Us old enough remember My Lai in 1968, also realize no people, culture, etc, are immune to these kinds of attrocites.
@catfish1957 There is no comparision. The Nazi's were executing these civilian men,women,and children in cold blood.
The My Lai Massacre involved infantry troops that were in combat,and who were fired on and had friends wounded and killed by fire coming from that village. Then then went into the village on a sweep immediately afterwards,while they still had their "blood up" and were stinking from adrenaline and fear.
No,that does NOT justify it,but in MY mind,the officers and NCO's were more to blame than the privates,who were young men or teens,scared to death,and most likely still in shock from being in combat.
Having said that,it is possible to be an experienced NCO or officer,and just have a breakdown from seeing to much of that sort of thing for too long.
While these men were clearly guilty of the murders,there should have been some consideration given to their youth and the circumstances.
Once again,nothing done at Mai Lai was done in cold blood and by cold intention. It was a extension of what they had been doing all day,and it was the responsibility of their platoon leader and his NCO's to stop them.
BTW,in case it needs to be said,I have CONSIDERABLY less consideration for the platoon leader and the NCO's who did nothing to stop it than I do for some of the young men who actually committed the murders. I DO have more consideration for the young platoon leader than I do the platoon sgt,though. The platoon leader was young,and probably as inexperienced as the teen troops under his command. Nobody can say that about the platoon sgt.
