(MY LAI, Vietnam) — More than a thousand people in Vietnam marked Friday’s 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre, the most notorious episode in modern U.S. military history, with talk of peace and cooperation instead of hatred. On March 16, 1968, the American soldiers of Charlie Company were sent on what they were told was a mission to confront a crack outfit of their Vietcong enemies, but met no resistance and over three to four hours killed 504 unarmed civilians, mostly women, children and elderly men in My Lai and a neighboring community. Speaking at Friday’s commemoration, provincial official Dang Ngoc Dung said My Lai was a typical case of “cruel crimes committed by aggressive and hostile forces” during the war.