53 years ago today on March 16, 1968, U.S. soldiers attacked the Vietnamese village of My Lai and massacred over 500 people. By the time the My Lai massacre was over, 504 people were dead, including 182 women and 173 children.
While the US Army brought charges against 14 soldiers, all were acquitted except for Lieutenant William Calley, who led the massacre and was found guilty of premeditated murder for ordering the shooting.
In March 1971, Calley was given a life sentence. But upon appeal, his sentence was reduced to 20 years and later to 10. He was paroled in 1974.
As anti-imperialist youth living in the belly of the beast, we are called upon to not only shine a light on the genocidal violence of the past, but to take a stand against the US war machine that continues to murder innocent people around the world day in and day out.
Today as we commemorate the My Lai Massacre and honor the memory of the victims, we also uplift the legacy of Vietnamese-Palestinian solidarity, captured in this 1972 political poster by renowned Palestinian painter Ismail Shammout.
Second photo: In Son My, Vietnam, where My Lai is located, a memorial dedicated to the victims of the My Lai Massacre was erected in 1978.
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