this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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You Should Know

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At least 347 and up to 504 civilians, almost all women, children and elderly men, were murdered by U.S. Army soldiers. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated, and some soldiers mutilated and raped children as young as 12.

only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., the leader of 1st Platoon in C Company, was convicted. He was found guilty of murdering 22 villagers and originally given a life sentence, but served three-and-a-half years under house arrest after his sentence was commuted.

Research has highlighted that the My Lai Massacre was not an isolated war crime. Nick Turse places it within a larger pattern of American atrocities enabled by deliberate policies from commanders, such as "free-fire zones" and "body counts", as well as widespread racism amongst American military personnel. Many other atrocities were also covered up by commanders.

Why you should know about this: It is important to know about history so that we can learn from it, avoid the mistakes and atrocities of the past, and know which institutions have a history of performing atrocities, trying to cover them up, etc. and what that looks like.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 100 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The only reason why my Lai is known today is because one helicopter pilot had a conscience and ordered his door gunner to open fire on their own troops if they were to approach another group of Vietnamese civilians that he decided to protect

Had he not, likely nobody would have known what happened

[–] raker@lemmy.world 47 points 6 days ago

And only because this has gone public, they had to award Hugh Thompson Jr. with the Distinguished Flying Cross. Otherwise military court.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago

For a long time, I assumed that veterans who didn't want to talk about their time served were doing so because they witnessed difficult things or felt shame about what they had to do in combat situations.

These days, I wonder if it's because anyone they talked to would see them for the monster they are.

[–] shadunix@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Well, the US did more than that in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Vietnam, Somalia, Nigeria, and a lot of other countries!

The reality is the USA is the real example of a terrorist country.. spreading fear, killing innocent people and ruining their lives.

[–] bearboiblake@pawb.social 16 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Don't forget Cuba, which is an actively ongoing event. Innocent people are being starved and deprived of medicine and other essentials, purely because the ruling class want to demonstrate how socialism is a failure. Such a failure that the US has needed to ruthlessly oppress and terrorize them for decades, and yet despite it all Cuba has still made incredible medical breakthroughs such as vaccines for alzheimers and lung cancer, which aren't even available under capitalism... I wonder how they did it if they didn't have innovation, such a mystery

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 46 points 6 days ago (2 children)

US soldiers also raped thousands of French women during WW2.

[–] bearboiblake@pawb.social 35 points 6 days ago

I've read about this too, and the US blamed the problem on black soldiers. Maybe that's something that deserves its own post?

[–] toad@sh.itjust.works 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Yup. They burned my grandma's city to hide the looting.

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[–] FundMECFS@piefed.zip 38 points 6 days ago (3 children)

| Sentence | Life imprisonmentcommuted to three years' house arrest by President Richard Nixon |

Fucking hell Nixon …

“Protect the children and women” Except from my murderous rapist soldiers apparently.

[–] bestagon@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago

Interesting how this narrative keeps getting used to justify our colonialism. “These are backwards savages and we are agents of progress and feminism” and then, in the course of the conflict, women and girls are raped, killed, and bombed while women’s rights are stonewalled or even stripped away back home

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

The police protect women,

WHICH WOMEN!?

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[–] workerONE@lemmy.world 48 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

That's just one village.

"According to the Information Bureau of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (PRG), a shadow government formed by North Vietnam in 1969, between April 1968 and the end of 1970 American ground troops killed about 6,500 civilians in the course of twenty-one operations either on their own or alongside their allies. "

"Tiger Force, a reconnaissance unit of the 101st Airborne Division, probably murdered hundreds of civilians during a 6-month period in 1967"

and from bombing:

"Estimates for the number of North Vietnamese civilian deaths resulting from U.S. bombing range from 30,000 to 65,000.[35][4] Higher estimates place the number of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder at 182,000.[36] American bombing in Cambodia is estimated to have killed between 30,000 and 150,000 civilians and combatants."

Edit: I haven't done extensive research and as was pointed out the actual numbers might be much higher, and my figures don't include deaths and damage from Agent Orange chemicals

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 32 points 6 days ago (2 children)

The US murdered over a million civilians in Iraq.

Robert MacNamara stated that the US killed 3-4 million civilians during the Vietnam War. Since he was the Secretary of Defense during that time, he wouldn't have exactly benefited from exaggeration of the total.

[–] bilb@lemmy.ml 7 points 6 days ago

Yeah, and those were "woke" wars according to the psychos in charge now.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 12 points 5 days ago (2 children)

What those in authority don't want to tell us is that this is exactly what they expect in war. They want our soldiers to be so horrific that the other side quits. That's the goal of EVERY leader who starts a war. Any hand-wringing or regret later is just theater.

The only sin is letting the Civilians hear about it.

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

It's historically the only effective way to fight an insurgency and every military since ancient times knows it. Basically anytime you hear a modern military is enacting a "counter insurgency" it's either code word for doing death squads, or it's a tacit admission that they are out of ideas and have found themselves in an unwinnable quagmire.

The only way to defeat an insurgency is to do massive amounts of crimes against humanity......or avoid creating one in the first place.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

And between the two options you presented, even when the latter is surprisingly easy to pull off, for “some reason” we just keep diving head-first into war-crime territory.

It’s the same mentality that got the DNC fighting their own guy who was turbo-winning in NYC. Anything is preferable to building a strong, sustainable, cooperative future as far as these kinds of people are concerned.

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[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 28 points 6 days ago (7 children)

It is important to know this because when the military is turned on you, you should know they’ll obey. If you think there are enough that would so no, you’re wrong.

[–] Doom@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

What no one ever considers is what is happening right now in real time. They are actively pushing out the troops that would object morally to bad orders. The administration doesn't care if they are left with inferior troops, as long as the ones they have left will follow orders blindly and without question.

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[–] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 39 points 6 days ago (1 children)

after learning of the massacre, he wrote in his memoir that it was "the conscious massacre of defenseless babies, children, mothers, and old men in a kind of diabolical slow-motion nightmare that went on for the better part of a day, with a cold-blooded break for lunch".[

yo what the fuck

[–] FundMECFS@piefed.zip 10 points 6 days ago

For context “he” here is General Westmoreland.

[–] TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world 33 points 6 days ago

War. What is it good for. Absolutely nothing.

Other than fulfilling the desires of sociopaths under the guise of being a patriot

[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

War and rape go hand in hand; you can't dehumanize people and respect them simultaneously.

Not to mention that a lot of soldiers are amped up on drugs and/or alcohol. Many of them don't want to even be there.

[–] nucleative@lemmy.world 21 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I suppose many of the perpetrators who were there are still alive today. I wonder if they sleep soundly in bed at night.

[–] TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world 25 points 6 days ago

Someone who lacks enough empathy to brutally gang rape women and children are rarely people who feel remorse for hurting others. They unfortunately probably laugh themselves to sleep at night knowing they committed some of the sickest shit imaginable and will never be punished.

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 15 points 6 days ago

Of course they do. People thank them for their service. These brave brave war heroes

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[–] forestbeasts@pawb.social 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

"You should know: [totally horrible political sexual abuse thing with absolutely no kind of warning on it at all]"

...no, I really, really didn't need to know that, thanks

-- Frost

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[–] glitching@lemmy.ml 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

them vets are the main foment vector for what we now know as the white supremacy movement. not that the sentiment wasn't prevalent, but it was disjointed groups, churches, cults, klan, militias, prison gangs, etc., each pushing their own thing with only limited local reach.

the influx of large swaths of radicalized and trained MAMs was the igniter. all those power squabbling groups started coming together under one banner and they had a new tool - computers.

early on, they realized you can reach a whole lotta more folks with the new tech than the usual zines and the like. so they formed armored truck robbing gangs, and used the proceeds to buy home computers for establishing a network of BBS all over the country, pushing their shit to previously unreachable corners. I mean, if that's not a michael mann movie, I don't know what is...

for more, kathleen belew - bring the war home, available at anne's site or wherever you pirate your shit.

[–] uberdroog@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago
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