Quang Ngai and the My Lai Massacre

  Quang Ngai, Vietnam
Friday, May 15, 2009

To break up the journey time between Da Nang and Nha Trang, we decided to spend a couple of nights at a small town called Quang Ngai. A very undeveloped part of Vietnam, yet to discover its full tourism potential, its only claim to fame is a sad one at that.

Old lady collecting shellfish.

About 2 kilometres from the coast a memorial to the My Lai (Son My) massacre can be found. On March 16th 1968 a sweeping party of American soldiers landed and performed a reconnaissance mission around the area, believed to be a Viet Cong stronghold. They found nothing by civilians. In an act of unprecedented cruelty the soldiers opened fire and killed unarmed women and children at will. What made the circumstances even more bizarre, was that a photographer accompanied the party and photographed the act.

The Americans attempted to cover their tracks by burying the villagers in mass graves and burning down the village. Unaware that all of the gory details were captured on film and would be heading back to the USA with them. It wasn't long before some soldiers spilled the beans on the massacre and the photos soon followed. Tarnishing the American's reputation in an already contentious war. Out of the entire massacre 504 people were killed. 182 of them were women (17 were pregnant) and 173 children. While only one American soldier was injured. He shot himself in the foot so that he could be medivacted and not take part.

Defenseless woman who was executed..

A museum can be found on site, which documents the tragic event in full vivid detail. A lot of the photographs taken at the time could be seen hanging on its walls. Too graphic to post on this blog I'm afraid. It was worth the visit as it gave us a real insight into that day. The paragraph in the Lonely Plant just doesn't convey the same meaning and emotions.

We did spend in total 3 nights in Quang Ngai, but unfortunately it isn't worth staying that long. The beach (also called My Khe beach) is touted as one of the nicest, but it was covered in rubbish dumped by the various stilt restaurants that line its shores. We would recommend a day trip though, and if you did decide to stay here, Pho Bien is a cheap place and does a good variety of food.