On March 16, 1968, American soldiers from the Bravo and Charlie companies entered the tiny hamlets of My Lai and My Khe in South Vietnam and embarked upon a mission that would come to symbolize for many worldwide the atrocity and senselessness of war. On that day, hundreds of civilians – most of them women, children and elderly – were slaughtered, under order from each company’s commanding officer. The My Lai massacre prompted a cover-up, a subsequent inquiry, and one court martial conviction for murder. In this riveting doc created for PBS’ ‘American Experience,’ Barak Goodman (Scottsboro: An American Tragedy) revisits My Lai, framing eyewitness accounts from soldiers and survivors with archive video and recently discovered audio from the Peers Inquiry.

Partners: Ark Media (Brooklyn) for PBS, distributed through PBS International

Length: 1 x 83 minutes

Airing: April 22, 2010 (PBS)

Rights available: Worldwide