Finally: Lt. William Calley admits role/apologizes for My Lai massacre

William Calley apologizes for My Lai massacre
By Dick McMichael - Special to the Ledger-Enquirer



William Calley, the former Army lieutenant convicted on 22 counts of murder in the infamous My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, publicly apologized for the first time this week while speaking in Columbus.

“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” Calley told members of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus on Wednesday. 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.”

In March 1968, U.S. soldiers gunned down hundreds of civilians in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai. The Army at first denied, then downplayed the event, saying most of the dead were Vietcong. But in November 1969, journalist Seymour Hersh revealed what really happened and Calley was court martialed and convicted of murder.
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William Calley spoke Wednesday for the first time publicly about the My Lai Massacre at a Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus meeting. Calley had long refused to grant interviews about what happened, but on Wednesday he spoke at a Columbus Kiwanis meeting. He made only a brief statement, but agreed to take questions from the audience.

**more**
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/story/813820.html

I hope some of our Vietnam Vets will (and other Boomers) will add to the story for our younger DUers, including the very familiar role of the RW (including Powell) to whitewash the whole event under Nixon.

and disobeying an illegal order as he was required to do by UCMJ. There is no court martial anywhere that would have convicted him of disobeying orders once it was discovered that those orders were illegal.

But then, everything I've read about this ham hock suggests he was way out of his depth as an officer.

He moved right up the Repug chain for his work on the Mai Li whitewash.

Why is William Calley apologizing now? Is he dying, pre-death bed confession?

Powell should at the very least apologize for his not-very-honorable role.

That passive voice - "I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry."

He didn't apologize. Look carefully at his words. He "feel(s) remorse" for what happened and the parties involved. He is "very sorry."

An apology sounds like this: "I am sorry for what I did."

As long as he couches it in the passive voice, he's still framing himself as an innocent bystander, someone who just watched what happened, but didn't actually play a part in the event.

Fuck him....................................

Why is he not in prison?

Because Nixon was never going to let him serve a day of his sentence and he stepped in to make certain. Sound familiar to another murderous and murder-condoning recent former president, anyone?


Now, take note of my sigline... Please.....

He was convicted as a war criminal. He served what seems to be minimal time for murder. My Lai was a horrible event.
The Lt. allowed (more like facilitated?) the soldiers in his command to go criminal.



The Vietnam War was nothing if not absolute insanity for those of us who served there. Amidst that insanity, the worst possibilities of human nature were indeed realized by US military personnel.

The big philosophical "B.L.A.M.E." belongs to the national leaders who promoted that event and the changes it made in a million or so lives... The nitty-gritty "we've got you by the balls" blame for that atrocity belongs to former Lt. William Calley.

But I gotta say, as a person trained to be a teletype repairman, and serving as one scared shitless QRF member in the middle of an October night, I think I was very likely just as guilty for lobbing illumination rounds that created the "shadows" of enemy movement beyond my perimeter that resulted in a couple of thousand rounds of small arms fire into the village next door.

I really don't think a person can actively participate in the truth of war and come away without the feeling he/she contributed to very, very terrible things. When society denies that it denies the cause of PTSD.

American socity needed, and still seems to need, to deny that their choice to put Lt. Calley in My Lai contributed to his loss of control of his command and his sanity.

after being convicted of 22 counts of premeditated murder.

Of the others of us perpetuate. Friends don't let friends drink and kill.

It is this easy "Thou shalt not kill."

And once the Nation sets up a theatre of war, with all the trappings, including someone like you, doing the best they can, under the reality of Hell, the inevitable atrocities occur.

That is why there must not be WAR.

Anytime the Repugs and right are involved in war they justify it with communism, terrorism or whatever ism is applicable. They do not care about the soldiars, the families of the soldiars, the innocent victims such as those in Mai Li. They are soulus bastards who only have their self interest and their political power in mind.

The previous president who ruled for 8 years had his mind set on attacking and invading Iraq years before he stole the election. It was premeditated, he wanted to outshine hid father. So the truth is the Iraq war was started to satisfy is daddy complex......

What a pathetic lot, I hope that the lives that have been lost haunt them to their last breath.

He has a lot to be sorry for.

lol

:hi:

Justice or something?

I hope the fucker rots in Hell. And if God forgives his sins you can bet I won't.

Harsh.

Poor, evil *.

I can't remember how long that lasted for sure, but it was 3 years or so, I believe. Not bad for killing over a hundred women and children, huh? :puke:

Is there a logical reason for the discrepancy?

I had some of it right at least.

On April 1, 1971, only a day after Calley was sentenced, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered him transferred from prison to house arrest at Fort Benning, pending appeal.
--
Ultimately, Calley served only three and a half years of house arrest in his quarters at Fort Benning.

Those are the parts I got right, but there's a lot more to the whole ordeal. Sorry for any confusion I caused, but that's my specialty. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley

On a related note, I expect it will take take 20-30 years to sort out the atrocities happening *today* in our war theaters.

Send a bunch of kids, with guns, to difficult areas, and horrible things will happen.

:mad:

The guilty may not always be officially punished.

They will, however, often have a lifetime of horror visited upon them, along with everybody they served with.

the latter i hope

Probably still looking out for himself, thinking if he apologizes now he'll get into heaven.

(I'm a little cynical about folks who wait 40 years to apologize for mass murder)

<snip>

Hugh C. Thompson, Jr. (April 15, 1943 – January 6, 2006) was a United States Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. He is chiefly known for his role in curtailing the My Lai Massacre, in which several hundred unarmed civilians were killed by soldiers of the U.S. Army.



In the early morning hours of March 16, 1968, Thompson's OH-23 encountered no enemy fire over My Lai 4. Spotting two possible Viet Cong suspects, he forced the Vietnamese men to surrender and flew them off for a tactical interrogation. Thompson also marked the location of several wounded Vietnamese with green smoke, a signal that they needed help.

Returning to the My Lai area at around 0900 after refueling, he noticed that the people he had marked were now dead. Out in a paddy field beside a dike 200 meters south of the village, he marked the location of a wounded young Vietnamese woman. Thompson and his crew watched from a low hover as Captain Ernest Medina (CO, C Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment) came up to the woman, prodded her with his foot, and then shot and killed her.

Thompson then flew over an irrigation ditch filled with dozens of bodies. Shocked at the sight, he radioed his accompanying gunships, knowing his transmission would be monitored by many on the radio net: "It looks to me like there's an awful lot of unnecessary killing going on down there. Something ain't right about this. There's bodies everywhere. There's a ditch full of bodies that we saw. There's something wrong here."<2>

Movement from the ditch indicated to Thompson that there were still people alive in there. Thompson landed his helicopter and dismounted. David Mitchell, a sergeant and squad leader in 1st Platoon, C Company, walked over to him. When asked by Thompson whether any help could be provided to the people in the ditch, the sergeant replied that the only way to help them was to put them out of their misery. Second Lieutenant William Calley (CO, 1st Platoon, C Company) then came up, and the two had the following conversation:<3>

Thompson: What's going on here, Lieutenant?

Calley: This is my business.

Thompson: What is this? Who are these people?

Calley: Just following orders.

Thompson: Orders? Whose orders?

Calley: Just following...

Thompson: But, these are human beings, unarmed civilians, sir.

Calley: Look Thompson, this is my show. I'm in charge here. It ain't your concern.

Thompson: Yeah, great job.

Calley: You better get back in that chopper and mind your own business.

Thompson: You ain't heard the last of this!

Thompson took off again, and Andreotta reported that Mitchell was now executing the people in the ditch. Furious, Thompson flew over the northeast corner of the village and spotted a group of about ten civilians, including children, running toward a homemade bomb shelter. Pursuing them were soldiers from the 2nd Platoon, C Company. Realizing that the soldiers intended to murder the Vietnamese, Thompson landed his aircraft between them and the villagers. Thompson turned to Colburn and Andreotta and told them that if the Americans began shooting at the villagers or him, they should fire their M60 machine guns at the Americans:<4> "Y'all cover me! If these bastards open up on me or these people, you open up on them. Promise me!" He then dismounted to confront the 2nd Platoon's leader, Stephen Brooks. Thompson told him he wanted help getting the peasants out of the bunker:<5>

Thompson: Hey listen, hold your fire. I'm going to try to get these people out of this bunker. Just hold your men here.

Brooks: Yeah, we can help you get 'em out of that bunker - with a hand grenade!

Thompson: Just hold your men here. I think I can do better than that.

Brooks declined to argue with him, even though as a commissioned officer he outranked Thompson.

After coaxing the 11 Vietnamese out of the bunker, Thompson persuaded the pilots of the two UH-1 Huey gunships (Dan Millians and Brian Livingstone) flying as his escort to evacuate them. While Thompson was returning to base to refuel, Andreotta spotted movement in an irrigation ditch filled with approximately 100 bodies. The helicopter again landed and the men dismounted to search for survivors. After wading through the remains of the dead and dying men, women and children, Andreotta extracted a live boy. Thompson flew the survivor to the ARVN hospital in Quang Ngai.

Upon returning back to their base at about 1100, Thompson heatedly reported the massacre to his superiors. His allegations of civilian killings quickly reached Lieutenant Colonel Frank Barker, the operation's overall commander. Barker radioed his executive officer to find out from Captain Medina what was happening on the ground. Medina then gave the cease-fire order to Charlie Company to "knock off the killing".

<snip>

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson,_Jr.

:patriot:

Thompson and his crew, they are real American heroes. They saw an injustice, an outright atrocity being committed and they intervened and stopped it, regardless of the fact it was there own side. I pray that all our men and women in uniform to this very day, would take the same action Thompson did if they were in his shoes. I know that in Iraq and Afghanistan, there have been incidents where this has not been the case, but I firmly believe that they are the exception and Thompson is the rule. :patriot:

the part about his being called to testify before congress--only to have a southern warhawk congressman (unfortunately, a DINO) accuse him of lying and trying to get Thompson court martialed! Damn.... this crap was so reminescent of the RW crap pulled during Bush*.

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill
Hey Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill

He went out tiger hunting with his elephant and gun
In case of accidents he always took his mom
He's the all American bullet-headed Saxon mother's son
All the children sing

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill
Hey Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill

Deep in the jungle where the mighty tiger lies
Bill and his elephants were taken by surprise
So Captain Marval zapped him right between the eyes
All the children sing

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill
Hey Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill

The children asked him if to kill was not a sin
"Not when he looked so fierce" his mommy butted in
If looks could kill it would have been us instead of him
All the children sing

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill
Hey Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill
Hey Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill
Hey Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill
Hey Bungalow Bill
What did you kill, Bungalow Bill

{Note: For young folks who wondered what John Lennon was singing about in this White Album song, now you know.)

Does he actually expect any forgiveness for what he did? How dare he even bring this up in a public forum like he'd made a "mistake" or an "error in judgment".

I was riding on a bus when I read about My Lai. I was pregnant with my first child and I remember becoming violently ill after reading about the slaughter of children and babies. It is as incomprehensible today, as it was then. I had been brought up with the image of American soldiers in Europe liberating those who had been oppressed and enslaved by the Nazis. "We" were the good guys and now we had become "them", those we claimed to abhor.

I guess that was the beginning of the end of the "Age of Innocence" for me and for so many of my generation.