The reason for our delegation from the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee (VPCC) being with you today:
We are people who worked against the war in many parts of the US, in many different ways.
1) We came to honor the people of My Lai, bear witness to the horror they suffered, applaud their personal and national recovery and the restoration seen in daily life as we drove here.
2) Justice has not been done; no official statement of national responsibility or regret by our leaders; no visit or apology from a high level representative of the US government; very limited legal accountability for the perpetrators; no compensation to the victims or their descendants.
Ironically the one institution in the US to attempt to acknowledge the nature of the event is the US military. The Peers Commission report of 1974 was repressed for four years but released. The courage of Hugh Thompson has been recognized officially as a positive example. The lessons of My Lai are incorporated into the doctrine of war as imperfect as that may be in practice
3) My Lai / Son My was not the only My Lai although by far the largest and most notorious. We know of the Tiger Force rampages in Song Ve Valley from May to Nov 1967 and the atrocities at Ben Tre involving former Senator Robert Kerry. We heard the reports by veterans in the Winter Soldier hearing. We want all the archives made public from the investigation by the Pentagon’s war crimes working group.
4) We recognize the other forms of inhumanity emerging from the character of the American war:
-- Remarks by John McAuliff at a meeting with Quang Ngai Province leaders after the ceremony at the My Lai memorial, March 19, 2018
We are people who worked against the war in many parts of the US, in many different ways.
1) We came to honor the people of My Lai, bear witness to the horror they suffered, applaud their personal and national recovery and the restoration seen in daily life as we drove here.
2) Justice has not been done; no official statement of national responsibility or regret by our leaders; no visit or apology from a high level representative of the US government; very limited legal accountability for the perpetrators; no compensation to the victims or their descendants.
Ironically the one institution in the US to attempt to acknowledge the nature of the event is the US military. The Peers Commission report of 1974 was repressed for four years but released. The courage of Hugh Thompson has been recognized officially as a positive example. The lessons of My Lai are incorporated into the doctrine of war as imperfect as that may be in practice
3) My Lai / Son My was not the only My Lai although by far the largest and most notorious. We know of the Tiger Force rampages in Song Ve Valley from May to Nov 1967 and the atrocities at Ben Tre involving former Senator Robert Kerry. We heard the reports by veterans in the Winter Soldier hearing. We want all the archives made public from the investigation by the Pentagon’s war crimes working group.
4) We recognize the other forms of inhumanity emerging from the character of the American war:
Victims then: Pacification, free fire zones, forced relocation of population, destruction of centuries of rural life
Victims now: land mines, unexploded ordnance, Agent Orange5) Today at noon in Washington, VPCC has organized a vigil at the White House and released a sign on letter.* Commemoration activities took place in other places, including in religious services
-- Remarks by John McAuliff at a meeting with Quang Ngai Province leaders after the ceremony at the My Lai memorial, March 19, 2018
* Original tinyurl.com/MyLaiAppeal Updated
tinyurl.com/RememberMyLai
No comments:
Post a Comment