On the morning of March 16, 1968, An atrocity OCCURRED. guns blasting, vehicles rolling, men trotting, and innocent civilians Mourning. An event thought to be a simple mission envelopes into a mishap that gets covered up, But only temporarily. Such an event can be classified as a massacre of thousands of human beings. this event shocked the u.s. political establishment, the military's chain of command, and the american public. the my lai massacre is probably one of the most infamous events of american history, "the wrong way to kill".