The official press release detailing the March 16, 1968, incident could not have been more perfunctory: “[I]nfantrymen from Task Force Barker raided a Viet Cong stronghold known as ‘Pinkville’ six miles northeast of Quang Ngai, killing 128 enemy in a running battle.” The “stronghold” was, in fact, the small hamlet of My Lai and the “battle” was a massacre of hundreds of defenseless Vietnamese villagers, many of them children. The true nature of the killings was exposed over a year later by a Vietnam veteran named Ron Ridenhour, who appealed to members of Congress to begin an investigation. (After a congressional inquiry, only platoon leader Lt. William Galley was convicted of murder. Galley was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released after serving just over three years.) Antiwar activists claimed My Lai symbolized everything that was wrong with the war and vilified U.S. soldiers as “baby killers” intoxicated by wanton destruction. Twenty-year-old SP4 Bob Leahy, like many young men sent to Vietnam, took offense at this characterization. What happened at My Lai, Leahy contended in a letter to his family in Yorba Linda, California, was terrible, but the truth was more complicated than what some in the media were reporting.
February 2, 1970
Dear Mom, Dad, and Grandma,
Enclosed are some pictures you may enjoy. Included is a picture from Life of a CA (combat assault). It is the best I have ever seen. It is from Life’s article on the My Lai massacre. This is the first time I saw Life’s article, and I was impressed. Could you send me the earlier Life article on My Lai? The one I read was January 17, and had a picture of an antelope on the cover. Several comments published, especially those by Vietnam veterans, were thought provoking. Others missed the point completely. One Captain said some trash about lack of discipline being the problem. Rubbish. It would take a Marine Corps lifer to think of a stupid thing like that. Frustration and impotent rage cause things like My Lai. One student said, quite rightly, that “I don’t think that people put in a situation that requires them to kill can be punished for killing the wrong people.”
In an operation of this size, there is a lot of confusion. Intelligence reports said the hill was heavily fortified and that only NVA, VC and their families live there. A report of that kind makes you trigger happy. There is a saying here, “better safe than dead.” Everyone is nervous when moving in. All it takes is one person firing in the air, and everyone assumes that there is contact and they are under fire. Any civilians nearby become expendable on the theory that you can not take a chance on their having concealed weapons or chicoms (grenades). Then, with everyone firing in all directions, people get carried away, like a mob. Everyone is doing it, but no one is leading it. All non-GI’s become suspected enemy By the time you find out if someone has a weapon or is a simple farmer, he could empty 30 rounds from an AK-47 in you.
Sure, as Life Magazine points out, no enemy fire was encountered and there were no wounded in action, but no one probably was sure of that until the next morning. By then it was too late. People who assume that the fire you hear is only friendly fire are the ones who make up our 40,000 dead in Nam. You must always act under the assumption that the fire you hear is enemy fire. When you find out to the contrary, it is often too late. Here on the center (B Battery Fire Base), when we get incoming mortars, sometimes they are not sure until the next morning whether it was our own mortar or not. And here there are only 4 mortar tubes to check. Out in the field, how are you supposed to find out if it is incoming rounds or a GI firing into the air? You cannot sit in the open for 10 minutes and check your platoons to find out. You act under the assumption that it is enemy.
I am not condoning My Lai. There is no doubt that a massacre took place. If you enrage and tease a lion, and then an innocent person comes along and pets the lion, the innocent person will be mauled. People who think that troops should always restrain themselves are simply asking too much of human nature. They sit in their carpeted homes and say, “Control yourselves, don’t give in to your emotions.” They’ve never had a friend hit a booby trap and shipped the pieces home in a rubber sack. Let them tell me what to write to a man’s wife or parents. Control yourselves, your husband/son is dead. Or to his buddies. Control yourself, your friend who you slept with, ate with, and patrolled with, is dead; but don’t feel any hatred. They say, “But you can’t blame innocent people for the actions of a few.” They are the ones who condemn the Negro race because some riot or because some are shiftless.
Or when a man comes back from R&R and everyone is looking at the pictures he took and joking with him. He looks around and says, “Where is Monte?” The joking stops and there is silence. Finally someone says, “Monte died two weeks ago, a 105 booby trap.” Then everyone just sort of drifts away to let the returning man grieve alone. Tell him not to hate Vietnamese people in general. I cannot. This is not a soap opera. This happened in my platoon. People do not live happily ever after and come back to life for tomorrow’s episode. This is war and I’ll give a news flash to everyone back in the states—they’re playing for keeps over here.
You cannot ask a man to risk his own life and chance of going home in one piece for a Vietnamese civilian who might not have a weapon. Especially when, as in My Lai, they were told only enemy troops and their families lived in the village. It is asking too much.
You cannot demand that an individual refuse to obey orders he feels are wrong and then turn around and allow laws that will send him to prison when he does. If someone had refused to obey orders, and My Lai had not become a national incident, that person would now be serving 5–10 in Leavenworth and nobody stateside would have said anything in his defense. Cowardice in the face of the enemy or some trash like that.
We have crisp weather here. It is warm during the day, but cools off rapidly at night. We see the stars almost every night. When there is no industry and almost no vehicles, you have no smog. Fog is very heavy every day. You can watch it flowing from valley to valley. I’m going to take some pictures of it.
Love,
From the chaos of Vietnam emerged another horror: An astonishing number of American soldiers were being killed by their own men. Unintentional deaths from “friendly fire” were deemed a regrettable but inevitable consequence of combat in any war. What concerned the military about Vietnam, however, was that hundreds of deaths were believed to have been from “fragging,” the intentional killing of sadistic or dangerously incompetent officers by their subordinates. (Although fragmentation grenades were the weapon most associated with the practice, the term fragging assumed a more general definition as officers were murdered by other means.) During the later years of the war, as unit cohesion and discipline unraveled, combined with increasing drug abuse and racial tensions, reports of fragging rose to their highest levels. In April 1970, an infantryman in Cu Chi and Tay Ninh alluded to both friendly fire and fragging in a letter to his parents back in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. (The soldier’s full name has been withheld for reasons of privacy.)
Dear Mom & Dad:
Got your letter today containing the stamps. Was really glad to get them. Sent three more rolls off to be developed and am sending a packet of slides with this letter.
Sounds like Theresa can really sing. Wouldn’t it be great if she really made it big like T.V., records and live performances. Hollywood here I come! No, really it sounds like she’s got talent though.
Seems Scott has the same problem with clothes I had. I’ll give him a hint next time look on the floor. He’ll find enough to dress himself 3 or 4 times I’ll bet.
Well, I’m playing chicken for a few days now.
I volunteered for K.P., trash run and other nasty details, like burning _____ in a barrel while my Co. went out on this four day mission.
It sounded as though they’d see some certain action. Our company linked up with two other battalions to sweep a 4 mile area, trying to flush a regiment of expected VC. Then last night the artillery had an hour fire mission giving them rear support so they must have made contact last night. At 10:00 we had 6 incoming rounds expected from a V.C. 82 mortar. We manned bunkers and were expecting a follow up ground attack but nothing happened.
Then this morning while we were dumping trash in the dump, someone had set fire in the dump and off went what we thought a grenade. Threw shrapnel all over. I only caught a couple small pieces in the right pectoral muscle and luckily the trailer and truck were between me and the explosion which was only 10 feet away. One other guy got his face messed up pretty bad and had to dust him off to a hospital.
It’s so stupid and ridiculous of how so many of our boys are killed by accidents due to some careless mistakes.
Like the guy I saw die, the helicopter crash killing 13 people, and for another example, 2 nights ago, B co. blew an ambush on their own people due to a simple communication mistake and these two squads started blasting away at each other. Two men were killed instantly by Claymore mines, another lost his legs and 5 more injured. All due to GI mistakes. They say as high as 50% of deaths and casualties are caused by our own men and so many parents never know how their son was killed because all the Army tells them is that they are combat casualties.
That’s why I was afraid of this mission. Because our commanding officer is insane. Gungho lifer looking for nothing but a body count of enemy so he can make a stupid promotion.
Like on this last 9 day mission, one night he made us fire mortars from our night position ambush saying we needed practice. All the V.C. had to do was zero in on the noise with their mortars and we’d be hurting. The Lieutenants tried to explain the hazards of doing this but he pulled rank on them and that’s all that could be said.
I know for one fact with the hatred his men have for him, that if we ever got in a fire fight someone will knock him off. It happens quite a bit and I’m for certain It’ll happen here. I’ve never seen such hatred.
With all the war atrosities, people act like animals. That’s why they happen. It seems these lifers go nuts. Army means battle, death and victory to them.
Enough about him.
I’ve been wondering if you ever received a $20 money order I sent about a month and a half ago. Please afirm this if you should remember next time. Not that I’m worried, but I like to keep track of the money I send and I could forget and never even miss a $200 check….
Finally got a hair cut. Glad to be rid of that stuff over here. Hot, dirty and hell to keep up.
Well, I have to go now so say hi to Grandma & Grandpa for me. Thanks again for the stamps.
Love
Steve
In another letter home the writer related in graphic detail the accidental death of a comrade who was trapped in fire ignited by American mines. “We were so damn helpless. We couldn’t get in to help. We were watching our friend get burned mother,” he wrote. “For once I’m afraid of dying and wish I could find that helping hand like a little child being shielded by his parents…. Damn this war and everything that’s put us here. If i’m to die here, I only wish it were for something I believed in.” Steve survived the war and was honorably discharged in February 1971.