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Small boy stands in entrance to underground artillery shelter at My Lai

A small boy wearing a blue plaid shirt and red shorts stands in the entrance to an underground artillery shelter at My Lai. The entrance hole is small enough that this boy of about six years easily can touch the inside ceiling. Grass grows over the top of what would have been a hidden tunnel for the protection of local residents. The shelter entrance is reinforced with concrete. Hung in front is a plaque, written in Vietnamese and English, that reads, "Mr. Le Ly's artillery shelter was restored."

Apparently this shelter was damaged during the Vietnam War.In 1968, U.S. forces considered the My Lai area to be a stronghold of Communist Vietnamese fighters (known as Vietcong) and their sympathizers.

Repeated bombing of the region only increased the support of local civilians for the Communist fighters. After an order was given to U.S. troops to attack My Lai Village, American soldiers killed hundreds of mostly women, children, and elderly with brutal methods. Photographs and reports about the atrocities at My Lai led many Americans who thought little about the Vietnam War to conclude that it was not a war they wished to support. Increasingly, the U.S. government decided to reduce civilian killings and military deployments in Vietnam. American forces gradually were withdrawn and then the southern capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Communist forces on April 30, 1975.

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