I have no commie pals, asshole. And if you were so ******* worried about "executions" and the other messes left by a war crime..then maybe you should have supported the elections taking place in the first place.
Or are you really so ******* stupid that you think that the aftermath of a 15 year was going to be pretty. Eh?
And Calley wasn't a "failure" he was a war criminal. Like the many war criminals that commanded him. They massacred a village and gang raped children. THATS what really happened. Marginalizing it, is DISGUSTING. And this event was NOT unique.
Asshole.
When you defend a tyrannical communist government , I take that to mean you consider them your "pals".
Second, I find it ironic that the Left always brings up Calley; you practically have made him the poster boy for all American soldiers in Vietnam. Thanks to him, all of us have been labeled murderers and baby killers. Well, Calley WAS a failure and a disgrace, and yes, I'll throw in war criminal as well, because what he and his men did is definitely a war crime. Everybody remembers Calley. However, there WERE Americans at My Lai that day who did not commit atrocities, or stand there and do nothing while others committed mass murder. I never hear Hugh Thompson mentioned, and yet, he ought to be remembered by you, and everyone else, for what he did. I want to know if you or anyone else here remembers WO1 Thompson, because he represents the other side of the story of My Lai,and while we are telling the truth, we ought to tell ALL of it.
I defend the people of most any country coming up with popular self rule. That's what Vietnam was doing. That's what they've been trying to do for almost 1,000 years.
They wanted an election. They earned it. They helped fight the Japanese during WWII. They didn't get it. What they got was invasion.
That something you want to defend?
Cheers.
Bullshit! Ho got his country, the DRV. Then, the communist egomaniacal dictator decided he wanted it all, so he INVADED the RVN (South Vietnam). Indigenous freedom fighters, my arse! Most of the VC were NORTH VIETNAMESE soldiers, infiltrated into the south, a fact most of them readily admitted. They recruited there by terror and intimidation, the murdering, torturing, sacks of shit! Thank you, but I'll save my tears for the innocent people of South Vietnam, who we tried to protect from communist terror; real "freedom fighters" don't brutalize their own people (which even Jake admits they did!).
I see you don't want to discuss Hugh Thompson. No wonder, the idea that even in the carnage of My Lai, an American remembered what an American soldier is supposed to be doesn't fit with your theory that we were all mass murderers. For those who want to know:
WO1 Hugh Thompson was flying low-level recon in an OH-23 Raven Helicopter at the group of hamlets (including My Lai) collectively code-named "Pinkville" on the morning of 16 March, 1968. With him were crew chief SPC Glen Andreotta, and door gunner SPC Larry Colburn. The chopper was not receiving enemy fire, but Thompson spotted two suspected VC (males of military age, which is what we normally looked for). He and his crew secured these, and flew them back to base for interrogation.They also spotted a group of wounded Vietnamese, which they marked with a green smoke canister (indicating they needed help).Upon returning to the vicinity around 0900 hours, Thompson and his crew noticed that the Vietnamese they had marked were now dead. Hovering low, they saw a wounded Vietnamese female, then saw an American captain (later identified as Medina) walk up and shoot her dead. ( CPT Medina later claimed he thought she had a grenade). They also noticed a large number of bodies, many apparently women and children. (That would indicate something was wrong; a fight that big would have normally been accompanied by enemy fire at the helicopter, and armed VC scurrying around; there was no evidence of either). Thompson then radioed the accompanying UH-1 gunships escorting him that something wasn't right and that "There looks like a whole lot of unnecessary killing going own down there". (This was anything but routine, which indicates that Thompson recognized there was NOTHING "Normal" about what was going on). Seeing a number of dead and wounded Vietnamese in a ditch, with American troops nearby (Calley's platoon), Thompson landed, dismounted, and confronted SGT Mitchell, and subsequently, LT Calley, asking what could be done to help the Vietnamese in the ditch. As Thompson recalled, Mitchell said something to the effect that all that could be done was put them out of their misery. He asked Calley what was going on, only to be basically told it was "none of your business", and "I've got my orders...". He pointed out to Calley that "These are....unarmed civilians, sir.". Calley told him to get back in the helicopter. As they flew off, Andreotta reported that Mitchell was shooting the people in the ditch. Thompson noticed another group of Vietnamese running for the cover of a bunker, pursued by American troops (2nd Platoon). Thompson landed the chopper between the Americans and the Vietnamese, tellling his crew to train their guns on the American troops, and "If those bastards open up on me or these people, you open up on them! Promise me!" He then approached LT Brooks, asking for help getting the Vietnamese out of the bunker; Brooks offered to "help get them out with a hand grenade." Thompson told Brooks "I can do better" and eventually coaxed the Vietnamese out of the bunker, then called for the two Hueys to land and fly them to safety. Thompson stayed with the Vietnamese until they were evacuated. While en route to base, Thompson and his crew noticed around a hundred Vietnamese dead or dying in another irrigation ditch. They landed, got out and went through the ditch, finding a blood-soaked but apparently unhurt Vietnamese child, who they loaded on the OH-23 and flew to the ARVN hospital at Quang Ngai. Upon returning to base, Thompson, furious at what he had seen reported the entire incident to his commanding officer. Shorty after, the word reached the commander of the task force, LTC Barker, and the killing finally stopped.
They gave Hugh Thompson the DFC; the citation was a fabricated lie, and Thompson trashed it. He later testified in the investigations that followed, including congressional hearings. His reward was hate mail, death threats, and a public upbraiding from the head of the House Armed Services Committee, who said he was the only American at My Lai who ought to be court martialed, for training his guns on American troops, and tried (unsuccessfully) to have it done. It took thirty years for the decency and heroism of Hugh Thompson and his crew to be recognized, but finally, they all received the Soldier's Medal, the Army's highest award for bravery not involving direct combat with the enemy. Glen Andreotta got his posthumously (he was killed in action, 8 April, 1968). I would think those men would be just as much heroes to you, as they are to me, if not even more so; but then again, that might mess with the comfortable little stereotype, or maybe, infamy is easier to remember than honor. Either way, it's a damn shame, because whether you believe it or not, there were a hell of a lot more Hugh Thompsons, Glen Andreottas, and Larry Colburns in Vietnam, than there were Calleys and Medinas; even if most of them didn't have to go nearly as far to prove it, as those three did. The villains live in infamy, the heroes are forgotten, honor's cast aside, the American soldier of Vietnam is still a drug-besotted, murdering, war criminal and slacker, and the beat goes on, and on, and on.....
