Word: lai
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...massacre of March 16, 1968, can be explained away as further proof, if any were needed, that war is indeed hell. Especially the Viet Nam war, with its peculiar frustrations, its bloody agonies, its nervous uncertainties about who and where the enemy really is. But to excuse My Lai on these grounds, or to argue that the enemy has done worse (as he has), is to beg a graver issue. The fact remains that this particular atrocity-a clear violation of the civilized values America claims to up hold-was apparently ordered by officers of the U.S. military and carried...
Searching other times and places, Americans can cite greater or more frequent crimes than Pinkville. But one massacre is more than enough. My Lai is a warning to America that it, like other nations, is capable of evil acts and that its idealistic goals do not always correspond to its deeds. "Those whom the gods would destroy," wrote the late Thomas Merton, poet and monk, "they first make mad-with self-righteous confidence and unquestioning self-esteem." In the light of My Lai, Americans have little cause for feeling self-righteous, and much reason for self-reflection. The massacre...
...shocked Americans, what happened at My Lai seems an awful aberration. For the Communists in Viet Nam, the murder of civilians is routine, purposeful policy. Terror is a part of the guerrillas' arsenal of intimidation, to be used whenever other methods of persuasion have failed to rally a village or province round the Viet Cong flag...
WHATEVER its ultimate impact on U.S. policy in Viet Nam, the My Lai massacre will profoundly test an evolving principle of U.S. law-that every wrong should have a remedy in court. How, for example, can the Army try the men (three so far) who openly admit that they killed women and children at My Lai-but who are now civilians...
...court-martialed for crimes they committed during military service. The court did suggest a remedy: new laws could provide for trial in federal courts of ex-servicemen charged with military crimes. So far, Congress has not enacted the necessary legislation. Nor can the Saigon government prosecute the discharged My Lai participants-even if it wanted to. An agreement signed by the U.S. and South Viet Nam prevents each country from trying nationals of the other. As an alternative, the Army may ask President Nixon to appoint a special commission to try the men under the 1949 Geneva Convention that forbids...