Though its events took place thousands of miles away and over two decades later, you could see tonight’s PBS American Experience documentary, “My Lai,” as a kind of nonfiction companion piece to HBO’s The Pacific, especially the recent episodes (like last night’s) about the battle at Peleliu. The Pacific gets into the heads of American soldiers fighting the Japanese in World War II—in jungle warfare that seemed to prefigure Vietnam in some ways—and seeks to explain how war brutalizes men and moves some to brutality themselves.
Just so, this documentary speaks in depth with American soldiers who witnessed or were involved in one of the most notorious massacres in the history of American warfare, in Vietnam in 1968 (as well as Vietnamese civilians who witnessed the horrifying events). Methodically but devastatingly, director Barak Goodman gets members of Charlie Company to reflect on how soldiers who come to see the slaughter of civilians as a justified and necessary act. (Goodman also tells the stories of soldiers who followed their consciences to step in and save lives.)
If The Pacific’s stories are a bit much for you, “My Lai” probably will be, but it’s a fascinating if unpleasant story that—unfortunately—will always be relevant.
