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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 959
EAN num: 9780700610570
ISBN number: 070061057X
Label: University Press of Kansas
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 258
Printing Date: October 20, 2000
Publishing house: University Press of Kansas
Sale Popularity Level: 222402
Studio: University Press of Kansas
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The My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968 and the court martial of Lt. William Calley a year and a half later are among the bleakest episodes in American history and continue to provide a volatile focus for debates about the Vietnam War. Other books have exposed the facts surrounding the incident; Facing My Lai now examines its haunting legacy through a unique exchange of contemporary viewpoints.
This powerful book emerges from a stellar gathering of historians, military professionals, writers, mental health experts, and Vietnamese and American war veterans convened to memorialize the tragedy. The cast of prominent speakers included journalists Seymour Hersh and David Halberstam, novelist Tim O'Brien, psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, military prosecutor William Eckhardt, and veterans Hugh Thompson and Ron Ridenhour--the two true heroes in the My Lai story. David Anderson's reflective recasting of their presentations creates an impassioned chorus of voices that demonstrates why this tragedy remains one of the key emblems of the American experience in Vietnam.
These authors address many of the troubling questions that still persist about My Lai. Why had it been identified as a Viet Cong stronghold? What orders were the troops actually given? Why didn't someone stop the slaughter? But these questions are asked again in the hope that they might lead to a better understanding of what My Lai means for us now.
As these authors show, our nation is still trying to come to grips with the bitter legacies of the Vietnam War. A grim window into the darker side of American history (like the massacre at Wounded Knee), My Lai reminds us of humanity's baffling capacity for attrocity within the crucible of war. Facing My Lai does not allow us to forget or hide from such horrors, but it also seeks to heal the deep wounds inflicted by the war. Its unflinching look at the past ultimately leads us away from darkness and towards a more enlightened understanding of a war that in many ways is not over yet.
This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.
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Rated by buyers 
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I found this to be an excellent overview of the crimes committed by US troops at My Lai and surrounding hamlets in March of 1968. It also has transcriptions of illuminating discussins and roundtables on the topic from all sides. I found it a very useful work in helping to develop my own thoughts on this subject. Recommended reading for students, instructors, and military professionals.
Rated by buyers 
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I found the book to be a surprize i thought the book was for educational use only that should answer one reviewer question four hours in My Lai is a better reading book i feel
Rated by buyers -
I served two full Infantry tours in Vietnam as a Rifle Company Commander, Battalion staff officer and MACV advisor. I am proud of the American soldiers who served with me, both under my command and otherwise. In my experience, there is no doubt that My Lai was an aberration. The men who committed the atrocities at My Lai were common criminals and murderers who should have been convicted and hanged. They were in no way acting like the vast majority of American soldiers in Vietnam. Most soldiers and marines went to Vietnam as ordered by proper military authority, performed our duty in very difficult -- and different -- ground combat, returned home and resumed productive lives. "Facing My Lai" rehashes the old leftist, anti-war themes of the Vietnam vet as a victim, haunted by the nasty things he did while there (like shooting down women and children at every opportunity), while suffering from the effects of PTSD and Agent Orange. That is exactly the image that most Vietnam vets have been trying to counteract ever since it was invented by the anti-war left in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am somewhat surprised that good people like Harry Summers and Hugh Thompson would be included with the likes of Jay Lifton, the anti-war leader who invented and perfected the concepts of Post-Vietnam Syndrome and PTSD, in an endeavor to make Vietnam vets feel guilty about their service and to blame all their failings in life on their Vietnam experience.
If the reader really wants to know how most infantrymen -- and other military personnel -- performed in Vietnam and adjusted to life after their tour(s) there, I recommend two books: "Stolen Valor" by B.G. Burkett, and my book, "Platoon: Bravo Company." You owe it to those who actually fought the war to get it right!
Rated by buyers -
I don't know why, but I am not surpassed in reading FACING MY LAI, edited by David L. Anderson, that after 25 years not too many people, including the contributors understand why My Lai happened. Furthermore it is no surprise, that the poet and the novelist were the two contributors, who understood two fundamentals: The very first is that each man is responsible for his own actions and the second is that amends must be made, if there is to be healing. Ridenhour still wants to blame the top brass and the system, as if the average American doesn't know that it is wrong to kill babies. Nowhere in the book does anyone look into the role of fundamental religions setting the stage for the massacre. After all the communists were atheists who were "the servants of Satan." I heard these sermons during the war, as did most Americans. Why was Thompson the hero, where were the others that could have stopped the massacre in the beginning? I venture to say that they were in! Canada or in U.S. prisons for refusing to serve. Racism, was another subject, which should have been discussed in depth. Neither was it discussed why we send Nazi criminals back to Europe for trial while we let these murderers walk free in the US, when they are wanted in Vietnam for war crimes?
In short the book fails to get at the root cause of the massacre. Most of the contributors want to pass the buck. On the 30 annual observation of the massacre, I was on my way to My Lai when I friend told me not to go there because they all died. He then arranged for me to go to a neighborhood in HoChiMinh City where many families from Quang Ngai had resettled after the war. I observed the anniversary with a family that had survived the war. They told me that a massacre of village was not common place during the war, but the shooting of farmers in their fields was common place.
If you are looking for the root causes of the massacre you will not find it in this book.
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