My Lay, My Son

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sleep modus

It is fortunately light when my alarm goes - it is 6:30 in the morning when I pack my bag and refresh myself. Downstairs in the hotel are the big iron front doors still locked and I am afraid to wake someone up but I have no other choice.

The owner comes rushing in his morning garb and points out to the corner of the street where I indeed see some scooters. Armed with a piece of paper on which the Vietnamese bus station stands and a price I scribbled myself, I walk to the gentlemen who hang on their buddy seat in sleep modus. The man agrees with my price add gives me an egg-helmet. With tears in my eyes but awake, I arrive at the bus station and buy a bus ticket to Quang Ngai on the east coast. Foreigners pay about half more for the same ticket.

Rice terrace's and water buffalo's

The route is breathtaking and finally meets my dream image of the country that has seen it all; emperors, foreign rulers and countless invasions. Rice terraces, small villages with wooden huts on stilts covered with reeds and a zigzag route through the green mountains.

An old woman hunts a number of large water buffaloes with a small twig into the river to wash their bodies while I see a wicker cone hat on the land here and there. A multitude of flags and banners flutter in the wind at public buildings and schools, while a few piglets roll into the mud.

As I look outside I think about the fact that I will soon visit one of the places where American soldiers slaughtered about 500 innocent Vietnamese civilians because of the Vietnam War. I’m on my way to one of the most controversiel cities in South-Vietnam; My Lay.

The slaughter of My Lay:

On the morning of March 16, 1968 (during the Vietnam War), four American companies entered the village Mỹ Lai. The soldiers, who at first were convinced that the village was full of guerrillas from the Vietcong, started shooting and did not stop until almost all villagers were dead.

Most of them - including babies, children and many old people- were thrown into a ditch and then killed with M60 automatic firearms. The massacre came to an end when a US Army helicopter landed between their own troops and the remaining Vietnamese to stop this madness.

The exact number of victims has never been determined, the Vietnamese speak of 504 victims. Only eleven residents of Mỹ Lai survived the killing: ten because they were evacuated by the helicopter crew from the bunker in which they were hiding and the four-year-old Do Ba was taken alive between the corpses.

The clenched fist

Via Quang Ngai I take a local bus to the peninsula where the village of My Lai, Son My is located. We pass a long low bridge and the bus comes to a standstill in front of the complex where I am about to step out. The complex is walled and after I have bought a ticket (10.000 VND) I walk straight to the big white monument of a woman with a clenched fist.

Then I am received in the museum and asked if I would like to see some images on TV. They appear to have recorded an old Dutch TV program from 1993, in which an American helicopter pilot (Thompson) has taken 13 people out of the blaze and goes back to hell in those days. In the museum there are pictures of how the village looked like before and after the the massacre, the victims, the perpetrators, documents about the order which came from above, the testimonies of eyewitnesses, the weapons, the methods, the slaughter itself.

Interestingly, the 500 pounder dropped one month after the attack to cover up evidence; even the survivors of the village were immediately put into concentration camps. There is also a map of the communities that counted victims; Strangely enough, the place where most people died was never "known." We now know that soldiers must appease their consciences and start to open their mouths. A few weeks later the massacre was world news and a new scandal about the Vietnam War was born. One that did not remain without consequences, by the way.

The consequences:

The American army wanted to cover up the case (the massacre at My Lay), but eyewitnesses came out, from soldiers and from a journalist, and the slaughter became world news. After the international public had been informed of the crimes committed in Mỹ Lai, the peace movement in the United States and Europe gained influence.

The number of conscientious objectors increased sharply. Military warfare in an organized military context was also blamed on warriors returning from the war, which influenced the morale of the soldiers and the war in general. After the TET offensive from the beginning of '68 (which was a victory in military terms), this was the second major setback of the army in the year and public opinion in the US. began to turn against the war - a phenomenon that could not be stopped and eventually resulted in a withdrawal of American soldiers from Vietnam from 1969 on.

Captain William Calley was accused of multiple murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appealed to both the military court and a court of appeal, after which his sentence was converted to ten years. After having served a third in the form of house arrest, he was released in 1974. Twenty-five other soldiers were also charged, but none of them was found guilty despite the many TV interviews that survivor Do Ba would give.

Under the sod

It is a green park where it seems like nothing ever happens - appearances are deceiving. The concrete foundations are still visible in various places where houses once stood. These have all gone through the so-called zippo-squads - American soldiers who used their lighter to light the dry reeds on the roofs of the Vietnamese huts. The division had only been in Vietnam for a few months and had already lost many soldiers.

The young boys had been informed about an intake of a very hostile, Vietcong friendly, village where their friends had to be vexed. Nearly 200 innocent people of whom most old men, women and children were pushed into a ditch and cut down. The dredging ditch is located next to a path where Vietnamese footsteps are put next to (American) soldier boots. In addition to the concrete foundations there are information panels on which you can read who lived here and whether they survived the slaughter.

The dead animals made of paper-mache may be a bit childish, but they indicate what happened here - nothing has been spared these people. A hut has been recreated to give an impression of how simple the peasant population of Vietnam lived before the Americans turned up. The whole thing is kinda strange because there are chickens on the field, the sun shines, the leaves of the palm trees and the green of the rice is so treacherous, the cows roar in the background. Children shout “hello” from their bikes when they see me walking on the path as if nothing was wrong or had ever happened. I’ve been to several places where the nazi’s during WW2 did similar things but this is the first time I see this from the Americans. I walk a long circle which once was a village and will never be the same again.

My-Lay-My-Son-Memorial-Monument-Slaughter-Vietnam-War-Markers

tips & advice (2014)

There is a regular bus (xe Buyt) from the bus company Mai Linh from the bus station zigzagging through the city Quang Ngai around the hour and a half (13:30) 10 times a day towards the city Saky (bus 3). The journey takes about 30 minutes and you will be dropped off at the door of the museum/monument of My Lay.

You also get back there (1630 last bus). Bus costs 11.00 VND.

TIPS:

Write on a piece of paper where you want to go (My Lay, My Son) - museum and monument (Tuang Dai = monument in Vietnamese) and show this to the bus driver in the bus (see above).

You can (if you have to wait for the bus for example) take a cup of coffee or another snack on the premises of “My Lay”. Of course it is not the best place to enjoy but it is situated on the edge it is good to stay despite the history of the place.

There is at least one hotel next to the site but to my knowledge it is pricey.

Name: Thang Long hotel (Quang Ngai)

Address: 257-259 Le Trung Dinh Str.

Price: 160,000 VND (single)

Phone nr. : 8455-3818877 / 0905818877

Content:

Perfectly located in the city center is this 12 in a dozen looking hostel. I did not spend long (a few hours), so maybe I should not say anything about it. Downstairs looks like so many other hotels in Vietnam; large open space with a reception, chairs for the family, scooters and space for two cars.

Above are the rooms and I stayed on the 4th floor. Looks like there are different rooms with different prices. It is reasonably clean and I had a window (with small balcony where you could not get on), fan, TV, table, chairs, 2p bed, toothbrush and pasta, 2 towels, wardrobe, soap, shampoo, a spacious shower and toilet whose window was broken to the hallway and a fan. WIFI works well and in this way people are friendly and helpful. I did not hear anyone speak English, but I did not need that either.

TIP:

I myself have slept in the city Quang Ngai (cheaper and better if you want to take the train or bus somewhere else in the country early in the morning).