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| Lt. William L. Calley, Jr. at Fort Benning, Ga., in 1971. During his trial he showed no remorse for the killings of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians.Joe Holloway Jr./Associated Press |
As we learn in chapter 26, American Lieutenant William Calley was sentenced to life in prison for his actions relevant to the My Lai massacre (327).
Do some research on My Lai (cite reliable sources) and offer your thoughts on whether you believe:
a) Calley should have been convicted (since Calley was a soldier pursuing a military objective);
b) his conviction was just;
c) many more American soldiers and decision makers should have been convicted alongside him (since Calley was not personally responsible for everything that happened at My Lai).
The video below is a History Channel production about My Lai.
According to a timeline of the My Lai Massacre from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, American troops arrived at My Lai at 8 a.m. For next four hours, they killed 128 innocent civilians. They were not soldiers, they did not have weapons, and an estimated count of 50 of the deaths were those of children under the age of four years old. Afterwards, there was almost no sharing of this information to higher-ups or officials, and the troops present began to cover the massacre up completely. There's no excuse for this. To make decisions in wartime is never easy, but if you are fighting for the ideals of truth, justice, and freedom, trying to hide something as horrible as this should have been recognized as the crime that it is. I strongly believe that more officers should have been declared guilty of these war crimes. There were officials at nearly the same status and control as Calley who should have intervened or at the very least informed others of the truth, so that Calley could have been removed from service. Nothing being done disrespects the victims even further.
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