--- description: The My Lai Massacre took place on Mar. 16, 1968 title: My Lai Massacre in Vietnam: Read the Letter That Exposed It image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2655f7de12a6fbac/69878219a988ca82116acc83/helicopters.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [conflict](/tag/conflict/) ## conflict Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Read the Letter That Changed the Way Americans Saw the Vietnam War  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 16, 2015 11:00 AM CUT  American military helicopters in flight during the My Lai massacre on Mar. 16, 1968 in My Lai, South Vietnam American military helicopters in flight during the My Lai massacre on Mar. 16, 1968 in My Lai, South VietnamRonald L. Haeberle—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 16, 2015 11:00 AM CUT It was late April of 1968 when Ronald Ridenhour “first heard of ‘Pinkville’ and what had allegedly happened there.” Thus began the letter that he sent to several government officials, including President Richard Nixon, in March, 1969\. What followed was an account of the March 16, 1968, massacre at My Lai. “Ridenhour did not witness the incident himself, but he kept hearing about it from friends who were there,” TIME, which misidentified him as “Richard,” [recounted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1969-11-28/page/19 "undefined") after the news became public. “He was at first disbelieving, then deeply disturbed.” That letter would soon change the way American citizens thought and talked about the war in Vietnam. This is how Ridenhour described what had happened: --- > “” --- The [full letter,](http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active%5Flearning/explorations/vietnam/ridenhour%5Fletter.cfm "undefined") which is widely available these days, ran to about 2,000 words worth of evidence that “something very black indeed” had happened. Further [publicity](http://time.com/vault/issue/1969-12-05/page/83 "undefined") came in the form of an investigation by reporter Seymour Hersh — which originally ran in a Washington news service after LIFE magazine rejected it. --- ### More from TIME --- In the fall of 1969, one of the leaders of the platoon implicated in the massacre — his name was actually spelled Calley — was charged with murdering civilians; other charges against other soldiers and officers followed. Comparisons to the Nuremberg Trials were [many,](http://time.com/vault/issue/1969-12-12/page/19 "undefined") especially as many of the soldiers there argued that they had just been following orders. There were several legal difficulties in pursuing a lawsuit against them, both logistical and sentimental, as TIME polls [found](http://time.com/vault/issue/1970-01-12/page/10 "undefined") that many Americans either did not believe Ridenhour’s account or thought that such killing was a natural result of war. Several trials did move forward, however. In 1971, Calley was found [guilty](http://time.com/vault/issue/1971-04-12/page/20 "undefined"). (Other trials for those present continued, but Calley was the [only one ](http://time.com/vault/issue/1971-12-27/page/10 "undefined")convicted.) The sentencing did not end My Lai’s reverberations. At a protest in New York, future Secretary of State John Kerry read [this statement](http://time.com/vault/issue/1971-04-12/page/20 "undefined"): “We are all of us in this country guilty for having allowed the war to go on. We only want this country to realize that it cannot try a Calley for something which generals and Presidents and our way of life encouraged him to do. And if you try him, then at the same time you must try all those generals and Presidents and soldiers who have part of the responsibility. You must in fact try this country.” The verdict split the U.S. between those who thought that punishments for the massacre should instead go all the way up to the Commander-in-Chief, and those who thought that condemning soldiers for killing was a travesty in its own right. “The crisis of conscience caused by the Calley affair is a graver phenomenon than the horror following the assassination of President Kennedy,” TIME [opined](http://time.com/vault/issue/1971-04-12/page/20 "undefined"). “Historically, it is far more crucial.” Though the nation was divided at the time, history has come out fairly firmly on one side: in 1998, three men who turned their weapons on fellow soldiers instead of My Lai residents were [honored](http://time.com/vault/issue/1998-03-16/page/24/ "undefined") in Washington — shortly before Ridenhour died at 52 of a heart attack — and in 2009 Calley [apologized](http://time.com/vault/issue/2009-09-07/page/18/ "undefined") for his role in what happened. “There is not a day that goes by,” he said, “that I do not feel remorse.” **_Read TIME’s 1969 issue about the fallout from My Lai:_** [The Massacre: Where Does the Guilt Lie?](http://time.com/vault/issue/1969-12-05/page/1/ "undefined") **_See how LIFE reported on My Lai:_** [American Atrocity](http://life.time.com/history/my-lai-remembering-an-american-atrocity-in-vietnam-march-1968 "undefined") ### LIFE Behind the Picture: Larry Burrows' 'Reaching Out,' Vietnam, 1966  Wounded Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Purdie (center, with bandaged head) reaches toward a stricken comrade after a fierce firefight south of the DMZ, Vietnam, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  U.S. Marine in Vietnam, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Escorted by tanks and supported by air strikes that sear the jungle just ahead, troops of the Second Battalion, Fifth Marines, begin a sweep." Vietnam, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Four Marines recover the body of a fifth as their company comes under fire near Hill 484." Vietnam, October 1966\. NOTE: At right is the French-born photojournalist Catherine Leroy (1945 - 2006); she was cropped out of the version of this photo that originally ran in LIFE. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. U.S. Marines carry their wounded during a firefight near the southern edge of the DMZ, Vietnam, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  American Marines aid wounded comrades during Operation Prairie near the DMZ during the Vietnam War, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American Marines aid wounded comrades during Operation Prairie near the DMZ during the Vietnam War, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  American Marines aid a wounded comrade during Operation Prairie near the DMZ during the Vietnam War, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Cover image, LIFE magazine. American Marines aid a wounded comrade during Operation Prairie near the DMZ during the Vietnam War, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. An American Marine looks at the body of a North Vietnamese killed during Operation Prairie near the DMZ during the Vietnam War, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. A dazed, wounded American Marine gets bandaged during Operation Prairie near the DMZ during the Vietnam War, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  American Marines, Operation Prairie, near the DMZ during the Vietnam War, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. A wounded American Marine, Operation Prairie, near the DMZ during the Vietnam War, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American Marines eat rations during a lull in the fighting near the DMZ during the Vietnam War, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. American Marines receive the sacrament of Communion during a lull in the fighting near the DMZ during the Vietnam War, October 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images   LIFE magazine, Oct. 28, 1966. Larry Burrows—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  LIFE magazine, Oct. 28, 1966. Larry Burrows—LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, Oct. 28, 1966. Larry Burrows—LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, Oct. 28, 1966. Larry Burrows—LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, Oct. 28, 1966. Larry Burrows—LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, Oct. 28, 1966. 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