My Lai hamlet after the massacre. (Source: VNA) Washington DC (VNA) – The Vietnam PeaceCommemoration Committee (VPCC) organised an array of activities in the US from March 15-17 to commemorate 504 victims of the Son My bloody massacre by US troops50 years ago.
About 70 people gathered at the Lafayette Square on March 16 to read out namesof the victims, sang songs for peace and chanted the slogan of “My Lai: NeverAgain”.
The same day, Professor Howard Jones, a VPCC member from Alabama University,hosted a programme to introduce his book titled “My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and theDescent into Darkness” at George Washington University, Washington D.C.
At the same time, the 475-page English book was also introduced by the VPCC atColumbia University in New York.
On March 17 afternoon, the VPCC screed a 95-minute film at George WashingtonUniversity, featuring acceptance of more than 125 US soldiers of the crueltythey committed or witnessed at the massacre.
The killings that occurred on March 16, 1968 in My Lai hamlet (now Son My, TinhKhe commune), the central province of Quang Ngai, prompted widespread outragearound the world. The massacre is also credited with advancing the end of theAmerican War because it significantly undermined public support in the UnitedStates for the war effort.
Some 504 unarmed civilians in Tinh Khe communewere slaughtered, mostly elderly villagers, women and children. Hundreds ofhouses, along with thousands of heads of cattle and poultry, and all food, wereburned and destroyed that day.
Founded in September 2014, the VPCC seeks to tell the truth and learn the lessonsof the US war in Indochina, and of the broad, diverse protest movement thatended the war. -VNA
VNA
