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William Calley, the only man convicted of one of the worst war crimes in US history – the My Lai massacre – apologizes.
“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai, “ William Calley told members of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus today. His voice started to break when he added, “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.”
I find it difficult if not impossible to feel anything but moral outrage over Mr. Calley and his hallow words when reminded of what happened at My Lai on that day.
The Wikipedia entry…
The My Lai Massacre was the mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16, 1968 of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children, and elderly people.
Many of the victims were sexually abused, beaten, tortured, and some of the bodies were found mutilated. The massacre took place in the hamlets of My Lai and My Khe of Son My village during the Vietnam War. While 26 US soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at My Lai, only William Calley was convicted. He served only three years of an original life sentence, while on house arrest.
When the incident became public knowledge in 1969, it prompted widespread outrage around the world. The massacre also reduced U.S. support at home for the Vietnam War. Three U.S. servicemen who made an effort to halt the massacre and protect the wounded were denounced by U.S. Congressmen, received hate mail, death threats and mutilated animals on their doorsteps. Only 30 years after the event were their efforts honored.
I’ll choose to believe that the vast majority of men and women who serve in the Armed Forces are decent people out to do a job. It’s the William Calleys as are the people behind Abu Ghraib who are a disgrace to the country. The following from the comment section expresses it well:
I was also stressed when I served as an infantryman with the 25th Division in 1968, but I never understood how an American soldier could have participated in the large scale killings than occurred that day in My Lai. Awful things occur during battle, of course. But for me, I would have rather put a bullet in my own head than push dozens women and children into a ditch and shooting them. Calley, his chain of command, and the others responsible should have paid for their crimes.
Your thoughts?
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I hadn’t thought of My Lai in years. I remember the rage I felt when the news broke out and even more so when the only person convicted of a crime was William Calley.
I was not familiar with this story. It makes me so sad to think that Americans can do such terrible things to others. Where was the justice for these innocent people? How can we justify these actions? I guess they justify this the same way they justified Abu Ghraib.
I remember it when it happened and the older I get the more I believe in redemption and forgiveness. Calley can never ‘make right’ what he did, but we all do things we would rather we hadn’t. It’s just a matter of scale and I prefer to forgive Calley the Pan Am bomber, Ted Kennedy, John McCain…
Forgiveness doesn’t rely on forgetfulness.
@Sandi
I respect your sentiment and in most cases, I’d agree with you. What makes My Lai exceptional is that it was not a spur of the moment act. It was planned and it was brutal involving women and children and mutilation of bodies.
I’d like to get to where you are but on this one, I’m not sure I can.
Are you saying the action was planned, or the cover up was planned? I would agree the cover up was planned. But apparently the killings were retaliatory or revenge motivated for injuries and deaths sustained in an earlier ambush attack.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/vietnam/vietnam_mylai.cfm
“Charlie Company had suffered 28 casualties, including five dead. Just two days before the massacre, on March 14, a “C” Company squadron encountered a booby trap, killing a popular sergeant, blinding one GI and wounding several others.”
Anyway you look at it, it’s a sad chapter in American History.
I think the entire Vietnam War was a sad chapter in American history.
It wasn’t mothers,children and the elderly that killed the members of Charlie Company but rather the vietnamese army. Americans take revenge on soldiers not citizens. This is the hideous part of war where brain functions cease to exist and our animal nature takes over. Every minute of your life in a war zone is under pressure of loss of life and you can often lose it psychologically. What makes people human is their ability to handle the situation and go beyond the revenge angle in a reasoned direction.
How Caley did not serve life in jail is beyond me but I guess Vietnamese lives were as insignificant as the slaves of old.
Jovial, I wasn’t trying to excuse it. I was just giving information.
But I would take exception to your statement, “Americans take revenge on soldiers not citizens.” Revenge should not be a consideration under any circumstances.
“No poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making other bastards die for their country.” General George Patton
I simply do not understand why it took William Calley over 40 decades to finally issue a public apology. Why now? Most of us have forgotten about it, he’s only bringing back painful memories and resentment towards the American soldiers during this time. I am not justifying his actions nor am I saying that his apology is unneccessary. I am appalled that he says he feels “remorse”. Remorse is your only choice of word for killing so many unarmed innocents? As Mario had stated above, I too believe that most soldiers are just doing their job. Unfortunately, I’m sure William Calley’s job did not include mutilating, torturing, and raping victims before murdering them.