Facing Up to the Horrors of the Mỹ Lai Massacre
Last month, Vietnam marked the 58th anniversary of the Mỹ Lai massacre, when US soldiers killed hundreds of defenseless civilians. US public memory largely ignores the history of atrocities like Mỹ Lai, making it easier to repeat them in the future.
The memorial honoring victims of the Mỹ Lai Massacre stands as both accusation and warning, a place where the violence of the American war is neither abstract nor distant. (Dirck Halstead / Getty Images)
The road to Sơn Mỹ does not resemble the bustling circuits of Vietnam’s booming tourist economy. It veers away from the curated lantern light of Hội An and the resort sheen of Nha Trang, cutting instead through quiet rice fields and low houses, where daily life proceeds with little regard for foreign itineraries.
Here, in Quảng Ngãi province, stands one of the most important, if less visited, sites of historical memory in Vietnam: the Sơn Mỹ Memorial, commemorating what Americans call the Mỹ Lai massacre. Each year, roughly 40,000 Vietnamese visitors make the journey. Only 6,000 to 7,000 foreigners follow.
The imbalance is telling. For domestic visitors, Sơn Mỹ is a place of mourning, reverence, and national memory. For many international travelers it remains peripheral, distant from the narratives and routes that structure how the Vietnam War is remembered abroad.
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