German historian: My Lai massacre a terrible war crime
The My Lai massacre was a terrible war crime in its dimensions but it was not an isolated incident, German historian Bernd Greiner from Hamburg was quoted as saying by the German-based public-broadcasting radio station Deutschlandfunk.
A screenshot of the programme on Deutschlandfunk (Photo: VNA)
Berlin (VNA) – The My Lai massacre was a terriblewar crime in its dimensions but it was not an isolated incident, Germanhistorian Bernd Greiner from Hamburg was quoted as saying by the German-based public-broadcastingradio station Deutschlandfunk.
The radio station broadcast a programme on the My Laimassacre on March 28, giving the audiences detailed information on the wartimecrime committed by the US army in Vietnam in March 1968.
Deutschlandfunk recalled that by the end of 1965, about100,000 US soldiers were stationed in South Vietnam, and the number evenreached half a million at certain times in 1968. However, the US troops couldnot defeat the resistance war of the Vietnamese people.
On March 16, 1968, a unit of US soldiers led by 24-year-old LieutenantWilliam Calley raided My Lai hamlet of Son My village in the central provinceof Quang Ngai, where they shot at anything that moved, be they men or women,the elderly or children. As many as 504 unarmed civilians were killed.
On March 29, 1971, Calley was convicted by a US militarycourt for the willful homicide of 22 civilians and attempted murder of atwo-year-old child and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was the only oneconvicted in the case.
However, Calley served only three days of his sentence injail, then President Richard Nixon personally ordered him to be released andplaced under house arrest. Nixon finally pardoned Calley in 1974.
Bernd Greiner said there were dozens of other massacres, notnecessarily on the scale of My Lai, but it will never be possible to determineexactly how many victims were actually injured or killed as a result of theseattacks./.
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A screenshot of the programme on Deutschlandfunk (Photo: VNA) 
