The Prison Sentence For Murdering 22 People Turned Out to Be Three Days
Remembering Lt. William Calley and the My Lai Massacre
Atrocities have been a part of every war, despite any rules of engagement, United Nations rebukes, the Geneva Convention, or international trials at The Hague and Nuremberg. I’m not shocked when they occur as much as I shake my head at the response.
You might not have heard of the My Lai Massacre if you aren’t of a certain age. The Vietnam War isn’t spoken of much because it’s considered one we lost. The war was theoretically between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. In reality, it was a proxy war between non-Communist nations, including the U.S., and Communist countries, including Russia and China.
There is only general consensus on how many people were killed in the massacre. Estimates range from the low three hundred to over five hundred dead. There is no disagreement that most of the dead were women, children, infants, and elderly residents of two hamlets of Son My village in the province of Quang Ngai. The massacre occurred on March 16, 1968. The U.S. Army covered up the massacre as they did several others of a smaller scale. It was over a year later when word leaked out to civilians when helicopter door gunner Ronald Ridenhour mailed a report of his findings on the “Pinkville incident” to members of Congress, the Pentagon, and President Nixon.
I was thirteen when news broke of the My Lai Massacre. Even then, I was an avid newspaper reader, and the coverage lasted weeks. The primary focus alternated between the scale of the massacre and the cover-up. The numbers kept changing upward while the number of people responsible dwindled. Some of the women were gang-raped, the victims as young as twelve. Many of the bodies were mutilated. I can think of no act that took place on October 7th in Israel that wasn’t committed by U.S. Soldiers in Vietnam at My Lai, except for taking hostages. We took no hostages.
Twenty-six soldiers were ultimately charged with criminal offenses. Knowledge of what happened was widespread through the three companies that comprised Task Force Barker, though only Charlie Company was involved in the massacre. On March 16th, there was no operational plan on paper. There was a general urgency to increase the “body count” faithfully reported on all three network news shows daily and on the front page of American newspapers. It was the only measure by which we were winning the war, so we were beaten over the head with it daily.
“It took twenty months for the American public to learn what Charlie Company had done in a few hours at My Lai 4. […] GIs talk, and brag; the 250 men in the other two companies of Task Force Barker learned within days about what had happened in My Lai 4.” — Seymour M. Hersh, My Lai 4, p. 103
We were told the dead were enemy combatants, while some estimate as many as 1/3rd were civilians. On search and destroy missions like Charlie Company was on that day, the goal was to increase the kill count. The residents of Son My Village were deemed sympathizers of Viet Cong forces and labeled expendable.
“All residents of Son My Village are sympathizers or supporters of the Viet Cong and thus second-class civilians.”
Only one man of the 26 charged was convicted. All the blame fell on platoon leader Lt. William Calley. In September 1969, the public information officer at Fort Benning issued a press release regarding unspecified charges against Lieutenant Calley. A few days later, the Huntley-Brinkley Report informs that Calley is accused of the “premeditated murder of a number of South Vietnamese civilians.” No more was heard for months.
Ronald Ridenhour’s report hit Washington, DC in April, and an investigation began. Two months later, Lieutenant Calley was pulled from Vietnam and ordered to report to Washington, DC. In October, Ridenhour received a letter from the army telling him a hearing on Calley’s murder trial would begin that month; it was suggested he refrain from talking to the media.
“It is not appropriate to report details of the allegations to news media. Your continued cooperation in this matter is acknowledged.”
Independent investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh got wind of the massacre and interviewed Ridenhour; he published his report on November 13, 1969, which ran in 30 newspapers, some of whom previously declined to report the story. On November 17th, the New York Times ran a front-page story including eyewitness accounts. On November 18th, ex-GI Ron Haeberle offered pictures to the Cleveland Plain Dealer who sought confirmation from the Pentagon. The same day, Captain Aubrey Daniels of Fort Benning phoned Haeberle to pressure him into withholding the images. On November 20th, the Cleveland Plain Dealer published an interview with Ron Haeberle along with graphic photos of murdered men, women, and children civilians of Son My Vilage.
On November 25th, the army formally acknowledged Lt. William Calley had been charged with the premeditated murder of 109 civilians. Vietnam veteran Paul Meadlo was interviewed on the CBS Nightly News with Walter Cronkite. Media coverage changed from simply reporting what the Pentagon approved of, and anti-war sentiment, already in full swing, ramped up even more. Still, the focus wasn’t on the atrocities committed by Charlie Company but on the actions of an individual, William Calley, and the number he was accused of killing went from 109 to 22, a more manageable number.
Let’s look at what the Army said about My Lai from the day it occurred. The first press release described it as an ordinary operation.
“In an action today, Americal Division forces killed 128 enemy near Quang Ngai City. Helicopter gunships and artillery missions supported the ground elements throughout the day.”-Army Spokesperson
An initial investigation was conducted by Colonel Oran Henderson, who issued a report claiming 20 civilians were inadvertently killed in the operation, most due to long-range artillery fire. Henderson would be the only high-ranking officer charged with the cover-up of My Lai. He was acquitted.
Tom Glen, a 21-year-old soldier, wrote a letter to General Creighton Adams, describing routine abuse of Vietnamese citizens he’d personally witnessed. Glen concluded his letter with the following concern:
“It would indeed be terrible to find it necessary to believe that an American soldier that harbors such racial intolerance and disregard for justice and human feeling is a prototype of all American national character; yet the frequency of such soldiers lends credulity to such beliefs. … What has been outlined here I have seen not only in my own unit, but also in others we have worked with, and I fear it is universal. If this is indeed the case, it is a problem which cannot be overlooked, but can through a more firm implementation of the codes of MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) and the Geneva Conventions, perhaps be eradicated.” — Tom Glen
Colin Powell, then a 31-year-old Army major serving as an assistant chief of staff of operations for the Americal Division, was charged with investigating the letter.
“In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal Division soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent.” — Colin Powell
In May 2004, when Powell was the United States Secretary of State, he reflected on My Lai:
“I mean, I was in a unit that was responsible for Mỹ Lai. I got there after Mỹ Lai happened. So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they are still to be deplored.” — Colin Powell
Calley’s initial trial lasted four months, during which he constantly claimed he was “following orders of Captain Ernest Medina.” Medina faced a court-martial where he denied participation in the slaughter and only learned of it after it was well underway. He says he only killed one Vietnamese woman who rose from a ditch with her hands up. Medina testified he thought she had a grenade. Medina was acquitted. Thirteen other officers were court-martialed with no convictions.
At long last, Calley was the only person convicted for any part of the My Lai Massacre. He was given a life sentence, which upset many who believed Calley was a scapegoat, some considering him a hero. There was public pressure from citizens and Congress. A Gallup Poll showed 69% of the public thought Calley was a scapegoat. After sentencing, President Nixon ordered Calley to be released from the post stockade and held him under house arrest in the bachelor officer quarters, where he would be while appeals took place. Calley saw his sentence reduced to twenty years, then ten years, until he was released on a final appeal based on time served.
Calley apologizes for role in My Lai massacre
William L. Calley, the only U.S. Army officer convicted in the 1968 slayings of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai, has…
Calley was released on September 24, 1974, after serving over three years on house arrest and three days in the stockade after his conviction. Calley stayed in the Fort Benning area, working for a jewelry store owned by his father-in-law. Three years later, he agreed to speak at a local Kiwanis meeting, where he issued an apology.
“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai, I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.” — William Calley
Was Lieutenant William Calley a scapegoat? Absolutely. Was he innocent? Absolutely not. The story of My Lai says much about multiple aspects of America including its military, politicians, and people. None truly valued Vietnamese lives, therefore refusing to demand punishment. As a nation, we remember Custer’s Last Stand yet have mostly forgotten My Lai. We monitor and condone human rights violations around the world yet hide our own abuses. The seldom-occurring references to My Lai refer to the fatalities but not the rapes. Rapes were barely mentioned then and aren’t now. I thought it an excellent time to remember America’s role in Vietnam as we try to shame others in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Belarus, Ethiopia, Burundi, Eritrea, and a long list of others. I’m not saying violations don’t exist in any or all of these places, but do we have the right to judge without acknowledging our own? We are doomed to repeat the sins of history unless we remember them. Here’s to remembering!
Thanks so much for this important story, William. I wasn't 10 years old yet, but was impressionable like you and read everything in the papers and watched TV. In another year, my family would lose my first cousin at Quang Tin. Twenty five years later, another first cousin would take his life from undiagnosed PTSD from his time in Viet Nam. About ten years after that, another first cousin's husband took his life from his PTSD and Agent Orange exposure in Viet Nam. From everything I have read about the war and the history of the country, we should have never been there in an adversarial capacity. We had the opportunity to assist them with independence from France and for various political reasons, we refused to do so. Look where it got so many. It is a shameful past for us to have put our people over there and a shameful situation at My Lai and so many other places. But William, it is a story that needs to be told over and over.
It would seem you and I are the same age. Of the saturation coverage of the war it is My Lai that stays in my mind along with, perhaps, Khe Sanh. In their different ways both show the absolute folly of the war and its complete pointlessness. I sometimes think war has at its core a sexual impulse and that accounts for the prevalence of rape.
I’m not persuaded that Little Big Horn is remembered because of the massacre but more for the acuity of Sitting Bull and the bravery of Crazy Horse and his warriors.