at hated you for doing what you were told to do,leads to a very defective psychological behavior. March 16, 1968 is truly a date remembered forone of the most horrendous acts ever committed by the United States. On this day, CharlieCompany, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, under the leadership of twenty-four year old 2nd Lt.William L. Calley Jr. became responsible for the execution of over 300 Vietnamese civilians,mostly old men, women, and children. This atrocity, now known as the My Lai Massacre, openedthe eyes of many to the realities of war. The infantry men of this battalion were ordered tosystematically murder every inhabitant in this small South Vietnamese hamlet for suspicion of theharboring of Vietcong Soldiers. In this village no signs of Vietcong inhabitants were found.Neither a single uniform nor a gun was found anywhere (Hersh, 11-44) . This leads one to wonderabout the motives involved. Was the massacre necessarily, or was it simply an outlet for built upanger and frustration towards the very idea of the Vietnamese (Knowll, 104-110)? It is wellknown that the majority of United States troops didn’t want to be in Vietnam. A lesser knownfact is that the majority of South Vietnamese didn’t want United States troops there either.Infantry men in the army were usually at the lesser end of intelligence scale because moreintelligent soldiers were used more as medics or as officers. In fact, thirteen of the 130 men inCharlie Company had failed the army’s basic intelligence test, which should have stopped themfrom even being in Vietnam (Knowll, 18). This intelligence limit means the soldiers had lesscomprehension skill and probably had a lower threshold for violence. Also, by this time soldiers inVietnam had became aware of the treatment they would receive when they returned home."Doves" (a generic term for anti-war demonstrators) were well known for acts such as waiting fora solider to return home so they could harass...
