The Battle of My Lai

The Battle of My Lai

The counterculture’s sense of dark humor and wicked satire are on stark display in this faux Hollywood movie poster that depicts the notorious slaughter of Vietnamese civilians—including women, children and elderly villagers—in what became known as The My Lai Massacre. The horrific atrocities were committed on March 16, 1968, by American Army troops from C Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry of the 11th Brigade, as led by officers Ernest L. Medina and William Calley Jr. The troops slaughtered more than 500 civilians in the village of My Lai but the grisly war crimes were covered up until journalist Seymore Hersh broke the story in the fall of 1969, creating a massive upheaval in the United States and escalating pressure to end the war. This original poster captured the counterculture’s response, to blend the horrific nature of the massacre of women and small children with America’s fascination with the big screen and Hollywood’s history of whitewashing disturbing events that put America in a bad light. The poster taunts in movie poster fashion: “See the heroic U.S. Army do battle with ferocious old men, women and children.” This one-of-a-kind poster casts numerous people from the period and involved in the war crime, including Medina and Calley Jr., as stars of the production and offers faux critical praise from media outlets of the era and Nixon Administration officials. Note that the names of the media outlets and administration officials were intentionally and creatively misspelled, likely in order to avoid some legal pushback.

Dimensions: Twenty inches horizontally, Twenty-eight inches vertically (20 x 28”)

Condition: Good.