Unfortunate event occurred at Pink Vile when the Charlie Company was there. The Geneva Convention was clearly violated when captain Medina and Lt. Calley were giving orders to shoot innocent civilians. There was a year cover up of the My Lai Massacre in the time military forces were looking for excuses to justify their actions. Why was Lt. Calley the only one held accountable and was his punishment fair? Who should have been held accountable for the events that have happened at My Lai? In Fact, former Helicopter pilot Lawrence Colburn had said he saw captain Earnest Medina kick and shoot an innocent Vietnamese woman.
3) “Captain approached the women looked down at her kicked her with his foot, stepped back and just blew her away. ”(3) From this statement alone you can see Lt. Calley isn’t the only guilty one. Another helicopter pilot Hugh C. Thompson also stated that a soldier said “yeah we will help them out of their misery. ”(3) The Geneva Convention clearly prohibits violence to a life and person in particular murder of all kinds. (4) These were supposed to be the good guys but their actions say otherwise. Therefore, because of these men’s action the military tried to cover up this horrible massacre. 2) According to military records Hugh Thompson had reported what he saw at My Lai but no one had ever pursued it. (3) After the massacre the C Company had been sent to a jungle for two months. “I truly believe we were sent there to never return”, said former squad leader Joe Grimes.
(3) It wasn’t until reporter Ron Riderenhour wrote 30 letters to militaries officials a year later. (1) Even then the C Company had claimed to have killed 126 but the number was actually close to 500. (2) Lt. Calley was the only one charged with killing 104 villagers. (1) He was sentenced to “time-served” during his trial and was released. 1) Given the facts, you can see that more people should have been charged with the killings that happened in My Lai. In my opinion, the whole company should have been held accountable for the massacre because they all took part of it in some way or another. This goes to show how great the fear of communism really was. In the name of stopping Communism these soldiers got away with the murder of innocent women and children and elderly people. 1) Mintz, S. , & McNeil, S. (2012). Digital History. Retrieved February 15,2013 2) Library. thinkquest. org 3) Video. pbs. org 4) http://www. law. cornell. edu
