AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: My Lai

By Jennifer Robinson / Web Producer

Published April 23, 2010 at 11:18 AM PDT

A soldier burning down a hut in My Lai village. Ron Haberle’s photos of My Lai were published in The Cleveland Plain Dealer more than a year after the events of March 16, 1968.

Encore Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV / (no longer available to stream with the PBS app)

Winner of the 2010 Peabody Award and the 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Non-Fiction Directing

What drove a company of American soldiers—ordinary young men deployed to liberate a small foreign nation from an oppressive neighbor—to murder more than 300 unarmed Vietnamese civilians? Were they “just following orders,” as some later declared? Or, as others argued, did they break under the pressure of a misguided military strategy that measured victory by body count?

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What drove a company of American soldiers -- ordinary young men from around the country -- to commit the worst atrocity in American military history? Were they just following orders as some later declared? Or, did they break under the pressure of a vicious war in which the line between enemy soldier and civilian had been intentionally blurred?

Today, as the United States once again finds itself questioning the morality of actions taken in the name of war, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Barak Goodman (“The Lobotomist,” “Scottsboro: An American Tragedy”) focuses his lens on the 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke rank to halt the atrocities.

Lieutenant William Calley's 1971 conviction for crimes committed during the My Lai massacre set off protests in the U.S., with many feeling he was unfairly blamed for Vietnam mistakes.

“My Lai” draws upon eyewitness accounts of Vietnamese survivors and men of the Charlie Company 11th Infantry Brigade and recently discovered audio recordings from the Peers Inquiry to recount one of the darkest chapters of the Vietnam War.

My Lai: In the Vietnam War, military leaders failed to give moral guidance to scared US soldiers.

Explore More:
View The Timeline
Meet the Participants
Interview: Larry Colburn
Interview: Author Tim O'Brien
Music of My Lai

When should a soldier refuse to follow orders? The 1968 attack of My Lai pushed soldiers and Americans to ask this hard question.

Photographic Evidence of the Massacre at My Lai: This photo gallery showcases a selection of Ron Haeberle's images from the My Lai Massacre as they were used in the Peers investigation. Many of the images are violent and graphic in nature.

Learning about My Lai changed American opinions about the Vietnam War. Was the price of winning the war a price worth paying?

This episode originally aired in 2010.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: My Lai

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