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Facing up to the Horrors of the Mỹ Lai Massacre

Michael G. Vann Jacobin
Last month, Vietnam marked the 58th anniversary of the Mỹ Lai massacre, when US soldiers killed hundreds of defenseless civilians. US public memory largely ignores the history of atrocities like Mỹ Lai, making it easier to repeat them in the future.

This Week in People’s History, Mar 25–31, 2026

Portside
Drawing by John Sloan of a wealthy businessman and a skeleton shaking hands over the corpse of a garment worker killed by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Never Forget the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire! (1911), Vietnam War Opposed Worldwide (1966), Andrew Johnson Puts His Racism on Display (1866), Lieutenant Calley Gets His Wrist Slapped (1971), Centuries of Caring for the Poor and the Sick (1736)

In Cover-Up, Laura Poitras Investigates Seymour Hersh

A.J. Goldmann Columbia Journalism Review
The acclaimed filmmaker and investigative journalist on her twenty-year project, the “crisis” in investigative journalism, and how truth-telling can still change the world.

Tidbits - Nov. 28, 2019 - Reader Comments: Impeachment-Obfuscation, Corruption; Benjamin Netanyahu; Bolivia, Chile; Puerto Rico; My Lai Massacre; Whistleblowers, Amazon; workers rights-Climate Crisis, #MeToo; book sale; more....

Portside
Reader Comments: Impeachment, Obfuscation, Political Corruption; Benjamin Netanyahu; International Solidarity- Bolivia, Chile; Puerto Rico; Vietnam War, My Lai Massacre; Whistleblowers, Amazon; workers rights-Climate Crisis, #MeToo; book sale; more.

The Whistleblowers of the My Lai Massacre

Howard Jones History News Network
There is a history of presidential criminals and whistleblowers. Nixon declared that the chief My Lai perpetrator was “probably a good soldier ... getting a bum rap.” He ordered a secret task force to undermine press stories of the massacre.

books

Seymour Hersh: He Got the Story

Michael Hirsch Jacobin
Veteran journalist Seymour Hersh has gotten a few things wrong over his career. But his memoir shows a reporter with broad and brave consistency, exposing one atrocity and cover-up by the forces of American imperial power after another.

A Forgotten Hero Stopped the My Lai Massacre

Jon Wiener Los Angeles Times
Everybody's heard of the My Lai massacre, but not about the man who stopped it: Hugh Thompson, an Army helicopter pilot. He told the American troops, if they opened fire on the hiding Vietnamese civilians, he and his crew would open fire on them.
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