Editing My Lai massacre (section)

==Survivors==
In early 1972, the camp at Mỹ Lai (2) where the survivors of the Mỹ Lai massacre had been relocated was largely destroyed by [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam]] (ARVN) artillery and aerial bombardment, and remaining eyewitnesses were dispersed. The destruction was officially attributed to "Viet Cong terrorists". [[Quakers|Quaker]] service workers in the area gave testimony in May 1972 by Martin Teitel at hearings before the ''Congressional Subcommittee to Investigate Problems Connected with Refugees and Escapees'' in South Vietnam. In June 1972, Teitel's account was published in ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Teitel|first=Martin|title=Again, the Suffering of Mylai|work=[[The New York Times]]|page=45|date=7 June 1972 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/07/archives/again-the-suffering-of-mylai.html|access-date=19 March 2008}}</ref>

Many American soldiers who had been in Mỹ Lai during the massacre accepted personal responsibility for the loss of civilian lives. Some of them expressed regrets without acknowledging any personal guilt, as, for example, Ernest Medina, who said, "I have regrets for it, but I have no guilt over it because I didn't cause it. That's not what the military, particularly the United States Army, is trained for."<ref>Esper, George.[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-03-13-mn-1573-story.html {{"'}}It's Something You've Got to Live With': My Lai Memories Haunt Soldiers"], ''Los Angeles Times'', 13 March 1988.</ref>

Lawrence La Croix, a squad leader in Charlie Company in Mỹ Lai, stated in 2010: "A lot of people talk about My Lai, and they say, 'Well, you know, yeah, but you can't follow an illegal order.' Trust me. There is no such thing. Not in the military. If I go into a combat situation and I tell them, 'No, I'm not going. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to follow that order', well, they'd put me up against the wall and shoot me."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/mylai-transcript Complete Program Transcript, ''My Lai – WGBH American Experience''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315232010/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/mylai-transcript/ |date=15 March 2017 }}, pbs.org; accessed 23 February 2018.</ref>

On 16 March 1998, a gathering of local people and former American and Vietnamese soldiers stood together at the place of the Mỹ Lai massacre in Vietnam to commemorate its 30th anniversary. American veterans Hugh Thompson and Lawrence Colburn, who were shielding civilians during the massacre, addressed the crowd. Among the listeners was Phan Thi Nhanh, a 14-year-old girl at the time of the massacre. She was saved by Thompson and vividly remembered that tragic day, "We don't say we forget. We just try not to think about the past, but in our hearts we keep a place to think about that".<ref name="CNN, March 16, 1998">[http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9803/16/my.lai {{"'}}Blood and fire' of My Lai remembered 30 years later"], CNN.com, 16 March 1998.</ref> Colburn challenged Lieutenant Calley "to face the women we faced today who asked the questions they asked, and look at the tears in their eyes and tell them why it happened".<ref name="CNN, March 16, 1998"/> No American diplomats or any other officials attended the meeting.

More than a thousand people turned out on 16 March 2008, forty years after the massacre. The [[Sơn Mỹ Memorial]] drew survivors and families of victims and some returning U.S. veterans. One woman (an 8-year-old at the time) said, "Everyone in my family was killed in the Mỹ Lai massacre—my mother, my father, my brother and three sisters. They threw me into a ditch full of dead bodies. I was covered with blood and brains."<ref name="AP, March 16, 2008"/> The U.S. was unofficially represented by a volunteer group from Wisconsin called Madison Quakers, who in 10 years built three schools in Mỹ Lai and planted a peace garden.<ref name="AP, March 16, 2008">[https://www.foxnews.com/story/my-lai-survivors-gather-to-pray-for-victims-peace-40-years-after-massacre/ "My Lai Survivors Gather to Pray for Victims, Peace 40 Years After Massacre"]. ''Associated Press'', 16 March 2008.</ref>

On 19 August 2009, Calley made his first public apology for the massacre in a speech to the [[Kiwanis]] club of [[Greater Columbus, Georgia]]:<ref>Siegel, R. [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112125912&ps=cprs "My Lai Officer Apologizes for Massacre"]. ''All Things Considered''. NPR. 21 August 2009.</ref><ref>[http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/24/calley_apologizes_for_1968_my_lai "Calley Apologizes for 1968 My Lai Massacre"]. ''[[Democracy Now!]]''. Accessed 23 February 2018.</ref>

{{quote|<!--Do not remove these quotation marks-->"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai", he told members of the club. "I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.&nbsp;... If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a 2nd lieutenant getting orders from my commander and I followed them—foolishly, I guess."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009709373_apusmylaimassacre.html|work=The Seattle Times|title=Ex-Vietnam lieutenant apologizes for massacre|date=21 August 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090826130219/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009709373_apusmylaimassacre.html|archive-date=26 August 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-aug-22-na-my-lai22-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|title=Calley expresses remorse for role in My Lai massacre in Vietnam|date=22 August 2009|access-date=2 May 2010}}</ref>}}

Trần Văn Đức, who was seven years old at the time of the Mỹ Lai massacre and now resides in [[Remscheid]], Germany, called the apology "terse". He wrote a public letter to Calley describing the plight of his and many other families to remind him that time did not ease the pain, and that grief and sorrow over lost lives will forever stay in Mỹ Lai.<ref>King, Tim. [http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july142012/my-lay-duc-haeberle-tk.php "Mỹ Lai Survivor Disappointed in Calley's 'Terse Apology' for War Atrocities"], ''Salem News'', 22 November 2010.</ref>