Editing My Lai massacre (section)

===Killings===
[[File:My Lai massacre woman and children.jpg |thumb|right|upright|Photograph taken by Ronald L. Haeberle of South Vietnamese women and children in Mỹ Lai before being killed in the massacre.<ref>{{Cite report|url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llmlp/RDAR-Vol-IIIBook6/RDAR-Vol-IIIBook6.pdf |title=Report of the Department of the Army review of the preliminary investigations into the Mỹ Lai incident|volume=III, Exhibits, Book 6 – Photographs|date=14 March 1970 |page=50 |website=Library of Congress|lccn=97042604}}</ref> According to Haeberle, soldiers had attempted to rip the blouse off the woman in the back while her mother, in the front of the photo, tried to protect her.<ref>{{Cite report|url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llmlp/RDAR-Vol-IIBook11/RDAR-Vol-IIBook11.pdf|title=Report of the Department of the Army review of the preliminary investigations into the Mỹ Lai incident|volume=II, Testimony, Book 11|date=14 March 1970|page=18|website=Library of Congress|lccn=97042604|quote=Haeberle: they started stripping her, taking her top off, and the mother, if that was her mother, was trying to protect her. The GI's were punching her around and one of them kicked her in the ass.}}</ref>]]

On the morning of 16 March at 07:30, around 100 soldiers from Charlie Company led by Medina, following a short artillery and helicopter gunship barrage, landed in helicopters at Sơn Mỹ, a patchwork of individual homesteads, grouped settlements, rice paddies, irrigation ditches, dikes, and dirt roads, connecting an assortment of hamlets and sub-hamlets. The largest among them were the hamlets Mỹ Lai, Cổ Lũy, Mỹ Khê, and Tu Cung.{{sfn|Oliver|2006|pp=1–2}}

The GIs expected to engage the Vietcong Local Force 48th Battalion, which was one of the Vietcong's most successful units.<ref name="Hersh">{{Cite magazine|last=Hersh|first=Seymour M.|title=The Massacre at My Lai|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1972/01/22/coverup|date=January 22, 1972|access-date=2021-05-25|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-US}}</ref> Although the [[G.I.|GIs]] were not fired upon after landing, they still suspected there were VC guerrillas hiding underground or in the huts. Confirming their suspicions, the gunships engaged several armed enemies in the vicinity of Mỹ Lai, killing four; later, one weapon was retrieved from the site.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/Ccompany.html|title=Company C Actions at My Lai|website=law2.umkc.edu}}</ref>

According to the operational plan, 1st Platoon, led by Second Lieutenant (2LT) [[William Calley]], and 2nd Platoon, led by 2LT Stephen Brooks, entered the hamlet of Tu Cung in line formation at 08:00, while the 3rd Platoon, commanded by 2LT Jeffrey U. Lacross,<ref>Robert Lester, [http://www.lexisnexis.com/documents/academic/upa_cis/3220_PeersInqMyLai.pdf The Peers Inquiry of the Massacre at My Lai]. A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Vietnam War Research Collections.</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20171028063216/http://www.1-20infantry.org/croster68.htm 20th Infantry Regiment: C Company Roster{{snd}}1968]}}, research and compilation by Daniel Malin.</ref> and Captain Medina's command post remained outside. On approach, both platoons fired at people they saw in the rice fields and in the brush.<ref>[http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/Vietnam/mylailondontimesmag89.pdf My Lai: A Half Told Story], ''Sunday Times Magazine'' (London), 23 April 1989, pp. 24–35.</ref>

Instead of the expected enemy, the GIs found women, children and old men, many of whom were cooking breakfast over outdoor fires.<ref name="Hersh"/> The villagers were getting ready for a market day and at first did not panic or run away as they were herded into the hamlet's common spaces and homestead yards. Harry Stanley, a machine gunner from Charlie Company, said during the [[United States Army Criminal Investigation Division|U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division]] inquiry that the killings started without warning. He first observed a member of 1st Platoon strike a Vietnamese man with a [[bayonet]]. Then the same trooper pushed another villager into a well and threw a grenade in the well. Next, he saw fifteen or twenty people, mainly women and children, kneeling around a temple with burning [[incense]]. They were praying and crying. They were all killed by shots to the head.<ref name="The Milwaukee Journal">Hersh, Seymour. [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tAsqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RCgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7340,3372984&dq=varnado+simpson&hl=en My Lai: Soldiers' Bullets Silenced Pleas, Prayers of Victims] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928082149/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tAsqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RCgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7340%2C3372984&dq=varnado%20simpson&hl=en |date=28 September 2015 }}, ''The Milwaukee Journal'', 27 May 1970.</ref>

Most of the killings occurred in the southern part of Tu Cung, a sub-hamlet of Xom Lang, which was a home to 700 residents.<ref>[http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/myl_bvillagers.htm "The Villagers of My Lai"], umkc.edu; accessed 23 February 2018.</ref> Xom Lang was erroneously marked on the U.S. military operational maps of Quảng Ngãi Province as Mỹ Lai.

A large group of approximately 70–80&nbsp;villagers was rounded up by 1st&nbsp;Platoon in Xom Lang and led to an irrigation ditch east of the settlement. They were then pushed into the ditch and shot dead by soldiers after repeated orders issued by Calley, who was also shooting. PFC Paul Meadlo testified that he expended several [[M16 rifle]] magazines. He recollected that women were saying "No VC" and were trying to shield their children.<ref name="The Milwaukee Journal"/> He remembered that he was shooting old men and women, ranging in ages from grandmothers to teenagers, many with babies or small children in their arms, since he was convinced at that time that they were all booby-trapped with grenades and poised to attack.<ref>Bigart, Homer. [https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/13/archives/mylai-gi-feared-babies-held-grenades.html "Mỹ Lai G.I. Feared Babies Held Grenades"], ''The New York Times'', 13 January 1971.</ref> On another occasion during the security sweep of My Lai, Meadlo again fired into civilians side by side with Lieutenant Calley.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gDMsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xMsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5423,1838497&dq=nicholas+capezza&hl=en Meadlo Testifies He Shot Women and Their Babies]. ''Herald-Journal'', 13 January 1971.</ref>

PFC Dennis Konti, a witness for the prosecution,<ref>[http://instruct.westvalley.edu/kelly/Distance_Learning/History_17B/Readings/My_Lai.htm "Dennis Conti, Witness for the Prosecution"], westvalley.edu; accessed 23 February 2018.</ref> told of one especially gruesome episode during the shooting, "A lot of women had thrown themselves on top of the children to protect them, and the children were alive at first. Then, the children who were old enough to walk got up and Calley began to shoot the children".<ref>[https://archive.today/20130910044024/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=k30yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-bUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5564,5496672&dq=harry+stanley+my+lai&hl=en "...They were killing everything in the village"], ''The Palm Beach Post'', 29 May 1970.</ref> Other 1st Platoon members testified that many of the deaths of individual Vietnamese men, women and children occurred inside Mỹ Lai during the security sweep. To ensure the hamlets could no longer offer support to the enemy, the livestock was shot as well.<ref>[http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/summary_rpt.html Summary of Peers report], umkc.edu; accessed 23 February 2018.</ref>

When PFC Michael Bernhardt entered the subhamlet of Xom Lang, the massacre was underway:

{{blockquote|I walked up and saw these guys doing strange things&nbsp;... Setting fire to the [[Hooch (disambiguation)#Other uses|hootches]] and huts and waiting for people to come out and then shooting them&nbsp;... going into the hootches and shooting them up&nbsp;... gathering people in groups and shooting them&nbsp;... As I walked in you could see piles of people all through the village&nbsp;... all over. They were gathered up into large groups. I saw them shoot an [[M79 grenade launcher]] into a group of people who were still alive. But it was mostly done with a machine gun. They were shooting women and children just like anybody else. We met no resistance and I only saw three captured weapons. We had no casualties. It was just like any other Vietnamese village&nbsp;– old papa-sans, women and kids. As a matter of fact, I don't remember seeing one military-age male in the entire place, dead or alive.<ref name="PlainDealer">Hersh, Seymour M. [http://www.cleveland.com/plain-dealer-library/index.ssf/2009/11/eye_witness_account_of_the_my_lai_massacre_story_by_seymour_hersh_nov_20_1969.html Eyewitness accounts of the My Lai massacre; story by Seymour Hersh], ''The Plain Dealer'', 20 November 1969.</ref>}}

One group of 20–50 villagers was herded south of Xom Lang and killed on a dirt road. According to U.S. Army photographer Sgt. [[Ronald L. Haeberle|Ronald Haeberle]]'s eyewitness account of the massacre, in one instance,

{{blockquote|There were some South Vietnamese people, maybe fifteen of them, women and children included, walking on a dirt road maybe {{convert|100|yd|m|disp=sqbr|sigfig=1}} away. All of a sudden the GIs just opened up with M16s. Beside the M16 fire, they were shooting at the people with M79 grenade launchers&nbsp;... I couldn't believe what I was seeing.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-bNjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qOYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5798,8044893&dq=women+children+died+in+village&hl=en Women, children died in village.] ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 21 November 1969.</ref>}}

Calley testified that he heard the shooting and arrived on the scene. He observed his men firing into a ditch with Vietnamese people inside, then began to take part in the shooting himself, using an M16 from a distance of no more than {{convert|5|ft}}. During the massacre, a helicopter landed on the other side of the ditch and the pilot asked Calley if they could provide any medical assistance to the wounded civilians in Mỹ Lai; Calley admitted replying that "a hand [[grenade]] was the only available means he had for their evacuation". At 11:00 Medina radioed an order to cease fire, and 1st Platoon took a break, during which they ate lunch.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7twNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BG0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7172,3311030&dq=my+lai+medina&hl=en Defense Rests in Calley Trial: Capt. Medina Called Fine, Strict Officer]. ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', 25 February 1971.</ref>
[[File:Dead man and child from the My Lai massacre.jpg|thumb|right|An unidentified man and child who were killed on a road]]

Members of 2nd&nbsp;Platoon killed at least 60–70 Vietnamese, as they swept through the northern half of Mỹ Lai and through Binh Tay, a small sub-hamlet about {{convert|400|m}} north of Mỹ Lai.<ref name="summaryreport">{{cite web |title=Summary of Peers Report |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/summary_rpt.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000125220322/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/summary_rpt.html |archive-date=25 January 2000 |access-date=21 June 2024 |website=[[University of Missouri–Kansas City]]}}</ref> After the initial sweeps by 1st and 2nd Platoons, 3rd Platoon was dispatched to deal with any "remaining resistance". 3rd Platoon, which stayed in reserve, reportedly rounded up and killed a group of seven to twelve women and children.<ref name=summaryreport/>

Since Charlie Company had not met any enemy opposition at Mỹ Lai and did not request back-up, Bravo Company, 4th&nbsp;Battalion, [[3rd Infantry Regiment (United States)|3rd&nbsp;Infantry Regiment]] of TF Barker was transported by air between 08:15 and 08:30 {{convert|2|mi|km|0|order=flip|abbr=on}} away. It attacked the subhamlet My Hoi of the hamlet known as Cổ Lũy, which was mapped by the Army as Mỹ Khê. During this operation, between 60 and 155 people, including women and children, were killed.<ref name=omens>Hersh, Seymour M. [https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/16/opinion/my-lai-and-its-omens.html "My Lai, And Its Omens"], ''The New York Times'', 16 March 1998.</ref>

Over the remaining day, both companies were involved in the further burning and destruction of dwellings, as well as continued mistreatment of Vietnamese detainees. While it was noted in the Courts Martial proceedings that some soldiers of Charlie Company did not participate in any killings, it was noted they neither openly protested against them nor filed complaints later to their superiors.<ref name="autogenerated2">Eckhardt, William George. [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/ecktragedy.html My Lai: An American Tragedy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071107024402/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/ecktragedy.html|date=7 November 2007}}. An evaluative essay of the chief prosecutor in the Mỹ Lai cases William G. Eckhardt, Teaching Professor of Law at UMKC School of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2002.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed, if any --></ref>

William Thomas Allison, a professor of Military History at Georgia Southern University, wrote, "By midmorning, members of Charlie Company had killed hundreds of civilians and raped or assaulted countless women and young girls. They encountered no enemy fire and found no weapons in My Lai itself".<ref name="Allison">Allison, William Thomas. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=std2t1r25s8C&dq=2nd+Platoon+Lieutenant+Stephen+Brooks&pg=PR10 My Lai: An American Atrocity in the Vietnam War]''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.<!-- 9781421406459 --></ref>

By the time the killings stopped, Charlie Company had suffered one casualty{{snd}}a soldier who had intentionally shot himself in the foot to avoid participating in the massacre{{snd}}and just three enemy weapons were confiscated.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rowling|first1=Charles|last2=Sheets|first2=Penelope|last3=Jones|first3=Timothy|date=2015|title=American Atrocity Revisited: National Identity, Cascading Frames, and the My Lai Massacre|journal=Political Communication|volume=32|issue=2|pages=310–11|doi=10.1080/10584609.2014.944323|s2cid=143846178|via=Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group}}</ref>