The Vietnam war became the target of thousand of protests in 1968. As we have seen in a prior post in this blog, in the beginning of that year the Offensive of Tet created a wave of protests against the war.
But another fact happened in 1968 in Vietnam that caused a lot of manifestations agains the war: the My Lai massacre.
In March 16th of that year American soldiers invaded the hamlets of My Lai and My Khe.They received the information that some vietcongs (guys from South Vietnam involved in guerrilas) were hidden there. The result of the invasion was tragic: hundreds of people, all of them civilian, were killed and most of them were women, children and elderly people. And some of the women were raped prior to the killings.
The scenes of the victims showed by the media shocked the world, mainly the American public opinion (see two photos below). As a consequence of the massacre 26 U.S. soldiers were charged. But only William Calley, lieutenant and leader of the platton, was convicted.
The "punishment" of Calley also caused protests -- he was givena life sentence but the president Richard Nixon decide to release him pending appeal of his sentence. As a result William Cally just served 3 years under house arrest. He is still alive.
All this situatuion caused global outrage as it became public, one year later.
One more fact in 1968 shocked the world. But there was too much more to come.
Dead bodies outside a burning dwelling.
Dead man and child killed during the massacre
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário