March 16, 1968Reputable sourceWell documented
The My Lai Massacre
On the timeline · around March 16, 1968 ·
What happened
U.S. soldiers murdered hundreds of unarmed civilians — women, children and the elderly — in the hamlet of My Lai. The atrocity was covered up for over a year before investigative reporting exposed it; only Lieutenant William Calley was convicted.
Why it matters
My Lai became the war's moral nadir, a symbol of how a brutal, disorienting conflict corroded the army fighting it and further turned Americans against the war.
How we know
The cover-up was broken by journalist Seymour Hersh in 1969, and the killings were documented in the U.S. Army's own Peers Inquiry.
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica. My Lai Massacre · Reputable source