charlie Company and Vietnam 4

2 March 16, 1968 27

3 Aftermath 52

4 Discovery 75

5 Trial 95

6 Responsibility 116

Epilogue 129

Acknowledgments 135

Chronology 137

Notes 141

Suggested Further Reading 159

Index 163

Editorial Reviews

This will not only help students remember and understand the event, but also put it in context and see how far the military has come in its discipline and wartime preparation.
—Kevin Braam, H-War, H-Net Reviews

Allison delivers a tightly drawn rendering of the events preceding, actual incidents involving, and resolution concerning the My Lai massacre that beset a South Vietnamese village during spring 1968.
—Choice

Allison provides a detailed and highly useful narrative of all the complexities involved in this story of one of the darkest days in the history of the U.S. Army. My Lai: An American Atrocity in the Vietnam War is strongly recommended for anyone interested in the Vietnam War, particularly serving officers.
—Lt. Col. James H. Willbanks, Military Review

From the Publisher

Allison delivers a tightly drawn rendering of the events preceding, actual incidents involving, and resolution concerning the My Lai massacre that beset a South Vietnamese village during spring 1968.

Choice

Allison provides a detailed and highly useful narrative of all the complexities involved in this story of one of the darkest days in the history of the U.S. Army. My Lai: An American Atrocity in the Vietnam War is strongly recommended for anyone interested in the Vietnam War, particularly serving officers.

Military Review - Lt. Col. James H. Willbanks

On March 16, 1968, the U.S. Americal Division's Charlie Company attacked Son My (My Lai) village to root out enemy troops reported to be hiding there. No Communist forces were found, yet more than 500 villagers, mostly women and children, were raped and murdered. Allison (history, Georgia State Univ.) describes the massacre, the military and government investigations, and the trials that followed. The army first concluded that Capt. Ernest Medina and Lt. William Calley conducted a successful military operation. However, continuing rumors and the persistence of a few soldier witnesses led to the formal military inquiry; both officers were charged with hundreds of murders. Calley was sentenced to life in prison, but on appeal served only three years; Medina was acquitted on all counts. Allison concludes that the massacre was in part caused by vague orders, poor leadership, and a mindset that all rural peasants were potential enemies. VERDICT Although Michael Belknap's The Vietnam War on Trial: The My Lai Massacre and the Court Martial of Lieutenant Calley is a more thorough account, Allison presents an overview for today's students that will also appeal to general readers.—KH

Library Journal

This will not only help students remember and understand the event, but also put it in context and see how far the military has come in its discipline and wartime preparation.

H-War, H-Net Reviews - Kevin Braam