My Lai massacre (also known as Son My massacre) that shocked the world 5 decades ago was the Viet Nam War mass murder of unarmed Vietnamese civilians by US troops in My Lai Hamlet, Son My Village (now known as Tinh Khe), Quang Ngai Province, on 16 March 1968.

The My Lai Hamlet after the massacre

A total of 504 unarmed civilians were massacred in the space of 4 hours on that tragic day by the US Army soldiers from Company C, 1^st Battalion, 20^th Infantry Regiment, 11^th Brigade, 23^rd (Americal) Infantry Division. 

The killed people who were completely unprepared for an attack were mainly the elderly, women, infants and children. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated.
American intelligence believed that the guerillas who had attacked them had taken refuge in My Lai.

The massacre was described by historians as “the most shocking episode of the Viet Nam War” which prompted widespread outrage around the world.

The massacre was also credited with advancing the end of the American War because it significantly undermined public support in the US for the war.         

There were a total of 26 American soldiers charged with criminal offenses in the mass murder, but Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader, was the only one convicted.

The Son My relic site in memory of the My Lai Massacre was built in Tinh Khe Commune in 1978, and was recognised as special national-level relic site by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2002.

This venue welcomes more than 200,000 visitors in total per year, and it becomes the most-visited historical destination in this central regional province.

In 2003, 11.7 billion VND from the budget of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism was spent on the upgrading of this site.

Amongst the new facilities was a film screening room where the documentary film entitled ‘Tieng Vi Cam O My Lai’ (The Sound of the Violin in My Lai), a short film that examines the history and legacy of the My Lai massacre.

Produced in 1998, the film was the winner of the ‘The Best Short Film’ award at the 1999 Asia-Pacific Film Festival held in Thailand’s Bangkok, and won the Silver Lotus Award at the 12th Viet Nam Film Festival in the same year.

Audiences worldwide have applauded the film for its sensitive, yet unflinching reconstruction of the events at My Lai.

A house of worship dedicated to the civilians killed in the atrocity was inaugurated on 15 March in recognition of the 50^th anniversary of this notorious massacre

Covering an area of 200 m² in the Son My relic site, the house was built at a cost of 5.5 billion VND (241,500 US$).