An Apology for My Lai, Four Decades Later

[3 articles]

Vietnam massacre soldier 'sorry'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8215556.stm

22 August 2009

The US army officer convicted for his part in the notorious My Lai
massacre during the Vietnam War has offered his first public apology,
a US report says.

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what
happened," Lt William Calley was quoted as saying by the Columbus
Ledger-Enquirer.

He was addressing a small group at a community club in Columbus, Georgia.

Calley, 66, was convicted on 22 counts of murder for the 1968
massacre of 500 men, women and children in Vietnam.

Cold blood

"I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their
families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am
very sorry," the former US platoon commander said on Wednesday.

He was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killings in
1971. Then-US President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to three
years' house arrest.

But Calley insisted that he was only following orders, the paper reported.

He broke his silence after accepting a friend's invitation to speak
at the weekly meeting of the Kiwanis Club, a US-based global
voluntary organisation.

At the time of the killings, the US soldiers had been on a "search
and destroy" mission to root out communist fighters in what was
fertile Viet Cong territory.

Although the enemy was nowhere to be seen, the US soldiers of Charlie
Company rounded up unarmed civilians and gunned them down.

When the story of My Lai was exposed, more than a year later, it
tarnished the name of the US army and proved to be a turning point
for public opinion about the Vietnam War.

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An Apology for My Lai, Four Decades Later

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/an-apology-for-my-lai-four-decades-later/?hp

By Robert Mackey
August 24, 2009

Last week, William Calley, the only American soldier to be held
legally responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese
civilians in and around the village of My Lai in 1968 by a platoon
under his command, apologized for the first time.

Under the headline "An Emotional William Calley Says He Is Sorry,"
Dick McMichael, a former television news anchor in Columbus, Ga.,
broke the news last Wednesday on his blog:

"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."

Mr. Calley, 66, spoke just miles from Fort Benning, where he was
convicted in 1971 of murdering "no less than 22 Vietnamese civilians
of undetermined age and sex and assault with intent to murder one
Vietnamese child," during a three-hour raid on the village of My Lai
on March 16, 1968. The former lieutenant served just three years,
largely under house arrest, after his original life sentence was
reduced by the Army.

Just before Mr. Calley was released in 1974, Linda Greenhouse
reported in The New York Times that three months in a prison barracks
had been "his only prolonged incarceration." As Ms. Greenhouse wrote,
powerful supporters intervened as soon as he was sentenced in 1971:

Three days after the conviction President Nixon ordered him released
form the stockade at Fort Benning, Ga., and placed under house arrest
in a comfortable two-bedroom apartment. There he received frequent
visits from a staff of secretaries and a steady female companion.

The governor of Georgia at the time, Jimmy Carter, called Mr. Calley
a "scapegoat." Ms. Greenhouse also reported:

In the days immediately following his conviction, there were public
demonstrations on his behalf, and a song about him became a hit
record. "My name is William Calley, I'm a soldier of this land," the
song began. "I've vowed to do my duty and to gain the upper hand. But
they've made me out a villain, they have stamped me with a brand."

200,000 copies of the record were sold in the three days Mr. Calley's
conviction. A few months later, The Times noted: "A Harvard survey of
public attitudes toward First Lieut. William L. Calley Jr. has found
that two-thirds of those questioned said that most people would shoot
unarmed civilians if ordered to do so."

Mr. Calley has refused to speak to the media for decades. His
appearance at the Kiwanis Club was organized by Al Fleming, the
incoming president of the chapter who has been friends with Mr.
Calley for years. In an interview with NPR's Robert Siegal on Friday
(embedded below), Mr. Fleming said that Mr. Calley told the group "I
did what they say I did," but also maintained that he was following orders.

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US veteran apologises for My Lai massacre

http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/life/250809/life_us.htm

August 25, 2009

A US veteran, the only officer convicted after the mass killings in
My Lai in the central province of Quang Ngai, Vietnam, in 1968, has
made a public apology to victims and their families for the first
time, the foreign media reported.

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what
happened that day in My Lai," former lieutenant William Calley told
members of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus, Georgia.

"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 added.

Calley, 66, had long refused to grant interviews about the My Lai
massacre. At the rare meeting with the media at the club, Calley
finally did not deny what happened in My Lai. He earlier insisted he
just obey the order.

On March 16, 1968, the US soldiers conducted a raid and gunned down
504 civilians, most of them being women and children, in My Lai
hamlet, Son Tinh district, Quang Ngai province.

The massacre did not become known to public until November 1969, when
journalist Seymour Hersh revealed the story and Calley was
court-martialed near Fort Benning.

After a 10-month long trial, Calley was sentenced to life
imprisonment, but he was freed after three years when then US
President Ricahrd Nixon intervened.

Most of soldiers in connection with the mass killings had been
demobilised when the court was taking place, so they were exempt from
prosecution under the US law. Among 26 defendants, only Calley was convicted.

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