Vietnam: The My Lai Massacre

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How did a US Army mission in Vietnam end with the massacre of up to 500 people?

In this episode, Don is joined by Christopher Levesque to examine one of the most harrowing chapters of the war in Vietnam. They return to March 1968, when the men of Charlie Company undertook a 'search and destroy' mission in the Quang Ngai province village of Son My.

Chris holds a joint appointment at the University of West Florida Libraries and the UWF Historic Trust. He is an archivist and teaches at the University of Western Florida, Pensacola, and the University of Charleston.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why will you wear your Alzheimer's Society forget-me-not badge this June?
0:06.0	Whether it's for your partner, your best friend or a loved one, every badge has a meaning.
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0:18.0	Dementia affects us all. Together, we will beat it. Donate now to get your
0:25.2	Forget Me Not. Just search Forget Me Not appeal. Thank you. Hi everyone, it's Don. Just jumping in with a
0:35.4	gentle warning, the episode which follows, contains some
0:38.1	very distressing content. November 1970, Fort Benning, Georgia. A convoy of military trucks
0:47.5	moves by on the wet pavement. MPs patrol the curb. In the distance, the cadence of marching boots echoes through the air.
0:56.8	All of this is a reminder that we are standing on an army base, a place built for war.
1:03.4	But here, as we face the stark and simple building ahead of us, war is not being waged, but it is being judged. Today marks the beginning of the trial
1:13.8	of Lieutenant William Calley Jr., accused of the premeditated murder of unarmed civilians at a small
1:20.4	village called Milai in South Vietnam. Today, there will be an American soldier, not an enemy, standing in the dock. It will be the
1:30.1	United States Army, which will decide whether one of its own committed an unspeakable crime.
1:36.3	Within the building, inside the courtroom, the wooden witness stand is, for the moment empty,
1:42.0	and the courtroom still. Then, as the attorneys rise to present their opening statements,
1:47.9	the jurors instinctively lean forward.
1:50.5	The young prosecutor, Aubrey Daniel, takes a breath and begins.
1:55.7	Your Honor, thank you.
1:57.4	Gentlemen of the jury, I want you to know me lie. I will try to put you there.
2:03.1	This is American History, it. I'm Don Wildman. Today, we'll discuss the not-so-distant past, at least for some of us.
2:21.1	Though I was but a youngster at the time, I can vividly recall the images of horrific fighting in a faraway land called Vietnam.
2:28.6	While my sisters and I lived our normal childhood lives going to school and playing sports and having family dinners at night,
	...

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