U.S. soldiers were silent, almost robotic... they shot a woman & I saw chips of bone fly in the air
villagers herded like terrified animals. “Soldiers were surrounding them, fondling one young girl, trying to unbutton her blouse.
“One man yelled ‘Here’s someone with a camera’ so they all stopped. I thought they were going to interrogate them so I stepped back. But then I heard firing, turned round and saw two soldiers with M16s firing into this group. It was too much. I continued walking. I didn’t turn around.”
It’s hard to hear Ron say he didn’t intervene. But he says he feared troops might have shot him, too, had he stood in their way.
He tried to get explanations from Capt Ernest Medina. He was joined by a Vietnamese interpreter, demanding ‘Why are you killing civilians?’ But
WHO WITNESSED MASSACRE
Medina refused to speak. “Quite a few soldiers that day had lost reality,” he adds. “This was revenge. They weren’t seeing human beings, or children – they were seeing the enemy.”
Ron didn’t see any rapes – he later learned women and children were hideously attacked – but he heard that a soldier who protested about one was almost shot. In the end, all Ron was able to do was click his shutter.
Back in the US later that month he
Women and children in doomed My Lai heard the massacre reported as a victory and knew he must expose it.
That he did not do so immediately is difficult for him to explain – but you sense he was struggling to comprehend it and feared he wouldn’t be believed.
It was learning of the rapes children that convinced him.
After his photos were published, a full investigation was launched.
But shockingly, only one man, of Lieut William Calley, was convicted. In 1971 he was found guilty of 22 murders and sentenced to life with hard labour. Three years later he was pardoned by President Nixon and freed.
Only in 2009 did Calley offer an apology, explaining: “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.”
It clearly isn’t enough. But Ron believes the whole blame could never rest on one man. There were other leaders in charge that day, others who went along with it.
The criminals were never properly brought to justice. Ron even blames himself for that.
He says: “We are all something there that day.
“I have apologised for what happened. It should never have happened. In my own way I go and pay my respects.”
It was one big cover-up ..my photos convinced the GIS to speak out
RON HAEBERLE
guilty of