Why did the My Lai Massacre occur? It was on January 31, 1968 that the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launched a massive attack on South Vietnam. This assault, better known as the Tet Offensive, was an attempt to anger the South Vietnamese in the hope that they would rebel against the American-backed government and join the North Vietnamese army. The Tet Offensive proved to be a major military defeat for the communist north and the Viet Cong. It was after being effectively countered by the South Vietnamese and US armies that the Viet Cong retreated to an area known to the Americans as “Pinkville”. So we ask the question: why on March 16, 1968 did US troops raid a small village called My Lai and massacre all the civilians? In the two weeks preceding the My Lai massacre, US forces had been in the My Lai area. twice and had already encountered much Viet Cong resistance. According to Jay A. Roberts in his Testimony to the Peer Commission, many American soldiers had died at the hands of the Vietcong and those who survived did not know who they could trust regarding the Vietnamese. American forces were told that My Lai was heavily populated with Viet Cong, Viet Cong sympathizers, and that snipers were trained in this area, as presented in Robert W. T'Souvas' testimony to the U.S. Army CID. The Viet Cong also subtly admitted that their forces were in the area. It was stated by a Viet Cong friendly group in the National Liberation Front Committee that even before the official date of the My Lai massacre the Viet Cong had carried out heavy operations against US forces. During the fifteen days alone preceding the My Lai incident, the guerrilla forces had killed two hundred and ninety-eight of their enemy forces. Then... middle of paper... comrades get hit in their legs by booby traps, or their allies are targeted by hidden snipers. These soldiers did not understand the language of their enemy and many attempts at communication would have been misunderstood and commands given by the Americans would have received a different reaction. Furthermore, American forces knew they were in a hostile area because the Viet Cong-friendly Committee for National Liberation had publicly announced that Viet Cong attacks on U.S. forces had taken place in the area prior to the My incident. Lai. In the disillusioned world of Vietnam, the village of My Lai was razed to the ground. It was brutal, yes, but American soldiers were engaged in a war unlike any war America had ever experienced before. The My Lai massacre was a terrible event waiting to happen. If it hadn't been the My Lai incident, there would have been another one like it coming.