My country-love it or leave it was an expression I heard a lot while growing up. My politics evolved in the south during desegregation, the Kennedy assassination, the MLK assassination, RFK assassination, and the shooting of George Wallace, and Vietnam. A lot was happening during those years. I also witnessed the Vietnam POWs arrive home after years of incarceration. One of those broken men who got off that plane was John McCain. I witnessed Watergate and the resignation of Richard Nixon on my TV screen. Much of what I grew up thinking gradually wore away.
I supported the Vietnam War. My college didn’t have massive demonstrations. Most people dated at Quantico, Fort Belvoir, McNair, etc. I had a bf of long standing who was a Vietnam vet. I am disgusted to say that one of my favorite movies was Green Berets. I still like the song. I also liked Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and The Graduate so I suppose I wasn’t totally warped. It was perhaps during those times that I learned to see both sides of a situation.
One tragedy out of the Vietnam War, and there are many, is the My Lai massacre. I revisted that incident today. some 40 plus years later, in an excellent documentary from the PBS American Experience series It is amazing what 40 years does to the human mind. 40 years and a huge heap of hind sight makes things incredibly different. Many of the people like I know used to be supported Lt. William Calley, the arch villan of My Lai, and thought he was railroaded. Twenty six U.S. soldiers were originally charged in the My Lai incident. Only Lt. Calley was court martialed. The rest of the men had charges dismissed. Calley served about 4 months in the stockade. He served some three years under house arrest and was eventually pardoned by Richard Nixon.
According to that source of all sources, Wikipedia:
Three U.S. servicemen who made an effort to halt the massacre and protect the wounded were denounced by U.S. Congressmen, received hate mail and death threats and found mutilated animals on their doorsteps.[5] Only 30 years after the event were their efforts honored.[6]
As I watched the events unfold on the screen this afternoon, where the full story of My Lai unfolded, I was horrified. How could I have ever supported Calley? How could I not have questioned the events of that time? Perhaps 40 years teaches us something. Perhaps I was too young to fully accept what had gone on. Perhaps there was simply too much cover up.
Are things that different today? Are horrible events covered up? Is our military that perfect that we trust their every word? How about Pat Tillman? According to Veteranstoday.com, Pat’s father wrote the following to an army investigator:
– The U.S. Army lied continually to Pat Tillman’s family while obscenely using his service as propaganda for lies. Tillman’s father to Army and Brigadier General Gary M. Jones: “In sum: F*ck you… and yours.” He knew he was being lied to.
The point of this thread was to direct our contributors to the PBS American Experience video: My Lai
I had forgotten. I needed to remember. You can watch right on your computer. It is certainly not a comfortable video. But it needs to be seen. It is an important component of American history. The My Lai Massacre was showed mob mentality, what happens when we devalue other people, what happens when people are afraid, and what happens when leaders fail to set the tone with their conduct. It also shows that the military, like other groups, protect their own. Who will you believe?
Ah, could it be something to do with the very nature of WAR? Sympathy for any but your own is hard to come by when all around you are people that smile at you one second, and then could slit your throat the next. I’m not defending what occurred, but I can understand that life and death situations are no place for political correctness, unless you place little value on your own life. It’s easy for those never facing death to sit back and comment about horrific acts done by those in that situation, but you should ask yourself if you could have even kept your own sanity much less think kindly of those possibly bent on taking your life. Think of the fear a huge amusement ride instills in people, and this knowing that they really aren’t going to die, and then think of those in a true life and death situation where that fear is constant minute to minute, day after day. There’s two sides to every situation, and in this PC society both need to be thoroughly considered.
How about some stories about other villages like My Lai where a group of ‘compassionate’ US soldiers walked in and then never walked out again. I’m sure there are many, but then that’s not a story of massacre, no, that’s just WAR isn’t it. Think about it. I’m sure those names on that wall in DC could tell you a few.
You should watch the video. I thought it was very well done and it covered all those things that you brought up. Of course, when the stories surfaced and Calley went on trial, that is exactly what was said….slit your throat the next minute.
The problem here is that there had been no throat slitting and there is a way to handle civilian combatants. None of this was done. I supported Calley as a young person and fell for it all, hook, line and sinker. I also know of people who had little regard for Vietnamese life. We all heard stories.
It is difficult to draw the line. I agree SA. And that is what makes the story of My Lai so interesting this far along after the fact. It was a turning point and I am not exactly sure how. Regardless, it was incredibly devise.
You were in Vietnam were you not, SA?
Dh (Vietnam vet) and I will try to watch to watch that video tonight together or separately later on our computers.
The Sixties were certainly an exciting decade in which to live – many great steps forward, many divisive issues, and much angst. I feel as though the divisions in the country were of a more social, moral nature then, whereas now, the divisions are social and money-based.
M-h, I was on the other side at the time and still feel the same way… anti-war. College sit-ins were as far as I took it, but I had friends who were draft card burners, members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the SDS. One couldn’t even count on the draftees or volunteers who were in Vietnam to fall in line – there were fraggings, desertions, trips to the brig when CO status failed.
I suspect that all wars have had Lt. Calleys and the troops that followed those types of orders, just as all wars have had troops which have balked. The men at most risk afterward are those that witnessed but didn’t participate in the action.
My parents – who supported the war at the time – would tell you that I’ve always been their stubborn, recalcitrant kid. Over the decades even they changed their tune. My father had voted for Nixon, but later grew to dislike him. They mellowed as they grew older and saw more sides to the story. (Watergate was probably the first incident to move my father away from his firmly-entrenched conservatism.)
Why does that not surprise me? 😉
My father kicked me squarely in the ass for showing him how much I learned in college. He said I thought I knew all of the answers. I learned not to ‘share’ my ideas at home.
I really got brain-washed and thought that VN was a good idea…the domino theory and all. Stop those communists!! Of course I think Mcnamara’s daughter was a year or 2 ahead of me in school.
My alma mater was pretty loyal to the military because of the location.
I suppose what changed me the most was seeing those 50,000 names on that Wall and I had to ask myself WHY? I don’t like that many of my generation give or take a little either way being used for cannon fodder in a war that had no goals, no objectives, and was not winnable. General Westmoreland who was the folk hero was basically a liar. It was a politicians war. It sickens me and Calley sickens me…not so much him. He was a little shrimp who was just trying to grow a little taller.
It causes me to have a great many mixed emotions. I hope you and Dh get to see it. It was extremely well-done, I thought. Definitely not one sided.
It was one year ago today that this Calley guy for the first time apologized and expressed remorse.