Analysis Of The May Li Massacre

The May li massacre was a terrible circumstance and an event that happened March 16th 1968 during the Vietnam War, in which American soldiers rape, pillage and killed unarmed Vietnamese civilians in a small village, the result was worldwide outrage. As the three companies (Charlie Company), led by Lieutenant Calley entered the village and started firing at the villagers that included women, children and elderly as well as raping the young women, LT Calley himself put a enormous amount of villagers in a ditch and began firing on them. The total deaths ended up being approximately 500 villagers. As I remember the movie “Platoon” 1986, there was a part, in which soldiers fired on a village, making that a small snapshot of that portion of the Vietnam War. LT Calley was investigated and sentenced to prison with hard labor, but was later released. Was he the scape goat? On this paper, I will discuss what led the
A few things come into play, the dehumanization factor, in which the Vietnamese people, were looked at as nonessential and it was necessary to stay in the boundaries of the strategic plan, additionally there will be a known hatred for those people or groups that experience the violence. The authorization, is the power that a person possesses and that person holds over another person, LT Calley ordered his man and they killed in the village. Someone holds the authority over Calley, which was Captain Ernest Medina and over Captain Medina, Lt. Colonel Barker, and the list can keep going on the upward leadership. Could it also be sociopath thinking, I wouldn’t necessarily compare those soldiers to Ted Bundy, but it is a thought. For example, those soldier who thought or were made to think, that what they were doing was right, but in reality there was something wrong with them and they can’t put reality into a true perspective, which causes them think that they were not doing anything wrong. The fighting in the Vietnam War and stress associated