My Lai Massacre Research Paper

The website I chose for this assignment is http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-ghostdance.html. I chose this website because it looked like it had a lot of information about my topic and there were pictures on the side to help me. It also was last reviewed not too long ago so that shows that the information should be reliable and trustworthy. This site is related to what were are talking because the Ghost Dance movement basically led to the Wounded Knee Massacre.

The official version of My Lai made the massacre sound as if it was an effective search-and-destroy mission that had killed suspected enemy soldiers of the Vietcong. “[Leader of the operation, Lieutenant Colonel Frank] Barker said to his superiors in his combat action report, noting that the ‘operation was well planned, well executed and successful.’” (Gorn et al 2010) In reality this was a massacre of over 500 innocent

Reading Response Two In the village of My Lia in Vietnam on March 16th 1968 roughly five hundred innocent Vietnamese villagers were executed by, an enraged United State army called Charlie Company which, after decades of being covered up and buried to keep the United States Armed forces images polished will go down in the annals of war history as the My Lia Massacre. Sgt. Ron Haeberle a photographer with Charlie company snapped pictures of burned homes littered with charred villagers and corpses strewn through the dirt paths along with other war photos, which Haeberle published to Life and Time magazines in November of 1969 catapulting the crimes committed to national as well as international spotlight.

In another case: “Despite assurances to the American public that Cambodia's neutrality was being respected, it was discovered that secret bombing raids on North Vietnamese forces in Cambodia had taken place since March of 1969; this caused the public to question trust of the government.” (American Pageant) This is far from what was intended by the framers. In the declaration it says, “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the

The reality of what truly happened that night are ambiguous; some witnesses claim that Captain Thomas Preston ordered the soldiers to fire into the crowd while others say that he did not. After reviewing the testimonies given by witnesses, it is unquestionable that Captain Thomas Preston was innocent since witnesses place the Captain in the front of the soldiers, one of the soldiers is observed being hit by an object resulting in his firing of the first shot and

According to the department that investigates crimes within the military, there are other “higher priority” things to worry about. All of these statistics and facts strengthen the argument made by The Invisible War tremendously due to the military’s level or ignorance and incompetence to solve the issue. The final point that may shock the audience is the Feres Doctrine. This doctrine means that an individual cannot sue the United States military if they received an injury during their time of service. One victim who lost both plates in her face due to her rapist punching her, cannot receive the surgery she needs to do normal activities with her daughter because the military and VA system will not provide the money to cover it.

The Effective Military Leader Warrant Officer Romero, Philip T. SPC: Captain Dearth, 1st Platoon The book “Black Hearts One Platoons Descent into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death” by Jim Frederick is a true story about multiple leadership failures and six United States Soldiers from 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division who were convicted for their involvement in horrible crimes while deployed to Iraq. The horrific acts including rape as well as murder committed by the soldiers of 1st platoon were a direct result of poor military leadership. Bad leadership will corrupt any military unit.

“I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it” - George McGovern. There are numerous controversial topics dispersed among the subject of American history due to the amount of unethical decisions that have been made in order to improve the lives of the people or keep America out of the clutches of war. Throughout American history, historians have debated the ethical impact that the Vietnam war had on the United States. Although some people may believe that the Vietnam War achieved the goal of avoiding communism and protecting the people, the overarching idea is that it was an unjust war because of the countless lives that were lost from the participating countries, the

The mission was carried out on January 17, 1961. Details around the conspiracy to poison, torture, and his brutal death has been investigated. Yet, after all the evidence pointing to the conspirators, there has still been no justice for this heinous war crime.

The two Viet Cong men were found and killed. Caputo and his men would go to court to possibly be put in prison for murder. They were not found guilty and were

General MacArthur felt extreme guilt for murdering Mr. Richmond and rued his decisions. General MacArthur was a depressed, lonesome man, and he was ready to die, “Leslie had faded into the distance and Arthur Richmond too. Nothing of what had happened seemed to matter anymore.” General MacArthur felt remorse for his actions, but that doesn’t excuse what he did. Killing someone out of spite is cruel and wicked.

The deaths in the novel are due to the soldiers own decisions and the orders of their government. Their government is

During the Vietnam conflict, the U.S. government had ordered groups of American soldiers to camp in Vietnam territories. The purpose of the United States sending American troops to foreign soil was to prevent another conflict. However not everyone agreed to this. Many families of these troops saw no real purpose of sending troops to Vietnam to be in a conflict that isn’t theirs. Most American in that time period protested against the U.S. interfering with the conflict because they believed that the U.S. had no right to interfere into a conflict that was not theirs.

No one know if Diem had approved of the raids. The raids was marked as the beginning of the end of the Diem regime. The Americans congress could not sit back and allowed Diem’s actions against the Buddhist even more. The South Vietnamese generals send evidence to the Americans that Nhu was going to execute the Buddhist people he arrested and sell the independence of the South Vietnam. The United States told Diem if he does not get rid of Nhu then Diem will not have the support from the United Stated anymore.

In the movie Crimson Tide, we look to the question ethical decisions, and what someone would do when thrown into a situation that made them question themselves, and who they serve for. In this example, when serving in the United States Military, once a solider is given orders, that solider must follow the orders out and not to question them. The trust between the solider and the higher command giving orders is almost based on blind faith. The solider relies on the higher commands decision of protecting democracy, even if someone, or a lot of people are killed. Is it an ethical decision to follow a commander’s order even if it means killing mass numbers of innocent civilians?