March 29, 1971…Lieutenant William Calley was convicted of murder for his role in the March 1968 My Lai massacre, which left hundreds of Vietnamese civilians dead. Calley ordered the men of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, American Division to shoot everyone in the village. He himself rounded up a group of villagers, ordered them into a ditch, and then mowed them down with machine gun fire. Sentenced to life in prison, Calley was seen as a scapegoat for the Army's failure to instill morale and discipline in its troops. Upon appeal, his sentence was reduced. He was eventually released from prison in 1974. He later found work in the insurance business.
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Note: I remember having a conversation with Dad about this part of the war one day. I remember thinking how could someone do what Lt. Calley had been convicted for. Dad told me it's very easy to pass judgment on someone like that when you are not in that situation of war. There were times when Dad had to stand guard duty outside the hotel that he lived in while in Saigon. It was a circular bunkard made up of sand bags up to a certain height that was supposed to protect the guard from gunfire. However, it could also be a deathtrap if someone road by on a motorcycle. That motorcycle could be driven by a woman and have a small child on the back. You wouldn't think that could be a bad combination until the child dropped a grenade into the safety bunkard and killed someone like my dad while on guard duty.
In the insanity of war how can we judge how someone might react out of fear for their life or the lives of others who serve with them. Yes, killing is wrong. Yes, killing of women and children and unarmed people is wrong. However, in the split seconds of war, who actually gets the change to interrogate civilians to make sure they are "friendlies"?
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March 29, 1973…The last American troops left South Vietnam.
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