"The last years of his life were rather terrible. He spent them in a Veterans Administration hospital in Washington DC, much of the time unconscious."
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My Lai, Wikipedia: The following day, 28 March, the commander of Task Force Barker submitted a combat action report for the 16 March operation, in which he stated that the operation in M? Lai was a success, with 128 VC combatants killed. The America Division commander, General Koster, sent a congratulatory message to Charlie Company.
General William C. Westmoreland, also congratulated Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry for "outstanding action", saying that they had "dealt [the] enemy [a] heavy blow".
Later (like Robert Strange McNamara, whom I had the quasi privilege of meeting when I was 16) Westmoreland changed his stance, writing in his memoir that it was "the conscious massacre of defenseless babies, children, mothers, and old men in a kind of diabolical slow-motion nightmare that went on for the better part of a day, with a cold-blooded break for lunch."
Owing to the chaotic circumstances of the war and the U.S. Army's decision not to undertake a definitive body count of noncombatants in Vietnam, the number of civilians killed at My Lai cannot be stated with certainty. Estimates vary from source to source, with 347 and 504 being the most commonly cited figures.
The memorial at the site of the massacre lists 504 names, with ages ranging from one to 82. A later investigation by the U.S. Army arrived at a lower figure of 347 deaths--the official U.S. estimate. The official estimate by the local government remains 504.
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From March 2018
50 YEARS LATER, WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE MY LAI MASSACRE?
One helicopter gunner named Ron Ridenhour began to hear about the massacre back in base camp. After cautiously gathering information while still in Vietnam, Ridenhour wrote letters detailing the massacre to 30 government and military officials. Most were never answered, but Ridenhour's Congressman, Morris Udall, followed up by urging a formal military inquiry.
The secret investigation of Lieutenant Calley's role led to his arrest for premeditated murder. Tipped off about the investigation in late October 1969, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh interviewed Calley, Ridenhour and several soldiers who had been at My Lai.
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