Whatever happened to Lt. Calley?

[Saint_Cad]

@sailor

There’s two right here in this thread.

Sorry, what I meant was no one I personally know alive at that time that excuses what Calley did. On SD I tend to dismiss the first 3 people that hold a contrarian views because they are usually trolls or idiots.

[aceplace57]

It’s not a simple issue. Viet Nam was a quagmire. The Vietcong were experts in blending into the villages. The same guys and women you saw working in the rice fields would be ambushing you the next day.

Some of the people Calley and the others killed were Vietcong. Others were innocent non combatants.

He was convicted of murder and spent time in prison. He committed crimes and deserved punishment. But I also understand the pressures he and the other soldiers were under and their youth and inexperience. These men had a shortened boot camp and were shipped straight into war. These young men were in a war they wanted no part of. They were drafted and forced to serve. Inexperience and lack of training got many of them killed.

[aceplace57]

The Calley wiki has links to the helicopter crew that reported the killing and saved some lives. They were witnesses at the trial and helped convict Calley.

Glenn Andreotta

Upon returning 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”.

[sailor]

@aceplace57

It’s not a simple issue. Viet Nam was a quagmire. The Vietcong were experts in blending into the villages. The same guys and women you saw working in the rice fields would be ambushing you the next day.

Some of the people Calley and the others killed were Vietcong. Others were innocent non combatants.

He killed innocent women and children knowing exactly what he was doing and he was convicted in a court of law which considered every excuse there was to consider and he was sentenced to life in prison and, in effect, he served none of it because of the clamor of the American public who wanted him free.

[aceplace57]

The other men in the helicopter crew.

Lawrence Colburn

Americal commanders were initially successful in covering up the massacre. Somewhat perversely (based on how the incident was falsified), all of Thompson’s crew received decorations for their actions at My Lai, with Colburn receiving the Bronze Star with “V” Device device on May 14, 1968. An account of the action was fabricated for the document accompanying the decoration, and Thompson’s signature was forged on the eyewitness report.

On December 20, 1969, Colburn testified to the Peers Commission on what he has seen on March 16, 1968 in Mai Ly

Hugh Thompson Jr. - Wikipedia.

Thompson made an official report of the killings, and was interviewed by Colonel Oran Henderson, the commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade (the parent organization of the 20th Infantry).[11] Concerned, senior American officers cancelled similar planned operations by Task Force Barker against other villages (My Lai 5, My Lai 1, etc.) in Quang Ngai Province, possibly preventing the additional massacre of hundreds, if not thousands, of Vietnamese civilians.
<snip>
When news of the massacre publicly broke, Thompson repeated his account to then-Colonel William Wilson [15] and then-Lieutenant General William Peers during their official Pentagon investigations.[16] In late 1969, Thompson was summoned to Washington DC and appeared before a special closed hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. There, he was sharply criticized by Congressmen, in particular Chairman Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.), who were anxious to play down allegations of a massacre by American troops.[

[Colibri]

@Saint_Cad

On SD I tend to dismiss the first 3 people that hold a contrarian views because they are usually trolls or idiots.

Moderator Warning

Given that this is clearly directed at other posters in this thread, even if you did not name them specifically, I’m giving you a warning for insulting other posters. Don’t do this again.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[Colibri]

Since this discussion has moved beyond “where is Lt. Calley now” to discussions of his actions and their aftermath (and was hijacked beginning with the third post), let’s moved this to Great Debates.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[Saint_Cad]

@Colibri

Moderator Warning

Given that this is clearly directed at other posters in this thread, even if you did not name them specifically, I’m giving you a warning for insulting other posters. Don’t do this again.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

Actually it was more generally directed toward to some of the posters on the board that always seem to take an opposing view in any thread they’re in just to be contrary and not necessarily people in this thread.

[kaylasdad99]

@handsomeharry

We seem to forget things like Dresden and Hiroshima, where we kill thousands of civilians with blockbuster bombs, but, when we kill** 22** civilians with rifles and pistols, we demand trials and punishment.
War ain’t good. If we’re in it, there’s going to be breakage, and it isn’t pleasant.
Where is the line between good and bad drawn, in a war?
We can talk right and wrong all day long, but, unless you’re in it, talk is cheap.

I’m only going to address that number there.

Up to 500 villagers died that day.

The specifics of the charges faced by the lieutenant were that he personally killed 109 of them.

The verdict at his court-martial was that he was guilty of the premeditated murder of 22 of those.

The phrase “but, when we kill 22 civilians with rifles and pistols” tends to obfuscate the other numbers.

Personally, I don’t think those numbers should be obfuscated.

[Saint_Cad]

So why no one else convicted of anything for those other 391 or 478 (depending on your counting) deaths?

[BrainGlutton]

He joined the FBI and he and colleague Eichmann ultimately were recruited by Hagbard Celine and converted to Discordianism.

[Lemur866]

@aceplace57

Some of the people Calley and the others killed were Vietcong. Others were innocent non combatants.

Uh huh.

“Anyone who runs, is a VC. Anyone who stands still, is a well-disciplined VC!”

And now we wonder how in hell we lost in Vietnam, what with all the work we did granting them freedom and everything. Sorry we massacred a bunch of innocent women and children, but them’s the breaks. Can’t make an omelet without burning down a village in order to save it, right?

[Hank_Beecher]

@Lemur866

Uh huh.

“Anyone who runs, is a VC. Anyone who stands still, is a well-disciplined VC!”

And now we wonder how in hell we lost in Vietnam, what with all the work we did granting them freedom and everything. Sorry we massacred a bunch of innocent women and children, but them’s the breaks. Can’t make an omelet without burning down a village in order to save it, right?

Not without drones.

[BrainGlutton]

@kaylasdad99

The specifics of the charges faced by the lieutenant were that he personally killed 109 of them.

!!! How many rounds of ammo did GIs carry then/there?!