My+Lai+Incident

My Lai Incident Page to Stage: Mr. Batt, Ms. Ferhani

SETTING: In the small town of Mill Valley, California, 1970 right across the golden gate bridge. It is a beautiful place, with the greenest of grass, and bluest of skies. The play takes place in a couldasac with 4 houses. 1 blue, 1 green, 1 red, and of course, Panzon's yellow house.

PANZON: A young man from Vietnam, who arrived in the U.S before the war on a Visa. His entire family was killed during the My Lai incident.

BILL: A man who Panzon met when he first came to the U.S. He teaches Panzon the ropes. Is helpful, but a bit boring. Cares deeply for Panzon.

RONALD: Ronald Ridenhouer is a lieutent who participates in the Vietnam War, tells Panzon what happens in the war.

RICKY: Panzon's clueless neighbor.

JIM: A mysterious man from the government who tries to stop Panzon and RONALD from talking about the incident to the public. Scene 1

(Curtain opens, PANZON and BILL are in front of the yellow house, which is of course PANZON'S. PANZON sigh's in relief that his house is still intact.)

PANZON: Oh, thank god. I thought that some of the neighbors might have sought to destroy my house.

BILL: Why's that?

PANZON: Well, you know. I’m Vietnamese, everybody thinks I'm a communist. I'm pretty much the most hated person in the neighborhood.

BILL: Well, it was nice of my mother to give you those tickets to Canada.

PANZON: Ahhh... Canada was fantastic! It’s so great that they treat me like every other person. Not like here. People avoid me all the time.

BILL: Yeah... too bad it wasn't like when we first met, before the war.

PANZON: (Nostalgically) I certainly do miss those days... people also came up to me and asked about my culture. Now, it's always the same question, "Are you are Commie?"

BILL: At least the government lets you stay here, right?

PANZON: Yeah... but sometimes I feel like I'm just a guinea pig to them, they just keep me here to watch if I suddenly go crazy and kill everyone... 2 months ago even, a boy came up to me and asked if a was a secret spy for the U.S government.

BILL: I remember when you came here before the war even started. You came here on Visa, right?

PANZON: Yeah. To learn, but nowadays I feel like I should not have came here at all.

BILL: Oh... don’t talk like that. How 'bout we check if Ronald's home?

PANZON: Oh, I do hope he is. He'll be able to update me about the war.

(BILL and PANZON scurry over to the green house)

(RONALD walks out of a green house and walks over to them.)

RONALD: (Sadly) Oh... Panzon... Hello.

PANZON: (Excitedly) Oh Ronald! How wonderful it is to see you again! I hope you have more info about BILL: (Laughing) Calm down Panzon! He'll tell you!

RONALD: Panzon, I’m so sorry...

PANZON: Oh, it’s OK! I already know that you just came to save our country from those terrorists!

RONALD: No Panzon, it's not that. It's well that... everybody in your old village was killed.

BILL: Hey Ronald! That's not funny! What's wrong with you?

PANZON: Why would you say something like that?!

RONALD: No Panzon... it's true. While I was at my base camp, my friend, Hugh Thompson, rushed to me and told me all about it. He said that he was in a helicopter flying over your village of My Lai, and saw a large group of troops, they had mercilessly killed hundreds of innocent people, and it seemed it was for no reason. And it seems that this happened about 2 years ago.

(PANZON falls to his knees)

PANZON: No.... they would have sent me a letter.

RONALD: While you were in Canada, I got this letter from the department of defense. It had a folded up flag near it. Here. (//RONALD hands PANZON the letter.)// PANZON: No… why… This can’t be happening! Why would they do this?! Why?! (//PANZON runs off the stage.)//

BILL: //(Whispering into RONALD’s ear//.) Why the heck are you telling him these lies?

RONALD: (//Whispering)// it’s true, I'm sorry to say.

BILL: But all that letter said is that his family was killed by a grenade falling into the hut “By accident.” That’s completely from what you told us.

RONALD: That’s not possible; the government seems to be covering it up.

BILL: What do you mean?

RONALD: I mean that only people involved in the incident could know about it, because if they knew about this tragedy, we would gain less support for the war.

BILL: Oh, god... That can’t be true…

RONALD: I'm worried that Panzon's going to have to move.

BILL: And why's that?

RONALD: You know Mr. Calley from down the street?

BILL: What about him?

RONALD: He's participated in the Massacre.

BILL: What?! You know what, I'm going to go bring Panzon to see Ricky. That always cheers him up.

RONALD: You do that. I'm going to go see Calley. He just arrived back from Vietnam. BILL: Panzooon! Come here!! (PANZON slouches over.) BILL: Lets go see Ricky. He probably wants to say hello. PANZON: (Angrily) Whatever.

(RONALD walk’s over to CALLEY'S blue house, and PANZON and BILL go over to RICKY'S red house.)

(RICKY walks out.)

RICKY: Well how-dee, Pan-zan! Nice to see you back here after such a long time.

PANZON: (Sadly) Oh. Hello Ricky.

RICKY: Why are you so sad?

PANZON: Well just learned that my entire village was destroyed by the U.S Army.

RICKY: Wah-wow... I'm sorry to hear that...

PANZON: But would you have not have already heard that? On the news or the newspaper? The media must have told you!

RICKY: Can’t say they have.

(BILL brings PANZON into a corner)

BILL: Listen Panzon, nobody knows what happened, and you can't tell them!

PANZON: How could they not know?! And why can't I tell them?

BILL: You see, the U.S government does not want anybody to know what happened, so they're covering it up. If you tell somebody, they will, without a doubt, frame you for a crime!

PANZON: But why are they covering it up?

BILL: Because... then less people would support the war.

PANZON: That's horrible! And nobody even knows they killed and tortured all these people?! They cover up the darn thing?!

BILL: Yes! But you cannot tell anybody, understand?!

PAZCON: NO! I need to tell everybody!! They need to know the truth behind this horrible war!

BILL: Don’t you understand?! They will ruin your life!!!!

PANZON: I don’t care! I don’t care!

(RICKY walks up to them.)

RICKY: Well hey PANZON, I read about your Son My Village in my Stars and Stripes magazine. It says here; "In the Son My village of Vietnam, U.S infantrymen have killed 128 communists in a bloody day long battle." It seems that they saved your village instead a destroyed it! And look here! Mr. Calley from down the street was the guy who ordered it! How neat!

BILL: Oh no...

PANZON: (//Angrily//) Hey Bill, how about we go see Mr. Calley?

End scene 1

Scene 2

(//While RICKY and PANZON were talking, CALLEY and RONALD are having a meeting of their own, in CALLEY'S backyard. RONALD is staring determinedly at CALLEY, while sitting in a chair.// )

RONALD: Hello, Officer Calley.

CALLEY: (//Elegantly//) Mr. Ronald.

RONALD: You know, one of the citizens of the "Pinkville" hamlet lives here.

CALLEY: //(Surprised//) WHAT?!

RONALD: //( Sarcastically//) Hmmm, I wonder why you're so surprised.

CALLEY: So you know?

RONALD: Mmmm-hmmm.

CALLEY: Who told you?

RONALD: One Hugh Thompson.

CALLEY: The one in the helicopter?

RONALD: Yup.

CALLEY: You know, while the massacre took place, I heard him in his helicopter yelling, " It looks like a bloodbath down there! What the heck is going on?!"

RONALD: You need to tell Panzon that you did it, now, and you need to help him tell everybody, it’s the least you could do.

CALLEY: Well, how do you know that he'll want to tell everybody.

RONALD: Trust me, I know.

//(PANZON barges in, and RONALD quickly scurries out.)//

CALLEY: I trust that you are Mr. Panzon.

PANZON: //(Huffing//) Yes. I am.

CALLEY: I guess you want an explanation.

PANZON//:( Yelling//) WHAT DO YOU THINK?!

CALLEY: //(With tears in his eyes//) I'm sorry Panzon... Now, even after two years, I don’t understand why...

PANZON: //(Angrily//) SORRY'S NOT GONNA BRING BACK MY SON! MY WIFE! MY MOTHER! You just walked into our peaceful village! My son bowed down to greet you men, and you shoot him down! We pled and ran, but you just set fire to our dwellings! Throw our body's down well's! Even children, who had no idea what was going on, were identified as communists and tortured! And the worst part is... THAT NO ONE HAS ANY IDEA THAT THIS EVEN HAPPENED! And even the people that do think that what you did was heroic!

CALLEY: I've tried to tell. I really have. But the government, won’t allow me.

PANZON: I know, it'll cause less support for the U.S government, and for the Vietnam War.

CALLEY: Do you know what the government will do to you?

PANZON: Wh-what?

CALLEY: They will ruin your life, they might frame you for a crime, take your money away, at worst, and they might even kill you.

PANZON: But why? Don't they want this country to know the truth? We should be able to tell people, isn't this country founded on the right of free speech?

CALLEY: The government controls everything in this country. They have absolute power, any information that they do not want spread, they control the information flow. Have you ever heard of an incident in Dresden? During World War II, another similar incident to this one occurred. Where U.S troops went into a city in Germany, and destroyed almost all of it.

PANZON: But the government should not be able to control everything! Isn't that communism, exactly what we are fighting?

CALLEY: Panzon, if I may, can I help you spread the word about this horrible incident?

PANZON: But how can I trust you? I mean, you're the person who killed my entire family?

CALLEY: I don’t know how to prove it to you, just come with me to my front porch, I'll get Bill to call everybody there.

End scene 2

Scene 3

RICKY, MAN 1#, MAN 2#, WOMAN 1#, WOMAN 2# are all waiting confusedly in front of CALLEY'S house. CALLEY and PANZON arrive outside, and see a man, peering from far away.

RICKY: (Surprised) Wow! Look! Is that Mr. Calley?

MAN 1#: Lieutenant Calley? He’s back from 'nam?

WOMAN 1: He survived?

MAN 2: I hear from my brother that was in 'Nam that Mr. Calley was an amazing gunman.

WOMAN 2: What a hero!

RICKY: But why'd he call us all here?

MAN 1:(Shrugs) Dunno. Maybe to tell us all about his great exploits?

WOMAN 1: Hey! Is that the Vietnamese fella right there? What’s his name... something like Panzoon?

MAN 2: What’s Mr. Calley doing with that idiot commie?

RICKY:Quiet! He's talking!

(CALLEY raises his hand.)

CALLEY: Citizens! ( Applause) The war in Vietnam...( More applause)

MAN 1#: Yeahhh! We sure are beating them!

CALLEY: Is all a horrible sham.

MAN 2#: What does he mean?

WOMAN 1#: I don’t know... the war must have really messed with his head.

CALLEY: I mean that the way the government and news is portraying it is all wrong.

WOMAN 2#: Huh?!

CALLEY: The war is really a horrible thing, we have almost no reason to be there.

RICKY: Well he must be a Commie himself!

CALLEY: No. About 3 months ago, we went into a village full of peaceful men. And we just killed them. For absolutely no reason at all, we killed them. Almost every single one of them, we killed all the family and friends of this fellow here Panzon.

MAN 1: Is he brainwashing you with his commie talk man?

CALLEY:(Sighs) you guys don’t understand what I'm trying to say. Have you ever considered, that in all the wars we have had, that we might be the enemy? I mean, how do you think other country's view us? Think of Hiroshima, where we nuked one of their cities in a conclusion that could have been resolved peacefully. It all comes down to the old childhood saying. Don't do to others want you don't want to be don't want to be done to you.

MAN 2: Hey... he might be right. I mean, look at all the innocent people who die in these wars.

WOMAN 2: But did he really kill hundreds of people for no reason?

CALLEY: I'm sorry to say but it’s true.

(As PANZON walks up, a swiftly dressed man named JIM runs up to the porch.)

JIM: Folks, folks, don’t believe these guys, they obviously are a little cuckoo from the war !

RICKY: Hey man, why didn't you tell us the truth about this war?

JIM: Well that was all fake!

MAN 1#: I don’t believe you!

WOMAN 1# 2#: I don’t believe you!

MAN 2#: Me either!

JIM: So you'll believe this nut job? He's just humble, doesn’t want to tell of the heroic things he's done. Maybe got shot in the head a couple times.

CALLEY: What I did was far from heroic. I can't change what I've done, but I at least owe it to Panzon to spread justice.

PANZON: Why don't you people just tell your country the truth of what goes on behind the scenes? Just be truthful.

RICKY: Hey man! Get off the stage! You’re not welcome here!

WOMAN 1: You know what, I might move to a better country. One more truthful. Ireland sounds nice.

JIM: BAH! Fine! ALL OF THIS IS TRUE! You happy now? Just don’t tell anybody else.

MAN 2#: Or else what!

JIM: Well, let’s just say that something bad might happen.

PANZON: You can’t intimidate me! My beliefs are just and fair! These people deserve to know the truth!

JIM: The truth could destroy this country's military, and future!

CALLEY: We would not need a military, if maybe we maybe had better affairs with these other countries!

PANZON: Even if I die, these people will know, they will tell more people, and those people will tell more!

JIM: Fine. But you wont hear the end of this. You will see the consuequences.

CALLEY: Panzon, are you sure that you want to go through with this? You could jepordize your whole life. PANZON: I’m sure.

**


 * Bibliography **


 * http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/my_lai.html **
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre **
 * [|http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/lai/up_7.htm] ** **