My Lai Massacre-Lt. Calley Apologizes

[Shrink]

For All:
When a report of the My Lai Massacre first appeared in the press there were many people, including myself, who didn't believe it. Then vets who were there during these brutal killings began to confess as to what they had been ordered to do, and did, that caused these completely inexcusable murders. The article speaks for itself, but the fact that these killings occurred remain a black mark on all of us who served in that conflict since we found ourselves tarred with the same brush. Respectfully, Semper Fidelis, Sully

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 22, 2009

Calley Apologizes For My Lai Massacre

By Ernie Suggs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For more than 40 years, William Calley refused to talk about his role in the notorious My Lai Massacre, which led to the deaths of up to 500 Vietnamese civilians and his conviction as an American war criminal.

But on Wednesday, Calley talked — and apologized. To the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus. And just as suddenly as he appeared, he vanished. Attempts to contact him at his Atlanta home Friday were unsuccessful; his closest friends stressed his desire to resume his silence.

“He spoke to the Kiwanis, but he won’t talk to the media,” said retired broadcaster Al Fleming, a member of the Kiwanis who says he has been a friend of Calley’s for 25 years.

“He is very sensitive about this.”

Fleming said he invited Calley to speak to the club but had no idea Calley would use the occasion to make an apology.

“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” Calley said. “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.”

The My Lai Massacre was one of the darkest moments in the Vietnam War. On March 16, 1968, 2nd Lt. William “Rusty” Calley ordered his platoon to kill everyone in the South Vietnamese hamlets of My Lai and My Khe. It was reported that between 347 and 504 people — mostly unarmed women and children — were slaughtered.

Several of the victims were sexually abused, beaten or tortured. Many were dumped in ditches and shot. Initially 26 American soldiers were charged, but only Calley was convicted. He admitted on the witness stand that he personally executed civilians and received a life sentence for the murders of 22 people.

Calley always claimed that he was acting on direct orders from his company commander, and many Americans believed that he was scapegoated for the massacre. His sentence was later reduced by President Richard Nixon and he served three years under house arrest.

Calley lived in Columbus — he was under house arrest at Fort Benning — but now lives in Atlanta. Fleming said Friday that he had befriended Calley years ago.

“I sat with him by the hour, with him telling me all that happened,” Fleming said. “I know he is remorseful.”

Fleming, who said he didn’t know about the apology until minutes before Calley spoke, said he had set up the talk as if it were a news conference.

“I said Rusty is going to make a brief statement and then he’ll take your questions,” he said.
The appearance might have gone unnoticed, if not for Dick McMichael, a retired journalist who now blogs in Columbus. McMichael attended the meeting, blogged about it and his story was picked up by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

“The questions were asked respectfully and politely, which could give the impression they were softball,” McMichael blogged later. “I don’t think that was the case. The questions got right to the crux of the matter, in my view, and Calley didn’t dodge any of them.”

McMichael said Calley never denied that he carried out the massacre, but reiterated that he was following orders.

“I thought it was positive and humbling,” said James Walton, the Kiwanis secretary. “He spoke from the heart. He knows it was wrong and knows he has to live with it. The club was very pleased.”

The club gave him a standing ovation at the end of the speech.

“We had 50 members listen to him and you could hear a pin drop,” Fleming said. “When he was done, it was the first time we ever gave anyone a standing ovation. A couple of people didn’t stand, but most of us did.”

[Wyoming]

A real man can admit his mistakes. Too bad Calley's Co Cdr, Bn Cdr, and others could not accept their role of blame. That said, in modern warfare today, we all know that the My Lai incident had a profound affect on decisions in the field. Do you think the enemy (terrorists) worry about who they shoot and kill? They don't mind at all if they kill anyone in the way, or just to enforce a lesson. If you go back in history, some of the most famous conquerors of all time believed that if they left anyone alive it would not serve the lesson they needed to enforce their power. The great Mongol dynasties of Genghis and his sons (Kublai and others) were ruthless, killing as many as 150,000 to teach a lesson to others. Alexander was another ruthless conqueror!!

I am not trying to paint this as a hope for exoneration for Calley. But, it does paint us as maybe not wanting to be conquerors. If you want to be king of the hill, don't offer a helping hand up when you whip the crap out of an opponent. We also all know that many villages acted as safe-havens for VC and operations by the NVA. From what I have read and heard, My Lai was one of these. Calley's men (with or without his okay) did the wrong thing and as their leader, he was responsible for their actions.

[Pete0331]

I read extensively on the topic of Lt. Calley and My Lai.

Calley was the fall guy for the whole thing.
Offences went all the way up the chain.
Capt. Medina especially should have had a longer sentence.

Calley also had to redo OCS 3 times before they would commission him.
Not something that should have happened in the first place.

The reporter that blew the lid off the whole thing was very anti military and used this to further the anti war movement.

A bad deal for everyone.

[ggyoung]

LT. Calley was not fit to lead his mom across the street. When the U.S. Army formed the Ameracal Division the damn army done something that the USMC would never do. That was all the other commands got rid of a lot of the sh!!t braids by sending the to the Americal Div. The Marines will not do that.

[Gary Hall]

Sir, in my view, you were caught up in a sorry circumstance of others' doing.

Were it not for a blessing of birthdays, myself and legions of others could have been trapped there with you.

The birthdate blessings resulted in my having moral civilian and Military Commanders, HST and one Chesty Puller. I didn't do much for him but by God I was there.

Now the principal crooks in this sorry and extensive episode greatly supercedes the area My Lai. Let's get right down to Warshington, DC, the scene of the real hog trough.

Again, in my PFC view, the principal crooks are LBJ, Lady Bird J, Linda bird J, Lucy Bird J, but I give Little Beagle Junior, a pass. I felt sorry for his family. Also guilty are the father of the Edsel, hero of the World Bank and consort of Tom Braden's wife, the Honorable Robert McNamara. All these luminaries got away with all the chips.

And as Your Anchor (not mine) Uncle Walter said: "... and that's the way it was ...".

I am appreciative of President Nixon's efforts, in particular the way Linda Greenhouse reports RMN "... supplied (among other assistance) ' steady female companionship..' ..." for Lt. Calley, during his time of travail. And, I also appreciate the words of President Jimmy Carter "... Mr. Calley was a scapegoat.." Thank you Mr. President. Finally, I appreciate the Harvard Survey wherein it was reported: " ... 2/3 of the people (Americans, I guess), would shoot unarmed civilians, if ordered to do so."

Some of you wannabe warriors out there, war is pretty serious business, and nasty (Hell). If you elect to get in one, it's best to win, not lose. Gung Ho, Gary Hall.

[Zulu 36]

While I was in, I knew a Marine Sergeant who had been a corrections type at Leavenworth (after the Navy closed Portsmouth Naval Prison). While there he had the chance to talk with Calley a number of times.

His impression was that Calley was not very intelligent (IQ-wise), was not well educated, and lacked common sense. This Marine felt that Calley might have made an adequate PFC or L/Cpl in the Marine Corps, but was not even NCO material, never mind an officer. He struggled just to honcho work details at the prison.

His assessment was that Calley was a nice guy and an honest dupe in the whole mess. Honest because he never denied his involvement, a dupe because he followed obviously illegal orders.

I think Nixon reduced his sentence because he knew Calley was the fall-guy and this was the only thing he could do to make a point to the Army.

[SgtThrasher]

The Hue city Massacre by the Vietnamese communist that killed~~2800 citizens, selected by clipboard carrying thugs and murdered and buried in shallow graves isn't talked about by the MSM and the liberals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVCutQ4O8Wg

[Wyoming]

The only "standing ovation" that Calley should have gotten was him standing against the wall as a firing squad honorably did its duty, with an ovation for their accuracy.

War has its atrocities, but they're not for us to perpetrate. What part of "First to fight for right and freedom and to keep our honor clean" is not being understood?

Sure, there've always been civilian casualties, sometimes even (as in the firebombing of Tokyo, the London Blitz, etc.) as a targeted element of strategy, but never (for us) as an accepted tactic. We are not the Huns.

This atrocity, this mass murder, was not collateral damage, not killing in the heat of battle, not killing enemy soldiers or prisoners. It was precise, directed, personalized, on-the-spot, in-your-face execution of unarmed non-combatants, from the old and infirm to infants. There is no less a term than "war-crime atrocity" that would apply.

Those who died at My Lai were not combat deaths, but were murder victims. If, as Calley claimed, he was following orders, then he would have to have known that they were illegal orders and must be refused. The offered excuse of "I was only following orders" did not serve to exculpate the Nazis on trial at Nuremberg.

It wasn't even the right ville! It wasn't the ville from which their outfit had previously taken fire. If that act of terrorism was meant to deter the enemy, it instead encouraged him. That act of mayhem smeared **** all over what we tried to do, how and why we fought and died. And it cost us countless casualties, because it gave very effective ammunition to the anti-war protesters.

To this day, I would serve proudly on the firing squad to take care of Calley. I would make sure I was not loaded with a blank, and I would not miss.

[usmcspitfire]

The Hue city Massacre by the Vietnamese communist that killed~~2800 citizens, selected by clipboard carrying thugs and murdered and buried in shallow graves isn't talked about by the MSM and the liberals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVCutQ4O8Wg

Respectfully, I do not understand the point of you posting that. Just because the enemy were savage in their methods, does not permit U.S. forces leeway in murdering innocent civilians. Lt. Calley was the platoon commander, he was responsible for the actions of his men.

I hope we (U.S. Forces) have learned from Vietnam that over reliance on technology, close air support, artillery, and conventional warfare in general will not win a war against insurgents.

[Gary Hall]

In my view, certainly not - never.

What are the options then?

If he did, that's one circumstance, easy to handle.

If he didn't he was either directly ordered to "terminate with extreme prejudice", as the policy makers used to like to say, but they've recently become a lot more devious in these high techy times.

If he was not directly ordered, then it's a good possibility that the implication to do so (made upstairs), finally gravitied down to the one easiest to trap, a 2nd Lt.

A 2nd Lt can't deny why things happen. He's there and responsible, according to the rules of the game. But everybody else above him can come up with "plausible deniability", that 2nd greatest game in DC.

Those individuals with access to plausible deniability, always have "get of jail free" documentation.

Hang in there Lt, when your orders come from the likes of LBJ and Robert McNamara, this outcome is what to expect. And hope you've got some friends in better places. Gung Ho, Gary Hall.

[Pete0331]

In my view, certainly not - never.

What are the options then?

If he did, that's one circumstance, easy to handle.

If he didn't he was either directly ordered to "terminate with extreme prejudice", as the policy makers used to like to say, but they've recently become a lot more devious in these high techy times.

If he was not directly ordered, then it's a good possibility that the implication to do so (made upstairs), finally gravitied down to the one easiest to trap, a 2nd Lt.

A 2nd Lt can't deny why things happen. He's there and responsible, according to the rules of the game. But everybody else above him can come up with "plausible deniability", that 2nd greatest game in DC.

Those individuals with access to plausible deniability, always have "get of jail free" documentation.

Hang in there Lt, when your orders come from the likes of LBJ and Robert McNamara, this outcome is what to expect. And hope you've got some friends in better places. Gung Ho, Gary Hall.

The way the briefing went down, all persons on the objective were classified as hostile forces.
The order to treat all persons as hostile came down from (IIRC) the brigade level.


Just thinking on a side note, I pray this is never made into a Hollywood film.

[DocGreek]

....GENTLEMEN....this thread is getting out of hand. MURDER? ATROCITIES?....where do I start? How about the Holocaust? Was justice served? How about the Bataan death march? Was justice served? How about OUR fire bombing of Dresden, and Hamburg? Was justice served?

"WAR IS HELL!"...terrorism...ALL countries that wage war are responsible for the killing of innocent civilians. To single out just ONE incident in the war in Viet Nam, is OBSCENE!! STOP TRYING TO FIND REASON IN THE THOUGHTS OF POLITICALLY ELECTED OFFICIALS WHO DICTATE WAR POLICY!!!

[zx6rdr]

....GENTLEMEN....this thread is getting out of hand. MURDER? ATROCITIES?....where do I start? How about the Holocaust? Was justice served? How about the Bataan death march? Was justice served? How about OUR fire bombing of Dresden, and Hamburg? Was justice served?

"WAR IS HELL!"...terrorism...ALL countries that wage war are responsible for the killing of innocent civilians. To single out just ONE incident in the war in Viet Nam, is OBSCENE!! STOP TRYING TO FIND REASON IN THE THOUGHTS OF POLITICALLY ELECTED OFFICIALS WHO DICTATE WAR POLICY!!!

OOOOORAH

[ggyoung]

Just to add a little more to the fire. What about the Que Sone Valley killing? This was done by US Marines. 16 old men and women and kids were killed. Who knows about that?

[FistFu68]

PFC HALL you forgot 2 add President Kennedy @ Ho Chi Mien