The my lai memorial exhibit

"Kill anything that moves." -Captain Ernest Medina

They forgot to kill the wind

that spread the truth

to distant hearts and minds.

They forgot to kill the conscience

that moved some soldiers

to tell what they saw.

They forgot to kill the photographers

whose pictures cast the corpses

before eyes that could not unsee them.

And they forgot to kill the ghosts

that still haunt us from dirty ditches

where angry, frightened men

aimed to kill their frustration

but killed 504 defenseless people instead.

Fifty years on, they cannot kill

the memory that arises still

from the tender patties

of our hearts.

Stephen Jones
Detroit – October 12, 2018

Found in the Memorial Exhibit Journal

“AS INFAMOUS AND TERRIBLE AS THE MY LAI MASSACRE WAS, WHAT IS WORSE IS THAT IT WAS NOT UNIQUE. CERTAINLY THERE WERE OTHER MASSACRES OF VIETNAMESE CIVILIANS BY AMERICAN AND SOUTH KOREAN TROOPS, AND THE VIETNAMESE OF BOTH SIDES ALSO COMMITTED ATROCITIES AGAINST EACH OTHER. THE TRAGEDY AT MY LAI SYMBOLIZES WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WAR IS UNLEASHED BY GOVERNMENTS, PARTIES, AND REVOLUTIONS. WAR CANNOT BE CONTAINED BY IDEALS AND LAWS. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS COLLATERAL DAMAGE. THE DEATH OF CIVILIANS AND INNOCENTS—AND THE DEATH OF INNOCENCE ITSELF—IS NOT ACCIDENTAL BUT BUILT INTO WAR. MEMORIALIZATION IS THEREFORE NOT ONLY ABOUT COMMEMORATING THE DEAD, BUT ALSO REMINDING US THAT THE FORCES THAT KILLED THEM REMAIN WITH US AND WITHIN US.”

-Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen read at the opening of the My Lai Memorial Exhibit at Arizona State University in October

HONOR

… the tragic impact of our political and military actions on the people of Vietnam though our panels on the My Lai Massacre and the Vietnam War. Experience the Vietnamese as a proud and cultured people with long history of resisting foreign domination. A people who in the midst of the American War were wounded, killed and had their villages, their homes, their livelihood and their social fabric torn apart. Learn how our governmental and military policies and practices developed, nurtured, implemented and then covered-up a campaign that led to the killing of 2 million Vietnamese civilians during the course of this war; a military campaign that allowed and encouraged the atrocity at My Lai, and other mass killings on the ground and from the air with bombs and artillery shells.

Where we've been

In 2018-2019 the My Lai Memorial Exhibit was hosted by Veterans for Peace chapters in 16 cities:

Santa Fe
San Diego
Fresno
San Francisco

Spokane
Iowa City
Essex, NY
Portland, ME

Ann Arbor
Detroit
Gainesville
Chapel Hill

New York City

Chicago
Phoenix
Binghamton, NY

From the exhibit journal

PORTLAND, MAINE

“I walked into the exhibit steeling myself — already in tears. I thought I knew about My Lai; I had read everything I could about it when Seymour Hersh’s articles came out. However, as it turned out, I knew very little — or perhaps the passage of time or the simple shock of the horror had made me block out what I had learned. I wasn’t in any way prepared for the emotional impact of what I saw yesterday. How do we, as a nation, ever atone for this?”

IOWA CITY

“The exhibit, it words and images together, scorch my consciousness. The men and women of Veterans for Peace have created a powerful, truth-filled homage to the men, women and children, who suffered at American hands. Thanks to all men and women who resisted and continue to resist. I promise to be more militant for peace.”

SAN FRANCISCO

“An amazing documentation of some of the most horrendous crimes committed on the people of Vietnam… so important for Americans to know this truth so that we can have a foundation to know better how to think, feel and hopefully act in regard to today’s policies of war by the U.S. government. A very important and concise and thoroughly-covered resource for us all. Thank you… may it be seen by many.”