The Impact of the Massacre
By the early 1970s, American war effort in Vietnam was going down, as the presidency of Richard Nixon continued the policies of "Vietnamization" of the war, withdrawing the troops and transferring of control over ground operations to South Vietnamese. With the American troops still in Vietnam, the morale was low, and frustration and anger were high. The use of drugs with the soldiers were increasing with the official report in 1979 guesses that one-third or more of the U.S. troops were addicted to drugs.
The My Lai Massacre has caused morale to go down even further, as GI's were thinking of what other atrocities their superiors were hiding. On the homefront in the United States, brutality of the My Lai Massacre and the works made by high-ranking officers to conceal the aggravated antiwar opinions and increased the divide among the population concerning the ongoing U.S. presence in Vietnam.
The My Lai Massacre has caused morale to go down even further, as GI's were thinking of what other atrocities their superiors were hiding. On the homefront in the United States, brutality of the My Lai Massacre and the works made by high-ranking officers to conceal the aggravated antiwar opinions and increased the divide among the population concerning the ongoing U.S. presence in Vietnam.