My Lai Massacre

The My Lai massacre was the mass killing of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians by United States Army soldiers in the village of Son My in Quang Ngai province during the Vietnam War. Soldiers of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, entered the hamlets expecting to find Viet Cong fighters, but found only villagers, mostly women, children and the elderly, and killed hundreds of them. The helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson intervened to rescue some civilians. The army initially covered up the incident, but it became public in 1969 through reporting by Seymour Hersh and photographs by Ronald Haeberle. Lieutenant William Calley was convicted in 1971, and the massacre deepened American opposition to the war.

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