Video: 'Myth or Reality My Lai- Massacre in Vietnam - American Experience.mp4' (Mar. 16 1968, 27:51)

(Saturday, March 16, 1968, 8:00 a.m. Saigon Standard Time; during the Vietnam War, part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — The My Lai Massacre of Vietnamese civilians, including men, women, children and infants, was carried out today by U.S. Army soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division in Son My village in the Son Tinh District of South Vietnam.

Estimates of the death toll vary between 347 and 504. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated.

The incident prompted global outrage when it became public knowledge in November 1969.

Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but served only three and a half years under house arrest.