Attempts at understanding are laudable, and much better than painting folks as liars when facts don't jibe with ideology or prejudices. Anyhow...
In an atttempt at understanding, I have found and reread The Peers report noted above by another member. I then went to transcript of Lt. Calley trial and other areas. My findings are;
No where is there a mention of rape.
Look again.
Summary here:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/summary_rpt.htmlMembers of the 2d Platoon killed at least 60-70 Vietnamese men women, and children, as they swept through the northern half of My Lai (4) and through Binh Tay, a small subhamle about 400 meters north of My Lai (4). They also committed several rapes. From Seymour Hersch, the journalist who broke the story in November '69 and won the Pulitzer prize for reporting on My Lai:
http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/HIUS316/mbase/docs/mylai.htmlSome GIs. . . didn't hesitate to use their bayonets. Nineteen-year-old Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tuyet watched a baby trying to open her slain mother's blouse to nurse. A soldier shot the infant while it was struggling with the blouse, and the slashed at it with his bayonet. Tuyet also said she saw another baby hacked to death by GIs wielding their bayonets. Le Tong, a twenty-eight-year-old rice farmer, reported seeing one woman raped after GIs killed her children . Nguyen Khoa, a thirty-seven- year-old peasant, told of a thirteen-year-old girl who was raped before being killed. GIs then attacked Khoa's wife, tearing off her clothes. Before they could rape her, however, Khoa said, their six-year-old son, riddled with bullets, fell and saturated her with blood. The GIs left her alone . . . .There's a lot more, but I'd rather not post it. Perhaps is should be in another thread, but you've kind of challenged my integrity & motive, so I felt compelled to answer.
Had there been rape it would have been a charge against defendant at the trial containing grave penalty under the UCMJ.
I never wrote that Calley personally raped anyone - some of his men did. Most of the men who did the actual killing (and raping) were
never charged. Here's why:
- Initially, the army covered up events.
- The killings took place in March of 1968;
- Seymour Hersch broke the story in November of 1969, 20 months later.
- General Peers' investigation was published in March of 1970.
- On November 17 of 1970, the Army charged 14 officers with suppressing info (cover-up)
- Calley was the only one convicted of those who were on scene
- VERY IMPORTANT: By late 1970, most of the enlisted troops who did most of the killing were out of the service and therefore not chargeable under UCMJ.
As it is this appears to be an attempt to hijack thread into an area emotionaly charged and away from fact.
I regret that you have that impression. It is mistaken, as is your assertion that there was no raping at My Lai
I believe this poster is blowing as much smoke as Jane Fonda did to try to confuse an issue.
Not trying to confuse any issue. This is a subject I'm fairly well informed on.
I request poster to show documented evidence of post, "is that many unarmed civilian women were raped in those villages on that day". Preferably you could do this on another thread rather than continue to hijack of this one
Start the thread.
