The My Lai Massacre and Cover-up

American soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in a Vietnamese village — and the U.S. Army tried to conceal it for over a year, until one soldier's letter forced it into the open.

In March 1968, U.S. Army soldiers killed several hundred unarmed Vietnamese civilians in the hamlet of My Lai. The Army's initial account concealed the killings, and the massacre only became public over a year later after soldier Ronald Ridenhour wrote a letter to Congress and the Pentagon detailing what he had learned.

✓documented

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Quick facts

→Estimates of the death toll range from 347 to over 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians, according to different official investigations.
→The Army's initial after-action report described the operation as a military victory against enemy combatants, omitting the civilian deaths entirely.
→Soldier Ronald Ridenhour, who had not been present but heard detailed accounts from fellow soldiers, wrote a letter to Congress and Pentagon officials in March 1969, over a year after the massacre.
→Only one soldier, Lieutenant William Calley, was ultimately convicted; he served just over three years under house arrest before receiving parole.

Entities on file

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My Lai Massacre (event)

1968 killing of unarmed Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers, initially covered up by the Army for over a year.

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Ronald Ridenhour (person)

U.S. soldier whose 1969 letter to Congress and the Pentagon exposed the massacre and its cover-up.

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