The Fog of War

The Fog of War is a film about Robert S. McNamara, who was the US Secretary of Defense during both Johnson and JFK’s presidential terms. Throughout the film, he shares his personal experience, one of which was involvement in the Vietnam War. The film made me more curious about the war, a subject that I admittedly do not know much about. I have always wanted to be more informed, so after the film, I researched the war, focusing specifically on human rights.

While conducting my research, the event that stuck out the most was the My Lai Massacre. On March 16, 1968, the 11^th brigade of the US army massacred the village of My Lai in South Vietnam. The soldiers entered the area in order to attack the enemy troops, but ended up killing over 300 unarmed civilians. When the troops entered the village, there was no attack reported. However, they continued to fire at innocent civilians. The head of the brigade, Calley, was reported to have ordered civilians into a ditch. He then, continued to fire at them. Although the event resulted in hundreds of atrocities, the news was not even published until the next year. The event remained sort of silent.

But when the news broke out, many questioned the actions of the American soldiers, and the morality of the situation. After reading about the massacre at My Lai, it led me to question whether or not American troops always have the best intentions in regards to human rights. Many American citizens did not know about the massacre at Mai Lai, and continued to have complete and full faith and support in their troops. This massacre, which was probably kept under wraps for fear of American anti-sentiment, makes me think about the products of war that I may not know about. Whether or not there are human violations currently happening in Afghanistan or Iraq is a concern, and something that I will continue to think about. The unprecedented killing of civilians continues and may continue to be an issue within the scope of human rights. It is not often that we hear about these situations, and perhaps more should be revealed on the topic.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/my_lai.html