On March 16, 1968, in the midst of the Vietnam War, in the village of My Lai, American soldiers from Charlie Company executed 504 civilians. Women, children, old people, Suffocated by the army, The massacre of My Lai will remain secret until November 1969. The press seizes the affair. Unbearable photos go around the world. Public opinion shifts. It's a turning point in the Vietnam War. But what traces did this day leave for those who were at My Lai on March 16, 1968? Charlie Company was considered the best of the 11th Infantry Brigade. We were excellent in all our missions. Having reporters with us didn't bother us at all. We thought it was great to get media coverage since we were the best. It is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in his hometown, that Fred Widmer, a former member of the Charlie company, returns as every year to testify before the students of Chartiers Valley. In American high schools, the Vietnam War features prominently in the history curriculum. I voluntarily enlisted in the army. I didn't really have an opinion on the Vietnam War. I just thought it was my duty to serve my country like my father did. Well, that's what I thought. Larry Colburn lives in the Atlanta area. He didn't belong to Charlie Company. But on March 16, 1968, the mission entrusted to him also led him to My Lai. He was then barely older than his son. My father served four years in England and France during World War II. He transmitted to me the notion of duty, the obligation to serve one's country. I was 17 when I joined the army. In suburban Cleveland, Ohio, official army photographer Ron Haeberle. He was also at My Lai on March 16, 1968. When I was called up, I did my military training. Then I was sent to this new unit that was being created in Hawaii. Initially, I was to be a mortar operator. I had brought my camera and took quite a few pictures of the workouts. They liked my photos and they offered me to work in the department of information and communication. And that's how I started my career in the army as a photojournalist. The American engagement in Vietnam began timidly at first, in 1955, shortly after the war in Indochina. As a result of the Geneva agreements, Vietnam was then cut in two. The North is controlled by the Communists led by Ho Chi Minh. South of a demarcation line, the local government is held at arm's length by the United States. Each camp seeks to reunify the country for its benefit. At the instigation of President Lyndon Johnson, the American military contingent stationed in the south continued to increase: 185,000 men in December 1965, 390,000 a year later. On the eve of 1968, nearly 470,000 American soldiers were stationed in Vietnam. On the ground, nothing goes as planned. In February 1968, the army was overtaken by the Tet offensive. The Vietcong attack a hundred cities simultaneously. After fierce fighting, the American army manages to contain the offensive. But psychologically, nothing is going right. The American decline is on the way, even if for the soldiers who engage, the war always looks like an adventure. For me, the real starting point of My Lai is the formation of the regiment in Hawaii. Everyone knew each other, we had been together for nine months. There was an intimacy, very strong bonds between us. The bonds were even too strong. You must not be so close, it affects the morale of the troops. I thought I was going to stay in Hawaii for 18 months, but I signed up to go to Vietnam. My friends were going there. I was part of their group and I wanted to be with them. I was thinking of the landing of the Second World War. I imagined that we were going to storm a beach, like in Normandy. We had all our gear. Our guns were loaded. We arrived on the beach, the doors opened and there were soldiers lying on the beach in bathing suits, sunbathing. Ah yes, they laughed at us. And that's how it all started. When you become a soldier, and more particularly in the infantry, you are taught to follow orders and to kill. They strip you of your values and your personality, and make you integrate a group of identical individuals who have the same objective. Fred Widmer, enlisted in the infantry, was one of Charlie Company's radio operators. Leaving Quang Ngai, they put us on trucks to take us to Duc Pho alongside the 11th Brigade. I remember, I was sitting in front with the driver and I realized for the first time how much we had dehumanized the Vietnamese people. There was a Vietnamese on a bicycle in front of us, on the road. The truck driver ran into him on purpose and threw him into the ditch. He could have avoided it, but he didn't even try. He didn't even stop. It was then that I wondered what story I had gotten myself into. Larry Colburn was in the air force. From his helicopter, he assisted ground troops. Once you arrive in Vietnam , your mentality begins to change. For example, you never see the enemy, like in the John Wayne movies. But you see soldiers exploding into 1000 pieces. And that doesn't look like the John Wayne movie. Once there, you realize that what you expected does not correspond at all to reality. What traumatized me the most during my entire stay in Vietnam was when I picked up Bobby Wilson's body. First I picked up an arm, then a leg, then his torso. I put everything in a poncho and took him to the helicopter. And that, you never get used to. The GIs were prepared for a war identical to that of their father on the beaches of Normandy. But what awaits them in Vietnam has nothing to do with that. There is no front line. The enemy remains invisible. Face-to-face combat is rare, but the dead and wounded are numerous. the American Army multiplies search and destroy operations, undermining work which must gradually undermine the morale of the Vietcong, giving them the feeling that they are being hunted everywhere. Crops, buffaloes, chickens, houses in the villages, we follow orders, we burn everything. We had suffered casualties in the regiment, dead, wounded. In the My Lai region, we had been victims of snipers, booby traps, bombs. We knew it was the Vietcong. My Lai is located in the heart of a combat zone. It is one of three hamlets in a village that the Vietnamese call Son My. For the Americans, it is rather Pinkville, because on the state maps, the area is colored in pink. Despite the war, life goes on. It's not just search and destroy missions. GIs also forge an image of benefactors. The regiments were assembled and the officers told us about the attacks of the next few days. There was a search and destroy mission and we were going to attack first a battalion of the army of North Vietnam which was already in this area. It was going to be one hell of a battle. We were told that all the inhabitants would be gone and that all those who remained would be Vietcong or accomplices of the Vietcong and had to be taken care of. We were also told that they had been notified of our arrival. We had come back up because we were going to avenge the soldiers we had lost. We were finally, really going to fight the enemy. It was one of the first real confrontations. We were close. I joined the Charlie company on March 16, 1968 at 7:30 am. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. From what I knew, there must have been quite a lot of cong in the village and that was what I had to photograph. The encounter with them and the fight. It must have been a perfectly normal mission. This March 16, 1968, from his helicopter, Larry Colburn must protect the soldiers on the ground. He flies to My Lai, where he must assist the Charlie Company. It's a usual mission The morning of the mission, we were in the helicopter. I remember it was a very sunny day. The sky was blue on the horizon. It was very hot. You could smell the smell of plants and flowers coming out of the jungle. I remember that well. On the other hand, I couldn't hear much because of the headphones and the noise of the helicopter. But it was a very nice day. I believe it was a Saturday. That day, we had breakfast before going to the field, like every morning. There, we
A group of helicopters landed at the village there. Immediately there were a lot of shots. We did not understand what was happening. We continued to eat. The American soldiers gathered and entered the house. We were advancing towards the village and we heard that shots started to get nervous, tense. We didn't know exactly what we were getting into and what was going to happen to us. I was in the second helicopter which took off at 7:20 a.m. and when they dropped us off in the village. We heard a lot of gunshots. Larry Colburn's helicopter soon flies over the My Lai area. There is a great confusion on the ground. Small scattered groups entered the village in several places at the same time. Larry Colburn is flanked by Glenn Andreotta and Lieutenant Hugh Thompson, his superior, who pilots the helicopter. On the ground, among the Charlie Company officers, Lieutenant William Calley and Captain Medina. Colonel Henderson flies over the area. He is the commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade to which Fred Widmer belongs. And once we entered the village, we saw women and children who had been killed. The Americans attacked the village. There was a terrible uproar. Everyone was afraid. People started crawling and they stayed there. The Americans forced me to follow them. They told me to sit down and I sat down. They told me to get up. I got up. They shoved me with their guns. I begged them to leave me, but they didn't understand what I was saying. There were many of them, some continued to push us around. We were afraid. Normally, if we are told to move on, we just obey, but we are not afraid. That day, yes, we were really scared. There they fired into the pagoda and pushed people around. It was terrible. At one point they shot five people, as if to show what they could do. When they started shooting more and more, people were screaming My God! They shot people. Whatever their age. Little ones like that, big ones like that. Five years, ten years, seven years, eight years. They kept shooting. I was on a mission, so my photos had to illustrate the news reports and I had to use my black and white camera. But given what was happening that day, I told myself that I couldn't just use my black and white camera. I chose to pull out my personal color camera and took some photos that weren't meant for publication. I think the most terrible image I will remember is this group of people huddled together being shot. I will never forget when I arrived and a soldier yelled, “Here comes someone with a camera.” The soldiers turned around, looked at me. I too watched them. I took the photo and left. The other image that struck me was the pile of corpses on the road. I have a terrible memory of it. As I was about to take pictures of the bodies, a little boy who had an injured arm appeared out of nowhere and approached. It sounded like he was looking for his mother. At the same time, a GI knelt down beside me, pointed his gun at him and killed him. The little boy was thrown onto the pile of corpses. I turned back to the GI. I looked at him and asked him "why?" The GI looked at me and left. We really looked each other in the eye. I remember my first shot. They kicked people. They grabbed them by the hair. They jostled them to make them fall into the canal. It was terrifying. People were running and stumbling in the ditch. And once people fell into it, they fired nonstop. They fired three times, four times with their machine guns. If they had fired once, there might still have been survivors. When you realize what you've done and it's wrong, you can't stop anything. We cannot go back. When we saw these wounded civilians around the hamlet. We didn't know how it had happened to them, who had injured them, so we marked them on the ground hoping that the soldiers who were on the ground would give them first aid. But instead, they finished them off. After the second shot, there was a quieter period. And then they fired for the third time. My father was 70 years old, he had a long beard. He was old. He wore a black garment and he was hunched over. I wanted to tell her that I was still alive, but I was afraid of being discovered. If the Americans had heard me, he would have killed me. They shot my father in the head. At that time , hundreds of people had already been massacred. Civilians, because that day there were no Vietcong in My Lai. But the mission continues. No officer puts an end to it. Lieutenant William Calley kills civilians en masse. Captain Medina lets it go and also participates fully in the mission. Captain Medina, who commanded the company, had our full confidence. He did nothing to intentionally endanger us. He took care of his men. And if he had asked us to follow him into the gorges of hell, we would have done it. We would have done anything for him and he would have done anything for us. When we saw Captain Medina kill a woman right in front of us, it became abundantly clear. It was our own soldiers who committed these atrocities. A woman we flagged down had a chest injury and was waving as if asking for help. Medina approached her and looked at her. He glanced in our direction. We were about ten meters away, two or three meters above the ground, and he looked at us again. Kicked him and finished him off. That's when Thompson, our pilot, realized he was going to have to physically intervene. Glenn Andreotta, who was on the left in the helicopter, told us that he had just seen people in an underground shelter. We also noticed that there was a troop of infantry moving in that direction. Thompson landed the helicopter between the people in the shelter and the arriving infantry brigade. And he went to the lieutenant of the brigade and told him that there were people in a shelter and asked him how to get them out since they were civilians. And the lieutenant replied that he would get them out with grenades. Thompson gave him an order. He told him "You keep your men in place, I have a better idea." It was very tense because the lieutenant obviously didn't appreciate a young officer giving him orders. But Thompson did. Then he came back to the helicopter and he told us, “I'm going to get them out of this bunker myself. And if those men open fire on me or the civilians while I'm dragging him out of the bunker, you shoot!” And he
waved people out slowly, nicely, and they started to trust him and they walked out. We thought there were two or three of them, but in fact there were almost ten, including this woman. Shooting our guys was the last thing I wanted to do. We loved these men. We were there to protect them. We were in a delicate position. I remember for a moment I looked at one of the soldiers. I gave a friendly wave and he waved back. At that moment, I knew he wouldn't do anything to me. Thompson continued to drive the Vietnamese out. The guys sat down, they put their bags down, but it was too late. The massacre had already taken place, So I got up. I removed the corpses that still covered my son. I pulled him out, but he was passed out. I tried to revive him. He started breathing I was so happy. I took him home. When we arrived, the buffaloes and the cows were dead and they had ransacked the banana trees. They had set fire to the house. I did not know what to do. I couldn't walk the path because there were dead people everywhere. I had to cross the rice fields to go to the village above. I took my son there. They asked me what had happened. This is my story. When I think about it, what a pity! The Charlie Company stayed 4 hours at My Lai 504 people were murdered. After My Lai, we did other missions. And then Thompson and I reported what happened at My Lai to Colonel Anderson. We thought it was our duty to pass this information on to our hierarchy. Because there was no doubt that these actions were wrong. The mission of the Charlie company stretches another two days. It's a fail. The wanted Vietcong are actually about forty kilometers further west. Back at the camp, some are questioned by the command, but no one is worried. The officers decided to hush up the affair. New, particularly dangerous missions are then entrusted to the Charlie Company. Clearly they were trying to bury us. They were hoping that we were ambushed and we were all killed. That would have put an end to any sort of investigation. Meanwhile, in the United States, the army takes care of the Total Black Out propaganda on My Lai. the Army prefers to show, using small models, how it comes to the aid of Vietnamese peasants. A wind of revolt is blowing over the United States, even if the My Lai scandal has not yet broken out. Anti-war movements are increasingly virulent. The campuses are on fire. In August 1968, the Democratic convention opposed McCarthy, anti-war candidate, to Humphrey vice president of Johnson. It takes place in a very tense atmosphere. The face to face between the demonstrators and the police lasted several days. It is ultimately the Republican Nixon who will be elected president. The problem, on returning, was the protesters. Some of my friends were demonstrators and for them, a soldier was worthless. They spat on you, knocked you down. When I got home I wanted to make up for lost time and that's when I started on drugs and alcohol. When I came back from Vietnam, I read about all these GIs dying there or being injured, and it made me angry. All these anti-war demonstrations. I thought maybe people really needed to know what was going on there. I developed my films and I did small exhibitions during my two years in the army. I showed the positive things we had done there when we brought medicine to the villages. Meetings with children and villagers. I, we made them laugh. Then I showed my mission to My Lai. These photos are worth absolutely nothing if they are not explained. Wanted to know the reaction of people by explaining to them what had happened. Some thought I made it all up, others thought these photos were taken in Hollywood. Many told me that the Gi couldn't do that and that it was impossible because we were Americans. On April 2, 1969, a former GI, Ronald Ridenhour, wrote a letter to several members of Congress, in which he denounced the events at My Lai that members of the Charlie Company had told him. After a preliminary investigation which confirms what Ridenhour had revealed, the army entrusts André Fire, a military detective, with the task of carrying out a criminal investigation on the ground. Very quickly, he wants to meet Ron Haeberle. He knew that every photographer, especially during missions, always had a personal camera and that even many soldiers in Vietnam took their own photos. That's how he contacted me and I collaborated with him. He asked me if I had any photos. I replied that I had. I gave 17 photos to the criminal investigation division. The most important photos, the ones that tell us something about My Lai. You know, there are pictures that speak louder than words and there are others that are better left unsaid. The other photos showed terrible scenes of who was doing what and to whom. And those, I destroyed them. Soon, André Fire decides to go to Vietnam. He takes with him a young soldier, Wayne Thorn, to help him collect testimonies. We were based in a small town called Quang Gnai. We brought the witnesses, the survivors Vietnamese from My Lai to interrogate them. He didn't understand why they were being asked questions about such a distant fact and, on top of that, a fact of war. There were so many people involved. It was not just one GI who had fired at another or at a civilian, but it was an entire section that was involved in a true act of barbarism. It was a bad day. One thing is certain, I am relieved that my sons did not have to go through this. These memories will always haunt me. Lieutenant Calley was arrested in September 1969 and soon the press seized on the affair. It immediately gets bigger. Ron Haeberle, decides to make his photos public. At the end of November, Life magazine reveals the terrible images of the massacre. I knew things were just getting started, that there would be a trial, that people were going to be charged. I knew the anti-war protests were going to get bigger and bigger. Public opinion demands accountability. General Peers is appointed to shed light on the massacre and find out why the army tried to hide the truth. Civilians join his team, like Gerry Walsh, a New York lawyer. It was a wonderful opportunity for a young lawyer like me to be involved in a case like this. In December 1969, General Peers went to Vietnam. With his team, he wants to reconstruct the exact sequence of events before determining who is responsible for the blackout that followed the massacre. On March 14, 1970, the report was completed. Over 400 witnesses were interviewed. More than 80 soldiers are accused of murder. But the army decides to prosecute only those who still wear the uniform. Captain Medina and Lieutenant Calley are among those. While preparing his defense. William Calley does not forget to take care of his image in the press. If you want my opinion. If all this could have happened, it is partly because of the very limited skills of Lieutenant Calley. We must remember that we were in 68 and that the army was really under pressure. Its numbers were 3 to 4 times greater than in the early 1960s. Normally, Calley would never have become an officer. But in this situation, he was able to become a lieutenant. He had absolutely no skills required. He was only 65 meters tall, which was the minimum required to be an officer in the US Army at that time. He had an intelligence quotient of 115, which was also the minimum. He had only been to college for two years, which again was the minimum. Unfortunately, everything was in place for a tragedy like this to happen. Captain Medina was only a sergeant in the regular army and the needs of the army had given him the opportunity to become an officer. He may have been a good sergeant, but he didn't have the sense of judgment or the education one expects of an officer. And Medina scared Calley. He treated him like the fool he was. When I was first implicated in the My Lai incident, I repeatedly said that I did not order a massacre and did not see that a massacre had taken place. Since the beginning of my involvement in the My Lai incident, I have always followed the same course of action. Tell the whole truth. I am a professional soldier, I am loyal to my country and I have nothing to hide. The Peers report concludes beyond doubt that the military hierarchy knew what happened on March 16, 1968 at My Lai. And she didn't say anything. Koster was in a helicopter, just above with Henderson, the battalion commander. The soldiers on the ground sent them reports every hour. At 12:00 a.m. A report said they had killed 87 Vietcong and recovered three weapons. General Peers knew very well that by reading these two numbers, anyone who had military experience in Vietnam would tell you that something strange had happened. Because if 87 Vietcong were killed, we should see 87 weapons or more. They did not move without weapons. March 1971, after three months of trial. William Callley, apparently serene, awaits the verdict. Numerous testimonies nevertheless overwhelmed him during the debates. According to the testimony of a soldier, Calley had ordered that the machine-gun be fired into the ditch and the people be finished off. The soldier who was supposed to do it said he couldn't. Calley replied Get out! He did it himself. Although suspected of 80 murders, Lieutenant Calley is only found guilty for 22 of them, he is sentenced to life in prison. A movement in favor of William Calley is born in public opinion. Many see him as a scapegoat. What do you think of the trial verdict? It stinks, sir. I don't think he should have been convicted. War is war. I think the soldiers I had in Vietnam, those of the 11th brigade, were well trained, very disciplined, remarkably obedient to orders. They deserve my loyalty and continue to do so. What are you going to do now? Colonel Henderson? Right away, I'm going home. I had bought a Christmas tree last Monday and left it behind the house because I wasn't sure I could put it up. I think now I'm going to go home, get into the Christmas spirit and put up my tree. Of the dozen men named by the inquest for their role in the My Lai massacre. Only six of them made it to trial. Five were acquitted, including Colonel Henderson. Only one was found guilty, Lieutenant William Calley. Now, for the army, the case is closed. Even before the outcome of the court-martial trial, during the trial itself, I felt like it was a charade and it was something that was meant to appease American opinion. Because Life Magazine had exploded the case by showing the public what had happened that day, with the famous very shocking photos. For some strange reason, during the trial, I never thought anyone could be held responsible. And my intuition turned out to be quite right. I think our investigation was honest. She revealed the responsibilities. The work the army did to try to punish the criminals who carried out the executions. It's something we can be proud of. But the result of our effort to prosecute these people has been a fiasco. President Nixon, who thinks he is going with his electorate, soon orders the release of William Calley. Under house arrest, the latter awaits the judgment on appeal. On April 2, 1973, his life sentence was confirmed, but a year later the sentence was reduced to ten years. The former Charlie Company lieutenant is soon released on bail and can sell his testimony at strange conferences. One of the greatest tragedies for me and for the men who were close to me. it was that we were carrying out operations for a cause that we did not know about. The moral, the pain are there. But the frustration was that we had no idea why we were doing what we were doing. In 1998, 30 years after the massacre, the US government finally decided to honor the three soldiers who risked their lives to end the carnage. Hugh Thompson, the pilot of the helicopter who took responsibility for intervening, died in January 2006. Glenn Andreotta had disappeared on a mission three weeks after the massacre. Larry Colborne is today the last survivor of this team which saved several Vietnamese that day. I will carry this burden until my death. I can't speak for the other soldiers, but it's such a strong guilt that it's impossible to get rid of it. Once you've killed someone, you can't get rid of your sense of guilt. We are all guilty. I could forgive them. Only some Americans killed, not all. And in this group, not everyone participated. There's a dream I've had for all these years. I'm back at the ditch all alone. I try to help the victims. But they start pointing fingers at me and accusing me of having committed these massacres. I try to explain to them that it's not me, that I'm here to help them. But they don't listen to me and keep accusing me. After 40 years, the feeling of loss and the pain faded. Right after, I had hatred. I felt the lack. But now it's over. The pain subsided.
