Pham Thanh Cong does not remember much about the day his family was killed in front of him by US troops in the My Lai massacre. He was only 11, and blacked out after a grenade hit the bunker that they were hiding in.
However, in the five decades since the March 16, 1968, killings that left 504 villagers dead — mostly unarmed women, children and older men — he has dedicated his life to keeping the memory of one of the war’s worst atrocities alive.
“I’m devoted to this, to protect the memories of the massacre, to let people know about the brutality of the US army,” Cong said from the war memorial that he ran until his retirement last year.
Photo: AFP
However, he still dredges up memories of that dark day with some reluctance, admitting that he is still haunted by the violence in Son My village, which the US called “My Lai” during the war.
“When recalling it, I couldn’t sleep well at night. The memories returned — the pain, the loss of myself and my family — making me very sad,” said Cong, without expression.
He had huddled with his mother, brother and sister in a bunker in his home when US helicopters landed in nearby rice paddies in central Vietnam’s Son My, believed to be a hotbed of Viet Cong resistance.
Soldiers lobbed grenades at the family and shot at them with M-16s.
He stayed in the hut from 8am until 4pm, when his father wandered in and found him alive, he said.
The massacre, later uncovered by US investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, polarized public opinion and energized a mounting anti-war movement in the US.
Although it took years for the US public to learn about My Lai — the largest and best documented of several suspected mass killings by the US during the war — the communist North reported the massacre much earlier in broadcasts dismissed as “red” propaganda.
Today, Cong dutifully recounts the painful day as a matter of posterity, to ensure that it never happens again. Vietnam’s surging young population — about half of the country’s 93 million people are under the age of 30 — are mostly looking away from the war today, focused instead on getting good jobs, Premier League soccer or the latest mobile phone app.
Recalling the massacre is a way to “warn against war and protect peace,” Cong said.
Cong, steadily focused on looking ahead without forgetting the past, said he would welcome his former enemies to the village where his family was once slaughtered.
“Now the point is looking toward the future, and the country’s development... we want peace, not war... not because we are forgetting the war or the crimes of US troops. We are putting the past behind and don’t want to hold on to hatred,” he said.
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