My Lai Marks Massacre's 40th Anniversary

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

My Lai Marks Massacre's 40th Anniversary
By BEN STOCKING – 1 hour ago

MY LAI, Vietnam (AP) — Lawrence Colburn returned to My Lai on Saturday and found hope at the site of one of the most notorious chapters of the Vietnam War. On the 40th anniversary of the massacre of up to 500 unarmed Vietnamese villagers, the former helicopter gunner was reunited with a young man he rescued from rampaging U.S. soldiers.

On March 16, 1968, Colburn found 8-year-old Do Ba clinging to his mother's corpse in a ditch full of blood and the bodies of more than 100 people who had been mowed down. Nearly all the victims were unarmed women, children and elderly. "Today I see Do Ba with a wife and a baby," said Colburn, a member of a three-man Army helicopter crew that landed in the midst of the massacre and intervened to stop the killing. "He's transformed himself from being a broken, lonely man. Now he's complete. He's a perfect example of the human spirit, of the will to survive."

- snip -

Buddhist monks in saffron robes led the mourners in prayer Saturday outside a museum that has been erected to remember the dead. An official memorial program will be held on Sunday.

Among those coming to pray was Ha Thi Quy, 83, a My Lai survivor who suffers from anger and depression four decades after the slaughter. Soldiers from the Army's Charlie Company shot her in the leg and killed her mother, her 16-year-old daughter and her 6-year-old son. Her husband later died of injuries from the massacre and another son had to have an arm and a leg amputated after suffering gunshot wounds that day.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ht39rriiXzQtZFQI4c01...

[niyad]

1. I was telling a friend about MyLai this morning, and how one of colin powell's

first acts in the military was the attempted cover-up. She didn't know that bit.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Yep. Every time someone brings up how Powell seems to be a stand up guy, this has to be brought up.

[Hissyspit]

3. Actually, the U.N. 'scare us into war with Iraq' crap is enough.

But, yes, it goes back a long time.

[niyad]

5. so now he feels bad about the UN speech, right? that doesn't

bring back the dead on all sides, doesn't heal the wounded, doesn't restore that which has been destroyed. had he had one shred of honour or decency, he would have resigned before making that lying speech. he can't say he didn't know the truth, we all did, and he should at least have had the information we all did.

I despise him, and won't let anybody who mentions him forget what a lying POS he is.

[Hissyspit]

7. I despise him, too, and it is really annoying when people talk about him as reasonable

or one of the good ones. Ignorance abounds.

[bluestateguy]

4. One of the most shameful episodes in US history

And William Calley still walks free today.

[niyad]

6. actually, that was only one incident of many. years ago, the

toledo blade did an article on something called the "tigers"--sorry, I don't have the link right now, but the series of articles was sickening about what our government, our military, was doing in vietnam.

email me and remind me to find the link. I will be offline shortly.

[douglas9]

10. Tiger Force Article

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Catego...

[noel adamson]

8. Every day was a Mai Lai in North Vietnam's densely populated cities.

[MessiahRp]

9. Yep and John Kerry was a traitor for saying that US Soldiers had done this stuff

He took ridiculous flack for it when he originally testified for it on Capitol Hill and he took shameful flack from the willfull ignorance of the right wingers who tried to paint him as anti-American with it in 2004.

Shame them all.

Rp

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. Hugh Thompson, Jr., Glenn Andreotta, and Lawrence Colburn

On that morning 40 years ago, Colburn flew over My Lai on a reconnaissance mission with pilot Hugh Thompson and crew chief Glenn Andreotta. After several runs over the area, they realized that unarmed civilians were being slaughtered by U.S. troops on the ground.

The members of Charlie Company were a "search and destroy" mission, trying to track down elusive Vietcong guerrillas, whose tactics had depleted the company's ranks.

The company's soldiers began shooting in My Lai that day even though they hadn't come under attack. It quickly escalated into an orgy of killing.

Thompson landed the helicopter between the villagers and the marauding troops. While Colburn and Andreotta covered him, Thompson persuaded the members of Charlie Company to stop shooting.
....

Andreotta ... died later in the war,...

I remember reading about Hugh Thompson. I have a relative with that name, but he is not the same person.

[eppur_se_muova]

12. link to BBC story, with evidence from "rediscovered" investigation records:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Supersedeas]

13. nothing to see here -- feed them more Kristen and Spitzer stories

[ohio2007]

14. winter soldiers never die...they just slowly fade away. nt

[4bucksagallon]

15. There were many mini my lais in vietnam.

There was also Son Thang where 16 women and children were killed by members of Bravo 1/7 marines. The courts martial involved, indirectly, Oliver North who came to the defense of one of the marines. Do a search for Son Thang a small hamlet near LZ Ross, and you will see. I also know that it was NOT an isolated incident.............as the republicans would like you to think.