William Calley was the commander of a very highly respected company of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The Charlie Company was a group of highly trained twenty-somethings with fear in their hearts and assault riffles in their hands. They were ordinary men and boys before they were sent off to the war-torn country of Vietnam and placed through grueling training that left them as thoughtless soldiers that would follow whatever instructions they were given.
The mindlessness of the soldiers was extremely clear when William Calley himself said: "I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job that day. That was the mission I was given. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women, and children. They were all classified as the same, and that's the classification that we dealt with over there, just as the enemy. I felt then and I still do that I acted as I was directed, and I carried out the order that I was given and I do not feel wrong in doing so."
William Calley was the only person convicted in relation to the My Lai Massacre. A year after the massacre, he was found guilty of killing South Vietnamese civilians. Many were outraged that he was the only person that was held responsible for this heinous act. They were even more upset when President Nixon decided that the jury was to be ignored and took Calley out of the prison where he was supposed to spend the rest of his life and placed him under house arrest for the next three and a half years before he was free to go.
This was a terrible act by these American soldiers. Although it was their orders to go and kill these people without thinking, it violated their human rights, and I believe that they could have stopped from doing so. Since Calley felt that it was right, he should have spent his whole life in jail.
ReplyDeleteThis was a time in history where the horrific acts done by Calley can be justified through an act of war. He was definitely let off easier than what he had deserved. Under no circumstances is that violation of these innocent villager's lives should be considered a justifiable cause. The lives that were spilled were villagers who had been unarmed and he should've been convicted for the killing of these South Vietnamese citizens.
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