Fifty years ago, 3,500 US marines landed in South Vietnam, marking the start of the US ground war in Vietnam. By 1968, the US had half a million troops in Vietnam. The war continued until April 1975. As many as 3.8 million Vietnamese died during the war.
On March 16, 1968, hundreds of innocent unarmed elderly people, women, children and infants were murdered by more than 20 members of Charlie Company, United States’ 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, in the tiny village of My Lai. Some of the women were raped before being killed. The My Lai massacre, the most shocking episode of the Vietnam War, prompted global outrage when it became public knowledge in November 1969. After this mass slaughter in Vietnam, only one man, Second Lt. William Calley, was found guilty in March 1971 of the premeditated murder of 22 Vietnamese civilians, but served just three-and-a-half years under house arrest at Fort Benning, Georgia.
The Journalist who broke the story and exposed the American brutality, Seymour Hersh, traveled to My Lai for the first time after 47 years and this is what he has to say to Democracy Now:
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