| Riots and Massacres |
| by Aaron Reese |
| The late 1960's marked a great shift in my father, Stephen's, perception of the world around him.� As a young man in his early/mid teens, he did not wholly understand the dark side of human nature during strenuous times.� Both a cultural movement and a war were taking place around him.� In the middle of all this, two events took place that baffled him in his ignorance. |
| On March 16, 1968 Charlie company (11th brigade, Americal division) murdered about 500 unarmed civilians in the massacre at the village of My Lai in Vietnam.� Just weeks later on April 4, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine motel in Memphis, TN, sparking an overwhelming series of race riots across the nation.� |
| 1968 Kansas City Race Riots |
| News of King's death found its way into every corner of the United States in just hours.� Riots broke out in Washington D.C., Baltimore and Pittsburgh soon after the news reached the cities.� At the same time, the news of the My Lai Massacre was in the process of being covered up, causing it to be suppressed until November of 1969.� This caused the rioting to have an effect on my father before My Lai did. |
| The rioting had enveloped most major cites across America by the time King?s funeral came to be on April 9, the same day rioting erupted in Kansas City.� Before this time, Washington D. C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Tallahassee, Atlanta, Wilmington, Del., Youngstown, Or., Brooklyn and Chicago had declared a State of Emergency, calling in Federalized troops to keep peace (US Toll to 33 1A-2A). |
| In Kansas City, students from Lincoln, Central and Manual high schools had staged a march to City Hall after being released early from school because of uncontrollable behavior.� Upon arriving at City Hall, the students met resistance from police, demanding that they disperse.� After refusals from the crowd, police launched tear gas canisters toward the students.� The police insisted later that they only did so after the crowd began throwing stones as well as tear gas that was possibly stolen from a police vehicle earlier in the day (Mayor, Chief Talk 2A). |
| Fires began at about 7:30 then burned on well into the night.� Mayor Illus W. Davis declared Kansas City in a State of Emergency as well as setting a curfew at 8:00pm to be thoroughly disobeyed.� Johnson County, also, was declared in a State of Emergency by Governor Robert Docking (Quiet Returning 9A).� |
| At 10:20pm, the National Guard was alerted and sent in to help quell disturbances in the city (Quiet Returning 1A; Mayor, Chief Talk 2A).� Around 450 troops surrounded the city, assisting the police with another 1200 or so in reserve.� My father remembers seeing photos of troops in Kansas City in the newspaper, thinking, What the heck is going on here?� It's not Vietnam, it's here (Reese). |
| He continued, "I was befuddled that just twenty miles away they were burning the city down, but in Lee's Summit, it was just like this [normal].� I also couldn't understand why they were burning their own houses down... their neighborhoods" (Reese). |
| By the end of the riots in Kansas City on the ninth of April, 68 injuries were accounted for, including seven gunshot wounds.� One man, Maynard Odel Gough, 30, was shot to death while exiting a liquor store. Property damage due to 75 set fires equaled an estimated $35,000. In relation to looting, firing at police, arson and rioting, 275 persons were arrested.� Nationwide, 14,000 arrests, 2600 fires, 2500 injuries, 33 deaths, in addition to tens of millions of dollars in damage to property had occurred (Statistical look 1A; US Toll to 33 1A; Quiet Returning 1A). |
| The My Lai Massacre |
| Eighteen months later, news of the My Lai Massacre finally made its way back to the American public thanks to the persistence of ex-GI Ron Ridenhour along with journalist Seymour Hersh. |
| Charlie company entered the hamlet of My Lai 4,known as 'Pinkville" to the men at 8:00am after assault choppers had fired rounds into it for a while, most likely driving off any Viet Cong residing in the village.� First platoon commanded by Lt. William Calley with Second platoon commanded by Lt. Stephen Brooks entered the village first while the company commander, Captain Earnest Medina held third platoon and HQ platoon in reserve. |
| Lt. Calley was in charge of securing the vicinity before Capt. Medina would come in with his reserves.� The night before, Capt. Medina talked to the men about the battle to take place.� He ensured them that the village was entirely VC (Viet Cong).� Every person the men would encounter would be the enemy.� Orders were issued to destroy all buildings, to destroy the enemy.� His instructions were vague enough that many men took them as orders to kill everyone they encountered. It was possibly intentional (Linder 2). |
| The operation under Calley?s command began as a normal interrogate/destroy exercise.� When Calley became fed up with non-compliance from the villagers to give information about VC whereabouts, he gave orders to kill them.� A group of fifteen to twenty mostly older women were gathered around a temple, kneeling and praying.� They were all executed with shots to the back of their heads (Linder 2). |
| Another group of about eighty were herded into a drainage ditch at the eastern edge of the village.� Calley told one of his men, Paul Meadlo, You know what I want you to do with them. Meadlo mistook him for meaning that he should guard the prisoners. When Calley came back to find the prisoners alive, he yelled "I want them dead!" He ordered about a dozen men to fire into the ditch, backed off 30 feet then began firing full clips into the crouched people.� Some men obeyed, some men did not. Meadlo joined in the firing then broke down crying.� One child escaped the ditch then began running for the hamlet.� Calley grabbed the child, threw him back into the ditch then shot him point blank (Linder 2,3,7). |
| Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson landed his chopper near a hut that he saw a few civilians go into.� He told his gunner to open fire on the American soldiers if they shot any civilians, then went to the hut to take the people out to his chopper.� As he walked back, he kept himself in between the soldiers and the villagers (Linder 3; Lidenhour and Thompson 2-3). |
| He sent them to a hospital to be looked after before making one more trip back. His crew chief found a small child clinging to his dead mother in the ditch.� Thompson remembers the day he took the child back as a very sad day, very mad day, very frustrating and everything. � After returning the operations area he quoted himself as saying, ' "If this damn stuff is what's happening here, I said, "You can take these wings right now, cause they're only sewn on with thread." 'I was ready to quit flying' (Lidenhour and Thompson 3). |
| Medina called lunch break at about 11:00am.� Two soldiers, Mike Terry and Billy Dougherty opened their C-rations at the edge of the ditch to eat but couldn't get very far into their lunch.� Too much noise was coming from the ditch.� People who were mortally wounded were fighting to stay alive, moaning, groaning, crying in pain. |
| The two men divided up the survivors, one on each side and began finishing them off.� According to Lidenhour's interview of Mike Terry the conversation that took place between the two soldiers in the ditch was nonchalant, " "There's one, you take him" "OK." Pow, pow. "There's one, you get him." "OK." Pow, pow."� Lidenhour continues "Up and down the ditch once.� When they returned to their food, the ditch was quiet" (8). |
| Lidenhour spent the remainder of his time in Vietnam tracking down members of Charlie company that had or had not participated in the massacre.� One of the few who did not participate, Lidenhour caught up with in hospital after he went AWOL just to get treated.� The army had been keeping him on the front lines in hopes that he would get killed (Lidenhour, Thompson 9). |
| Once back from the war, Lidenhour made copies of a letter documenting the conversations with the men then sent them to the White house, the Army, in addition to thirty different Congressmen.� Mo Udall, a congressman from Arizona who took an interest in it, eventually convinced the Pentagon to investigate the matter (Lidenhour, Thompson 9). |
| In September of 1969, six separate specifications of premeditated murder charges were brought up against Lt. William Calley.� He was later convicted while Captain Medina was acquitted because of a lack of evidence (Linder 7). |
| News of the massacre finally reached the American public in November of 1969 when reporter Seymour Hersh published the story about the events and cover up from talks with Ron Lidenhour (My Lai Massacre). |
| My father remembers his feelings at the time; "I just couldn't believe that American soldiers could just mow down civilians like that" (Reese).� It was the first time he encountered the cold-bloodedness that war could impress on soldiers.� Now later in his life, he understands a little better what a war can do to a person, especially the Vietnam War. |
| The late 1960's certainly was a specific time in American culture.� It was one of the few times that it didn't mirror any other time in our history.� For Stephen Reese, my father, it was an intriguing time for adolescence. It was the point when he first took interest in the news.� It was also a time for amazing, tragic headlines every day. |
| The two events that were mentioned above were among the first to bring my father's world to a halt, but they were not among the last.� These were just the most powerful at a time when he was most impressionable.� He lived through the Iranian Hostage Crisis, The Challenger explosion, an assassination attempt on President Reagan in addition to many more.� When he spoke of the two in this paper, though, they seemed to be the most important to him.� These were the things that molded my father into the adult took part in raising me to be the man I am. |
| Parent Paper |