MyLai RVN

[benny rutledge]

Anyone out there know whatever became of Lt.William Calley USA? Was he court Martialed,sent home or what?:bunny:

[Super Dave]

After deliberating for 79 hours and 57 minutes, the jury returned a verdict. They had found Calley guilty of premeditated murder of 22 of the villagers of My Lai. One juror claimed that they “had labored long and hard to find some way, some evidence, or some flaw in the testimony so we could find Lt. Calley innocent.” Before the jury reconvened to decide his punishment, Calley was allowed to address the jury and said, “Yesterday you stripped me of all my honor, please by your actions that you take here today, don’t strip future soldiers of their honor-I beg you.” The prosecution responded that Calley had stripped himself of his honor by murdering women and children. After seven hours the jury sentenced Calley to life of hard labor. In the end, he only served only days in Fort Leavenworth, before being transferred back to Fort Benning, where he was placed under house arrest. His sentence was repeatedly reduced. Finally, he was pardoned by President Nixon. He was paroled in November, 1974.

[MillRatUSMC]

The Verdict

“Don’t you have a country? Don’t you live in this world? What the hell are you?” from All My Sons by Arthur Miller (1946).

On March 29, 1971, after the longest court martial in American history and thirteen days of deliberations, Lt. William Calley was found guilty of the murder of at least twenty-two Vietnamese civilians. Calley, then 27, stood erect as he heard the verdict. He saluted the jury foreman, Colonel Clifford Ford, and returned to his seat at the defense table. His attorney, George Latimer, told the press: “It was a horrendous decision for the United States, the United States Army and for my client. Take my word for it, the boy is crushed.”

The very next day, Lt. Calley stood in the same courtroom and read his statement to the jury prior to sentencing. He said that he was not at fault because he was only doing what he was trained to do:

“Nobody in the military system ever described them as anything other than Communism. They didn’t give it a race, they didn’t give it a sex, they didn’t give it an age. They never let me believe it was just a philosophy in a man’s mind. That was my enemy out there. And when it became between me and that enemy, I had to value the lives of my troops, and I feel that was the only crime I have committed.”

Of course, Calley never mentioned the fact that not one round of enemy fire was ever received at My Lai that day and no Viet Cong were ever seen or captured. There was no contact with the enemy whatsoever and Calley nor any member of his platoon ever attempted to make that claim. His platoon suffered not a single casualty and there was no battle, as some people believed. The public’s reaction to My Lai was based on a misconception of fact that was never fully clarified. A few minutes after Calley read his statement, he received his sentence: life imprisonment at hard labor.

The sentencing, however, was not greeted with universal approval. Many Americans felt that Calley was simply a scapegoat and those in higher positions should also be held accountable. President Nixon wrote in his memoirs: “Public reaction to this announcement was emotional and sharply divided. More than 5,000 telegrams arrived at the White House, running 100 to 1 in favor of clemency.” Nixon, ever the politician, decided that mercy was in order for the young lieutenant. On April 1, 1971, just two days after the verdict, Nixon ordered Calley to be placed under house arrest while his appeal worked its way through the courts. “The whole tragic episode was used by the media and the antiwar forces to chip away at our efforts to build public support for our Vietnam objectives,” he wrote.

Across the nation, there were many demonstrations of support for Lt. Calley. The American Legion announced plans that it would try to raise $100,000 for his appeal. Draft board personnel in several cities resigned in groups. Several politicians spoke out in public criticizing the government’s prosecution of the soldiers at My Lai. “I’ve had veterans tell me that if they were in Vietnam now, they would lay down their arms and come home,” Congressman John Rarick told the New York Times.

But prosecutor Aubrey Daniel also did not remain silent. He wrote a highly publicized letter to President Nixon criticizing him for releasing Calley to house arrest: “How shocking it is if so many people across this nation have failed to see the moral issue…that it is unlawful for an American soldier to summarily execute unarmed and unresisting men, women and babies.”

Lt William Calley leaves apartment (TIMEPIX)
For the next few years, in Ft. Benning, Georgia, William Calley, the convicted mass murderer, sat in his home under house arrest, watching television reruns and cooking his own food. Whenever he went out to town for supplies, he had to be accompanied by two M.P.s. He waited out the years in his apartment, unbowed, convinced he had done something right in the service of his country. His self-serving statements during this time carried on the myth that he and the members of his platoon were engaged in some type of enemy action. “I’m sorry anybody had to die there, sorry I ever had to kill a soldier in Vietnam…but I’ll be very proud to have been in the U.S. Army and fought at My Lai,” he told Time magazine in 1971.

In 1973, his sentence was reduced to ten years by Secretary of the Army Howard Callaway. After a great deal of legal wrangling, Calley was paroled on September 9, 1974. He had served 3 ½ years under house arrest or approximately one month for every ten Vietnamese killed at My Lai. Today, William Calley lives in a self-imposed obscurity in Columbus, Georgia, working in a family-owned jewelry store. He refuses to give interviews or talk about Vietnam in public.

Another page says he now selling insurance...

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo

[benny rutledge]

super dave and milrat,damn good research there you guys, i am going to print this page and put it in The book that got me thinking about Calley in the first place,"It doesnt take a hero".Despite Schwartzkopf being a "Doggie"He led an extraordinary life and Military career.There are quite a few maps and side stories in this biography that shed a LOT of light on "Desert Storm".Thanx you guys.

[bobpage]

Ya know, I met him (Calley) many times. He owns a jewelrey store in Columbus Georgia. I am from there, worked with some of his good friends, and as I said have met him a few times. He is quiet, and makes no mention of My Lai. I was a youngster during this circus. My Grandfather took me to the base to watch this hanging. As the child of a career Army man, and a careerist in the service myself, I believe what my Grandfather told me. He said "Son, you are witnessing the buck landing on the lowest man in the food chain!" In the years since, I have seen it done just that way. He surely had his part in the massacre no doubt. He has to live with it. But Captain Medina was there and running the op. How did a Second John call the shots on an op chock full of combat vets who know the difference? This Army thing in Iraq involving the prison abuse is again their way of passing the buck. Only the troops pay. No senior officers do.

[ivalis]

Colin Powell was in charge of part of the investigation, interesting.

[Sgt. Smitty]

It's really amazing the way Military justice works.......Lt. Calley was a definite scapegoat and took the blunt end of this trial right in the chops. Did he really pull the trigger or was it the men...