As long as we're talking war crimes...

Today marks the anniversary of the My Lai Massacre.

As long as we’re talking war crimes, as we should be at this moment in time, I need to point out that today is the anniversary of the My Lai Massacre.

On March 16, 1968, a platoon of American soldiers, sent on a “search and destroy mission,” brutally killed as many as 500 unarmed civilians at My Lai, one of a cluster of small villages located near the northern coast of Vietnam.

On orders from Lieutenant William Calley, they acted with extraordinary brutality, raping and torturing villagers before killing them and dragging dozens of people, including young children and babies, into a ditch and executing them with automatic weapons. In addition to killing unarmed men, women, and children, the soldiers slaughtered countless livestock, raped an unknown number of women, and burned the village to the ground.

The massacre reportedly ended when an Army helicopter pilot, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, landed his aircraft between the soldiers and the retreating villagers and threatened to open fire if they continued their attacks.

The events at My Lai were covered up by high-ranking army officers until investigative journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story in November 1969.

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