The My Lai Massacre | History
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 [BIRDS CHIRPING]
00:03 Gentlemen, it was late in April 1968
00:20 that I first heard of Pinkville and what
00:22 allegedly happened there.
00:23 [HEART BEATING]
00:27 But in the following months, I was
00:33 to hear similar stories from such a wide variety of people
00:36 that it became impossible for me to disbelieve that something
00:39 rather dark and bloody did indeed
00:42 occur in a village called Pinkville
00:44 in the Republic of Vietnam.
00:46 In April 1968, I happened to run into Private First Corporal
00:52 Butch Groover.
00:54 He told me that Charlie Company 1st Battalion 20th Infantry
00:57 had been assigned to Task Force Barker
00:59 to help conduct search and destroy operations
01:01 on the Patongan Peninsula.
01:05 One village area was particularly troublesome
01:07 and seemed to be infested with booby traps and enemy soldiers.
01:11 And the men of Task Force Barker had a special name for it.
01:14 They called it Pinkville.
01:18 One morning in March, Task Force Barker
01:20 moved out from its fire base headed for Pinkville.
01:24 Its mission?
01:26 Destroy the trouble spot and all of its inhabitants.
01:29 Any villagers who ran from Charlie Company
01:35 were stopped by the encircling companies.
01:38 I asked Butch several times if all the people were killed.
01:41 He said that he thought they were men, women, and children.
01:49 He recalled seeing a small boy, about three or four years old,
01:53 standing by the trail with a gunshot wound in one arm
01:56 while blood trickled between his fingers.
01:58 He just stood there, staring around
02:03 like he didn't understand.
02:06 He didn't believe what was happening.
02:09 Then the captain's radio operator
02:11 put a burst of M16 rifle fire into him.
02:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:17 One of the company's officers, Second Lieutenant Calley,
02:29 had rounded up several groups of villagers.
02:32 According to the story, Calley then machine
02:34 gunned each group.
02:37 Groover estimated that the population of the village
02:39 had been 300 to 400 people, and that very few, if any,
02:44 had escaped.
02:47 After hearing this account, I couldn't quite accept it.
02:50 Somehow, I just couldn't believe that not only had
02:53 so many young American men participated
02:55 in such an act of barbarism, but that their officers
02:58 had ordered it.
03:00 I became determined to ask them about Pinkville
03:02 so that I might compare their accounts with Private First
03:05 Corporal Groover's.
03:07 Instead of contradicting Butch Groover's story,
03:10 they corroborated it.
03:12 It was terrible.
03:13 They were slaughtering villagers like so many sheep.
03:16 Exactly what did, in fact, occur in the village of Pinkville
03:25 in March 1968, I do not know for certain.
03:29 But I am convinced that it was something very black indeed.
03:32 I think that it was Winston Churchill who once said,
03:39 "A country without a conscience is a country without a soul.
03:44 And a country without a soul is a country that cannot survive."
03:51 I feel that I must take some positive action in this matter.
03:54 I hope that you will launch an investigation immediately
03:57 and keep me informed of your progress.
04:00 If you cannot, then I don't know what other course of action
04:03 to take.
04:05 Sincerely, Ron Ridenhour.
04:08 (MUSIC)
04:13 (MUSIC)
04:18 (MUSIC)
04:23 (MUSIC)
04:28 (MUSIC)
04:33 (MUSIC)
04:38 (MUSIC)
04:43 (MUSIC)
04:48 (MUSIC)
04:53 (MUSIC)
04:58 (MUSIC)
05:03 (MUSIC)
05:08 (MUSIC)
05:13 (MUSIC)
05:18 (MUSIC)