Ernest Lou Medina (born August 27, 1936) is a former captain of land forces in the United States Army. He served during the Vietnam War and was innocent in a court-martial of war crimes charges in 1971. He was the commanding officer of Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry of the 11th Brigade, Americal Division, the company responsible for the My Lai Massacre of 16 March 1968.
- On the day of the massacre at 9.40 AM, Captain Medina and a group of soldiers approached a wounded woman lying on the ground, Medina walked up to the woman pushes her with his foot and shoots her in the head.
- At 11 AM Captain Medina ordered a lunch break for the entire company, while he did this the platoon leaders report back to him giving him an estimate of enemy casualties: 90 killed.
Medina then reports this number to Task Force Barker. Following polls reveal estimates between 347 to 507 civilian casualties.
William Laws Calley, Jr. (born June 8, 1943) is a former United States U.S Army Officer found guilty of murdering hundreds of defenseless, innocent South Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War.
- A quantity of US soldiers were charged, all excluding Lieutenant William Calley, were innocent. Calley was ordered to life in prison with hard labor. He served three years before he was released. In spite of this, Calley had his supporters and many believed that he was merely following orders. His defense, which was rejected, was that he was there in My Lai to hunt out communists and to destroy communism and that he was only carrying out his orders that were to hunt out the NLF.
The American soldiers used agent orange on the forests in Vietnam trying to kill the trees so that the American soldiers would be able to spot the Viet Cong in the forests, they poisoned lakes and rivers they also threw grenades into villages and bunkers. The American soldiers also killed civilians and ruined buildings.
Many people were killed, this affected many Vietnamese as they lost family and friends.
Many people were killed, this affected many Vietnamese as they lost family and friends.