Plot

American Experience investigates the My Lai massacre an atrocity during the Vietnam War that killed more than 300 unarmed civilians.

The experiences of Charlie Company leading up to the My Lai massacre and the circumstances of the event make the tragedy seem almost inevitable but for a few heroic souls who tried to stop it. Following a detailed account of the event, American Experience examines the Army cover-up, the subsequent investigation and the defacto cover-up after the release of Lt. Calley. Soldiers involved in the massacre and survivors describe their experience and how they later dealt with their memory of the tragedy.—David Foss

Part of American Experience (1988) series, this documentary recounts the events leading up to and then subsequent to March 16, 1968 when U.S. soldiers killed 507 civilians in the village of My Lai, Vietnam. Charlie Company (1st Battalion, 20th Infantry) was well trained and had arrived in Vietnam a few months before. The operation that day was supposed to be directed at a Viet Cong battalion (which it turned out was not there) and their orders were to destroy the village and kill anyone in it. Several helicopter pilots could see the rampage unfolding and rescued some of the Vietnamese civilians. The cover-up began almost immediately and it was a year before the story became national news. Some 30 men were charged but only one, Lt. William Calley was convicted.—garykmcd