On March 29, 1971, Lt. William L. Calley is found guilty
of premeditated murder by a U.S. Army court-martial at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Calley, a platoon leader, had led his men in a massacre of 200 Vietnamese
civilians at My Lai, including women and children on March 16, 1968. My Lai 4, was
a cluster of hamlets in Quang Ngai Province of Vietnam. The unit had been
conducting a search-and-destroy mission to locate local Viet Cong forces. The
unit entered Son My village but found only women, children, and elderly. Frustrated
by recent casualties, the U.S. soldiers took out their anger on the villagers,
indiscriminately shooting people as they ran from their huts. The soldiers
rounded up the survivors and led them to a nearby ditch where they were shot. During
the trial, Chief Army prosecutor Capt. Aubrey Daniel charged that Calley
ordered Sgt. Daniel Mitchell to "finish off the rest" of the
villagers. The prosecution stressed that all the killings were committed
despite the fact that Calley’s platoon had met no resistance and that he and
his men had not been fired upon. Initially, the massacre was covered up but
came to light one year later. An Army board of inquiry, headed by Lt. Gen.
William Peers, investigated the massacre and produced a list of 30 people who
knew of the atrocity, but only 14 were charged with crimes. All eventually had
their charges dismissed or were acquitted with the exception of Calley, who was
found guilty of personally murdering 22, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
His sentence was reduced to 20 years by the Court of Military Appeals and
further reduced later to 10 years by the Secretary of the Army. Proclaimed by
much of the public as a "scapegoat," Calley was paroled in 1974 after
having served about a third of his 10-year sentence.
His book can be purchased at Amazon through the following
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