ABSTRACT
Miami Edison High School preserves the memory of William L. Calley, Jr., the former United State Army second lieutenant who entered the village of My Lai 4 with a platoon of infantry and initiated the slaughter of between 400 and 500 Vietnamese civilians, using automatic weapons, grenades, knives, and bayonets. When all discipline vanished among the lead platoons during the first few minutes that morning in My Lai 4, it was an uncontrolled meltdown. The opening of official diplomatic relations between the United States and the Republic of Vietnam has helped to keep the memory of My Lai alive. The site itself, maintained by the Vietnamese government as a memorial, has become a kind of requisite station of the cross for everyone from returning veterans and journalists to travel writers. The Vietnamese victims of the massacre were nearly all women and children with a sprinkling of old men.
