The fog of war can drive soldiers to commit unspeakable acts. That was surely the case in the My Lai |pronounced Mee Lie| massacre during the Vietnam War. It was March 1968, when Charlie Company soldiers, led by First Lieutenant William Calley, were ordered to destroy the village of My Lai. Military intelligence suggested that the village harbored Viet Cong soldiers and sympathizers.
In fact, there were primarily older men, women and children in the village, and they were unarmed. Calley ordered his men to shoot. What happened next was a horrific slaughter. Calley was court martialed, found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison. But many Americans felt he was being made a scapegoat for the actions of his military superiors.
President Richard Nixon intervened and ordered Calley to be released from prison and placed under house arrest. Reporting on the My Lai massacre and Calley’s conviction were contributing factors in turning American popular opinion against the Vietnam War.
See the Roger Neville Williams papers at UW’s American Heritage Center to learn more about Army Lieutenant William Calley.
For more information, visit the American Heritage Center site.