My Lai Conversation - Eugene McCarthy (29/3/16 -10/12/05)

Today marks the 46th anniversary of the My Lai massacre,the mass murder of hundreds of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians at the hands of U.S soldiers from Charli company, 11th Infantry Brigade.They went through the village  of My Lai nercilessly killing old men, women, children and infants. There wre reports of gang rapes as well as large  groups mowed down by machine gun fire. It did not help if families huddled in their huts or whether they came out with  their arms up in surrender, they too were killed. In total 504 villagers were murdered. After attempts at a cover up, the news got out.
 The incident marked a turning point in the Vietnam War sparking worldwide outrage  at the atrocities committed by the American troops.
Eugene McCarthy had served as a civilian in the War Department in 1944 and later was to become a Senator in Minnesota. In 1968 he campaigned for the Democratic nomination for president in 1968 as a peace candidate.

My Lai Conversation

How old are you, small Vietnamese boy?
Sixfingers. Six years.
Why did you carry water to the wounded soldier, now dead?
Your father.
Your father was the enemy of the free world.
You are also now are enemy of free world.
Who told you to carry water to your father?
Your mother!
Your mother is also enemy of free world.
You go into ditch with your mother.
American politician has said,
"It is better to kill you as a boy in the elephant grass of Vietnam
Than to have to kill you as a man in the  rye grass in the U.S.A."
You understand,
It is easier to die
Where you know the names of the birds, the trees and the grass
Than in a strange country.
You will be number 128 in the body count for today.
High body count will make the Commander-in Chief
of the free world much encouraged.
Good-bye, small six-year old Vietnamese boy, enemy of free
world.

( Some lucky villagers like these two children below, survived the massacre)