Victims of My Lai massacre honored

More than a thousand people gathered in My Lai to remember the victims of one of the most notorious chapters of the Vietnam War.

On March 16, 1968, U.S. troops killed as many as 504 villagers, nearly all of them unarmed women, children and elderly. When the attack was uncovered, it horrified Americans, prompted military investigations and badly undermined support for the war.

The memorial drew relatives, U.S. war veterans, peace activists and a delegation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors.

“We are not harboring hatred,” said Nguyen Hoang Son, vice governor of Quang Ngai, the central province where My Lai is located. “We are calling for solidarity to defend peace, to defend life and to remind the world that it must never forget the massacre at My Lai.”