20 January, Dung Quat to Quang Ngai, 51km
Dong Hong Hotel 200,000VND

Today we visited the site of the My Lai massacre. On 16 March 1968, My Lai and three other hamlets considered Viet Cong* strongholds, were attacked by American troops without direct provocation. 504 unarmed men (mainly elderly), women and children were murdered (US sources say 347). The horrific events were documented by a military photographer. One soldier shot himself in the foot so as not to participate. My Lai fuelled anti-war protests in the US, with returning soldiers being called “Baby killers”, and protestors chanting: “Hey, hey LBJ (Lyndon B Johnson), how many kids did you kill today?” Lieutenant Calley was court-martialed, found guilty of the murder of 22 unarmed civilians, and sentenced to life in 1971; he was paroled in 1974. Several of the people working at the My Lai museum, are survivors or children of survivors.

* The Viet Minh, headed by Ho Chi Minh, were the north Vietnamese nationalist / communist soldiers who fought against the Japanese during WW2 (with assistance from the OSS – the forerunner of the CIA) and against France for their independence. Viet Cong is a shortened version of the Vietnamese way of saying “Vietnamese communist”. It refers to the members of the National Liberation Force of Southern Vietnam (NLF) who fought against the Diem regime.

Breakfast (also auto repair and cattle farm)

My Lai

My Lai

My Lai

My Lai