foreign [Music] ERS on the ground executed several hundred villagers in March of 1968 from 1965 to 1973 the United States waged a grueling war against the Communist forces of North Vietnam the conflict was a brutal Guerrilla War where Young American soldiers were sent far from home to fight an enemy that fought unlike anything the U. S military had seen before the Vietnam War remains controversial to this day some argue it was a Justified defense of South Vietnam against Northern communist aggression While others argue it was an unjustified war of U. S imperialism driven by Cold War anti-communist hysteria what all can agree upon is that the war resulted in the deaths of millions of people a large portion of them civilians killed by the United States of all the civilian deaths caused by the us there were none more Infamous than the stomach churning events of the melee Massacre on 16 March 1968 which took the lives of 504 innocent civilians including women and children foreign by 1968 the Vietnam War was going badly for the Americans the Tet Offensive launched by the north in January 1968 had strained America's military might and shattered U.
S morale at home and abroad desperate to reclaim the initiative the U. S launched a series of counter-offensives to push back the Communist enemy one target of this counter-offensive was kuangnai Province specifically the village of sunmi sunmi was made up of several smaller hamlets including melee for the sake of Simplicity we'll stick to the more famous name of the whole village Miele Miele nicknamed pinkville by the Americans because of its communist sympathies was believed to be a hot spot for Vietcong VC U. S intelligence claimed that the VC was active in the area and the village was essentially a communist Outpost in March 1968 task force Barker was assembled to deal with melee the task force was made up of soldiers drawn from two companies company C first Italian 20th Infantry Regiment and Company B third infantry regiment 11th Brigade 23rd Infantry Division for simplicity's sake we will call them B company and C company there was also an a company but their role in events was relatively minimal C company was commanded by Captain Ernest Medina with his seconded command being Lieutenant William Kelly C company had entered Vietnam in December 1967 and despite not seeing direct combat they had lost 28 men to booby traps and landmines by March of 1968.
on March 15th SEA company held a memorial for a much beloved Sergeant who had been killed the previous day the soldiers were angry frustrated and craving revenge and soon enough they would try to take it that evening task force Barker was told that they would be attacking melee in the morning SEA company would enter the Village proper while B companies secured another nearby Hamlet a company would be watching for fleeing VC outside the village cap Medina told SEA company that they were expecting heavy communist resistance which would leave them outnumbered two to one Medina also told his men that the civilian population would be leaving for Market at 7am the next morning and so everyone who remained was to be considered an enemy there is no clear picture of what happened at the briefing some soldiers claimed that Medina was asked what to do if women and children were found supposedly their orders were to kill any combatant or suspected combatants they came across one soldier claimed that Medina told them they're all VC now go and get them another one claimed that Medina told them their enemy was anybody who was running from us hiding from us or appeared to be the enemy if a man was running shoot him sometimes even if a woman with a rifle was running shoot her as chilling as this might sound it was not unusual many soldiers and observers noted the casual attitude of violence against civilians among American soldiers body counts Were King in Vietnam a higher body count meant a combat unit was more effective and more liked by command so it was common for civilians to be counted among the enemy dead regardless of what was actually said the soldiers understood what was meant Rifleman Bernardo Simpson remembering the briefing years later knew what they were being ordered to do we were told to leave nothing standing we did what we were told regardless of whether they were civilians at 7 24 am on the 16th of March artillery shattered the Peace of the Vietnamese Countryside shells rained down on a shocked and unsuspecting civilian population between 7 30 and 737 SEA company were inserted by helicopter into the Hamlet of melee nearby a helicopter crew engaged four suspected combatants outside the village they would be the only potential combatants encountered by the Americans for the whole day intelligence had dropped the ball not only were there no Fighters only one weapon was recovered from the entire Village but the civilians had not gone to Market either shaken by the bombardment the civilians cautiously welcomed the American GIS the Americans rounded them up and assembled the civilians in common spaces around the village it seems that the melee residents did not suspect that anything was wrong accounts vary on what happened next apparently without any warning one of the U. S soldiers stabbed a civilian with a Bayonet like sharks smelling blood in the water the rest of the U. S soldiers quickly followed suit gunfire erupted screaming tore through the village and the massacre began the Americans acted without Mercy they tossed grenades into bunkers to kill cowering civilians they shot anyone they came across speared them with bayonets or burned them in their homes no spared women shouted no VC to no avail one private recalled seeing women throwing themselves on top of their children to Shield them the gis simply shot the parents and executed the children right after the America even used grenade launchers on groups of civilians to make the killing more efficient meanwhile Bee Company inserted to the other nearby Hamlet about 45 minutes after Sea company landed although less well recorded they committed a similar Massacre killing between 60 to 155 people in the following hours one group of between 20 and 50 civilians was led to a dirt road just outside melee where they were executed on mass one witness of this was U.
S army photographer Sergeant Ronald heberley hably had been sent in an official capacity but horrified by the action he also took photographs with his personal camera the these photos would become legendary and played a key role in exposing the massacre years later some of his most famous photos show groups of terrified civilians tied up moments before execution other show the aftermath with the bodies of women and children lying dead on the ground hey believe vividly remembered seeing an injured boy walking in a daze he'd been shot in the arm and leg already as haberly knelt down to take a picture an American Soldier walked up and killed the boy with three shots before walking away conspicuous Among The Killers would sea company's second in command Lieutenant William Kelly many men claimed that Kelly had been the one to give direct orders to shoot civilians Cali had 70 to 80 civilians rounded up and marched to an irrigation ditch east of the settlement Cali then ordered his men to execute them Kelly himself set his rifle to full auto and didn't stop until every civilian was dead rip was also a feature of the massacre at least 20 women and girls were known to have been although the actual number was probably Higher One particularly brutal involved a woman who was just after the soldier shot her children the massacre lost for hours one specialist Bernardo Simpson claimed to have personally killed or mutilated 25 people one soldier called it just like a Nazi type thing some soldiers did not take part in the violence however none of sea company attempted to protest or oppose the massacre through it all only one shot was fired at an American Soldier by an American soldier who shot himself in the foot as an excuse to be withdrawn from the scene to some an honest attempt to avoid war crimes to others a cowardly attempt to save himself while doing nothing to Stop The Killing fortunately there were three soldiers involved in the operation who showed bravery and Humanity a helicopter crew composed of Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr specialist Lawrence Colburn and specialist Glenn andreata were horrified and attempted to intervene to save the civilians they spotted one woman in a field she had been injured and was attempting to flee the helicopter crew radioed for help but got nothing they launched a smoke grenade in an attempt to give her cover but they could only watch as Captain Medina coldly walked up to the woman and executed her at point-blank range Thompson later spotted the troops heading for a Bunker full of civilians and landed his helicopter between the bunker and the soldiers leading the troops was none other than Lieutenant Cali Thompson urged him to help the civilians to escape but Kelly only told him it would be better to kill them realizing how things stood Thompson took things into his own hands he and his crew began evacuating the civilians themselves the helicopter Gunner specialist Colburn was given a simple order if any of the Americans attempted to stop the evacuation shoot them none did together the crew managed to save about a dozen civilians specialist Glenn andreata even leapt into the irrigation ditch full of bodies to rescue an unharmed four-year-old child these precious lives were saved but in the final accounting it felt like a hollow achievement estimates for the death count vary the Vietnamese government reports 504 victims the Americans claim 347 the vast majority were women and children at least 17 of those women were pregnant and 56 of the children were infants as for men almost half were over 60 and the rest were mostly too old or sick to have been any threat only four suspected VC soldiers had been killed and they were outside the village when Thompson and his crew returned to base they immediately told their superiors about the events it's mass murder out there Thompson told his captain they're rounding them up and hurting them in ditches and then just shooting them the reports went up the chain of command eventually reaching Colonel Oren Henderson Henderson interviewed Thompson soon after however any hopes that Justice would come were quashed the official report from task force Barker claimed that they had killed 128 VC no mention of Civilian casualties was made ultimately command chose to believe the official line Henderson despite interviewing Thompson recommended Captain Medina for promotion less than two weeks after the massacre General William Westmoreland head of macv sent a congratulatory message to Sea company and Military newspapers proudly reported on the company's supposed victory over a village of VC soldiers however not everyone believed the story an initial investigation by the military concluded that 20 civilians had inadvertently been killed mostly by the opening artillery barrage meanwhile the truth was no secret to the soldiers of sea company who boasted of how they executed hundreds of civilians one person who caught wind of this was specialist Ron Ridenour some days later Ridenour was flying over melee and saw the ditches still clogged with the bodies of civilians despite everything it took months for anything to be done in late 1968 Tom Glenn wrote a letter to military authorities describing an epidemic of violence against civilians in Vietnam although Miele was not mentioned it was implied to be part of a wider pattern of U. S violence towards civilians the military assigned one colon Powell to investigate the claims in late 1968 but he quickly concluded that the accusations were exaggerated this was the same Colin Powell who would go on to become Secretary of State under the Bush Administration where he played a key role in the war on terror it seemed that the military was attempting to cover up the massacre upon leaving the Army Rob Ridenour added his voice to the growing chorus calling for an investigation Ridenour wrote dozens of letters exposing the massacre to President Nixon the Pentagon and at least 30 congressmen none of them responded publicly however the military could no longer ignore that civilian deaths had indeed occurred at melee in September 1969 they quietly charged Lieutenant Kelly and Kelly alone with six counts of murder the story might have been brushed aside were it not for the journalist Seymour Hirsch Hirsch was aware of the simmering accusations about melee and on November 13 1969 published an explosive article that exposed the massacre and the military's prosecution of Kelly in the following weeks Sergeant haberly the photographer on the scene in melee shared his photographs with life and time magazines the photos laid it bare U. S soldiers had massive hundreds of Vietnamese civilians and tried to cover it up the revelations were shocking and shattered public confidence in the war the Nixon Administration spearheaded by National Security adviser Henry Kissinger tried and failed to contain the story by the end of the year CBS was airing interviews with soldiers who openly admitted to partaking in the massacre however the idea that U.
S troops could do something like this was too much for some people to accept a poll of Minnesota residents said that 49 of people thought the story was false invented by anti-war Advocates to demonize the Troops the military had no choice but to do a proper investigation Lieutenant General William Pierce was appointed to investigate his report in March 1970 found that at least 200 civilians had been killed and at most 4 VC he concluded that a tragedy of major proportions had occurred in the format 26 soldiers were charged a small fraction of those involved for offices including Kelly and nine enlisted men were charged for the massacre itself while 12 others were charged with covering it up of the 25 charged five made it to trial of those five all but four were acquitted on March 29 1971 Lieutenant William Kelly was sentenced to life in prison for killing at least 22 innocent civilians he was the only person ever charged relating to the melee massacre at his trial Cali showed no remorse according to him he was just following orders he remained convinced that the civilians of Miele were his enemy when it became between me and that enemy I had to Value the lives of my troops and I feel that is the only crime I have committed the reactions to the sentence were mixed many still felt the accusations were false others felt that everything was justified a Gallup poll found that 79 of people disapproved of Cali's life sentence and a sizable number of people are he shouldn't have been charged at all almost immediately President Nixon intervened and changed Cali's prison sentence to house arrest in 1974 Cali was given a full pardon having served only three and a half years of his life sentence meanwhile the heroic actions of Thompson Colburn and andreata were ignored for years the military initially awarded Thompson the distinguished flying cross for rescuing civilians from a combat zone while the other two members got the Bronze Star Thompson's Commendation lied about events in an attempt to cover up the massacre which so disgusted Thompson that he threw it away and Riata was killed in action later that year and never saw Justice for the events at melee in 1998 30 years after the massacre Thompson and Colburn were awarded the soldiers medal the highest honor bestowed by the Army for non-combat actions and Riata was given it posthumously they even visited melee and met some of the people they saved however the scars of that day stayed with them and Thompson experienced severe PTSD for the rest of his life from the events of that day Miele was a Flashpoint in the Vietnam War it showed the world that the U.
