Special Features
- Further Reading: Related Books and Websites
- Timeline: Charlie Company and the Massacre at My Lai
- Interview: Author Tim O'Brien
- Interview: Larry Colburn
- Biography: Selected Men Involved with My Lai
- Preview: My Lai Preview
What drove a company of American soldiers -- ordinary young men from around the country -- to commit the worst atrocity in American military history? Were they “just following orders” as some later declared? Or, did they break under the pressure of a vicious war in which the line between enemy soldier and civilian had been intentionally blurred? AMERICAN EXPERIENCE focuses on the 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke ranks to try to halt the atrocities, and then bring them to light.
My American Experience
Share Your Story
What are your thoughts about the Vietnam War, American remembrances of the war, history's judgments, your personal experience, or that of a family member?
Series Blog
Documentary Craft: Interview with Composer Joel Goodman
Acclaimed by The Hollywood Reporter as an "Indie Composer to Watch," Joel Goodman is a multi-talented, award-winning composer. His original composition credits include work on the Oscar and Emmy Award-winning films Sister Rose's Passion; The Collector of Bedford Street and Children Underground. Joel recently scored the American Experience film My Lai, produced and directed by Barak Goodman. You can listen to three tracks from the film on his website,joelgoodman.com.
The Living Weapon
The international race to develop biological weapons during the 20th century.
Watch Bonus Video
War Letters
From the Revolutionary War to Operation Desert Storm - newly discovered letters read by celebrity actors tell of courage, longing, and sacrifice.
Watch Online
Fly Girls
During World War II, more than a thousand women signed up to fly with the U.S. military as WASPS.
Film Details
Pearl Harbor - Surprise And Remembrance
A minute-by-minute account, on both sides of the Pacific, leading up to the surprise attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.
Film Details
Daughter from Danang
The story of a Vietnamese mother, the Amerasian daughter she sent away for adoption, and their reunion 22 years after the Vietnam War.
Film Details
Love in the Cold War
An American Communist family that had fled to Moscow in the late 1920s, return to America in 1935 but can not bring their 5-year-old son.
Film Details
The Berlin Airlift
After the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, British and American pilots delivered tons of food and fuel to the German city by airplane for nearly a year.
Watch Trailer
Return With Honor
American prisoners of war in North Vietnam tell of their experiences at the Hanoi Hilton and other notorious prisons.
Film Details
