Vietnamese Mark My Lai Anniversary

MY LAI, Vietnam — Forty years after rampaging American soldiers slaughtered her family, Do Thi Tuyet returned to the place where her childhood was shattered.

"Everyone in my family was killed in the My Lai massacre — my mother, my father, my brother and three sisters," Ms. Tuyet said, who was 8 years old at the time.

More than a thousand people turned out yesterday to remember the victims of one of the most notorious chapters of the Vietnam War.

On March 16, 1968, members of Charlie Company killed as many as 504 villagers, nearly all of them unarmed children, women, and elderly.

When the unprovoked attack was uncovered, it horrified Americans, prompted military investigations, and badly undermined support for the war.

Yesterday's memorial drew the families of the victims, returning American war veterans, peace activists, and a delegation of atomic bombing survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.