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William Laws Calley Jr. (born June 8, 1943) is a former American army officer and war criminal convicted by
court-martial A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
for the premeditated killings of 200 to 400 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the
Mỹ Lai massacre The Mỹ Lai massacre (; vi, Thảm sát Mỹ Lai ) was the mass murder of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians by United States troops in Sơn Tịnh District, South Vietnam, on 16 March 1968 during the Vietnam War. Between 347 and 504 unarme ...
on March 16, 1968, during the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. Calley was released to
house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if al ...
under orders by President
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
three days after his conviction. A new trial was ordered by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * Eastern District of Louisiana * ...
but that ruling was overturned by the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
. Calley served three years of house arrest for the murders. Public opinion about Calley was divided.


Early life and education

Calley was born in
Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
. His father, William Laws Calley Sr., was a
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
veteran of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. Calley Jr. graduated from Miami Edison High School in Miami and then attended Palm Beach Junior College in 1963. He dropped out in 1964. Calley then had a variety of jobs before enlistment, including as a
bellhop A bellhop (North America), or hotel porter (carrier), porter (international), is a hotel employee who helps patrons with their luggage while check-in, checking in or out. Bellhops often wear a uniform (see bell-boy hat), like certain other Page (a ...
, dishwasher, salesman, insurance appraiser, and train conductor.Loh, Jules.
Average Guy Calley Found Niche in Army
, ''
Pacific Stars and Stripes ''Stars and Stripes'' is a daily American military newspaper reporting on matters concerning the members of the United States Armed Forces and their communities, with an emphasis on those serving outside the United States. It operates from insi ...
'', December 1, 1969. 25th Aviation Battalion,
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...
.


Career

Calley underwent eight weeks of basic combat training at
Fort Bliss Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of William Wallace Smith Bliss, LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President ...
, Texas, followed by eight weeks of advanced individual training as a company clerk at Fort Lewis, Washington. Having scored high enough on his Armed Forces Qualification tests, he applied for and was accepted into
Officer Candidate School An officer candidate school (OCS) is a military school which trains civilians and enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a commission as officers in the armed forces of a country. How OCS is run differs between countries and services. Ty ...
(OCS). He then began 26 weeks of junior officer training at
Fort Benning Fort Benning is a United States Army post near Columbus, Georgia, adjacent to the Alabama– Georgia border. Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees and civilian employee ...
in mid-March 1967. Upon graduating from OCS Class No. 51 on September 7, 1967, he was commissioned a
second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army unt ...
in the
infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...
. He was assigned to 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st
Battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...
, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Infantry Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division "The Americal Division" , and began training at
Schofield Barracks Schofield Barracks is a United States Army installation and census-designated place (CDP) located in the City and County of Honolulu and in the Wahiawa District of the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Hawaii. Schofield Barracks lies adjacent to the t ...
,
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, in preparation for deployment to
South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
. Calley's evaluations described him as average as an officer. Later, as the My Lai investigation progressed, a more negative picture emerged. Men in his platoon reported to Army investigators that Calley lacked common sense and could not read a map or compass properly. In May or June 1969 near Chu Lai Base Area, Calley and two other
Americal Division The Americal Division was an infantry division of the United States Army during World War II and the Vietnam War. The division was activated 27 May 1942 on the island of New Caledonia. In the immediate emergency following Pearl Harbor, the Un ...
officers were in a jeep that passed a jeep containing five Marines. The Army jeep pulled the Marines over and one Army officer told the Marines "You soldiers better square away!" One of the Marines replied, "We ain't soldiers, motherfucker, we're Marines!" The Army lieutenants dismounted for further discussion of the matter. The ensuing fight ended only after one of the officers pulled his pistol and fired a round into the air. Two of the officers were briefly hospitalized while Calley was merely beaten up. The Marines pled guilty at special courts-martial, in each of which it was stipulated they had not known the soldiers had been officers.


Mỹ Lai Massacre

In March of 1968 Calley and his men arrived at the village of Mỹ Lai where they murdered hundreds of elderly men, women, children, and infants from allied South Vietnam. In addition, he and his men gang-raped many of the women, some as young as 12 years old, before mutilating them, even stopping to have lunch before resuming their slaughter. Calley would later state in court about the deaths, claiming an air strike killed the innocent civilians. There was no sign of enemy combatants in Mỹ Lai when he and his men arrived.


Murder trial

The events in My Lai were initially covered up by the U.S. Army.Linder, Douglas. "The My Lai Massacre Trial", ''Jurist''. March 2000. In April 1969, nearly 13 months after the massacre, Ron Ridenhour, a GI who had been with the 11th Brigade, wrote letters to the President, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and 30 members of Congress. In these letters, Ridenhour described some of the atrocities committed by the soldiers at My Lai that he had been told about. Calley was charged on September 5, 1969, with six specifications of
premeditated murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...
for the deaths of 109 South Vietnamese civilians near the village of Sơn Mỹ, at a
hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
called Mỹ Lai, called simply "My Lai" in the United States press. As many as 500 villagers – mostly women, children, infants, and the elderly – had been systematically killed by U.S. soldiers during a bloody rampage on March 16, 1968. Upon conviction, Calley could have faced the death penalty. On November 12, 1969, investigative reporters
Seymour Hersh Seymour Myron "Sy" Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American Investigative journalism, investigative journalist and political writer. Hersh first gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam Wa ...
and Wayne Greenhaw broke the story and revealed that Calley had been charged with murdering 109 South Vietnamese. Calley's trial started on November 17, 1970. It was the military prosecution's contention that Calley, in defiance of the rules of engagement, ordered his men to deliberately murder unarmed Vietnamese civilians, even though his men were not under enemy fire at all. Testimony revealed that Calley had ordered the men of 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry of the 23rd Infantry Division to kill everyone in the village. In presenting the case, the two military prosecutors, Aubrey M. Daniel III and John Partin, were hamstrung by the reluctance of many soldiers to testify against Calley. In addition, President Richard M. Nixon made public statements prior to the trial that were prejudicial to the defense, resulting in a letter from Daniel taking the President to task. Some soldiers refused to answer questions point-blank on the witness stand by citing the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. One holdout, Private First Class Paul David Meadlo, having been granted immunity, was ordered by Judge Reid W. Kennedy to testify or face contempt of court charges. Meadlo thus took the stand and recounted that as he stood guard over some 30 villagers whom he, along with Private Dennis Conti, had gathered at a defoliated area at the hamlet's southern tip, he was approached by Calley and told, regarding the civilians, "You know what to do with 'em". Meadlo took that as orders to only keep watch over them. Calley, however, returned 10 minutes later and became enraged by the fact that the villagers were still alive. After telling Meadlo that he had wanted them dead, Calley backed up about 20 feet, opened fire on them himself and ordered Meadlo to join in, which he did. Meadlo then proceeded to round up more villagers to be massacred. Conti's testimony corroborated that given by Meadlo, and laid the blame on Calley not only for the initiation of the massacre but also for the participation in it by his subordinates. Another witness, Leonard Gonzalez, told of finding seven women, all naked, all dead, killed by several M-79 grenade launcher rounds. Calley's original defense, that the death of the villagers was the result of an accidental
airstrike An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The off ...
, was overcome by prosecution witnesses. In his new defense, Calley claimed he was following the orders of his immediate superior,
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
Ernest Medina. Whether this order was actually given is disputed; Medina was acquitted of all charges relating to the incident at a separate trial in August 1971. Taking the witness stand, Calley, under the direct examination by his civilian defense lawyer
George W. Latimer George Webster Latimer (November 28, 1900 – May 3, 1990) was a Utah lawyer best known for representing Lt. William Calley Jr. in his court martial for the My Lai incident. Latimer was also a justice of the Utah Supreme Court from 1946 to 1951 an ...
, claimed that on the previous day, his commanding officer, Captain Medina, made it clear that his unit was to move into the village and that everyone was to be shot, saying that they all were
Viet Cong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...
. Medina publicly denied that he had ever given such orders and stated that he had meant enemy soldiers, while Calley assumed that his order to "kill the enemy" meant to kill ''everyone''. On direct examination during his court martial, Calley stated: The prosecution called over 100 witnesses to testify against Calley during the trial. After President Nixon intervened in the trial, the assistant prosecutor, Captain Partin, wrote a letter to the White House saying that the presidential intervention had "degraded" and "defiled" the military justice system. After deliberating for 79 hours, the six-officer jury (five of whom had served in Vietnam) convicted him on March 29, 1971, of the premeditated murder of 22 South Vietnamese civilians. On March 31, 1971, Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor at
Fort Leavenworth Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., and the oldest perma ...
, which includes the
United States Disciplinary Barracks The United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB) colloquially known as Leavenworth, is a military correctional facility located on Fort Leavenworth, a United States Army post in Kansas. It is one of three major prisons built on Fort Leavenwo ...
, the
Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...
's only
maximum security prison Maximum security prisons and supermax prisons are grades of high security level used by prison systems in various countries, which pose a higher level of security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwan ...
. Calley was the only one convicted of the 26 officers and soldiers initially charged for their part in the Mỹ Lai massacre or the subsequent cover-up. Many observers saw My Lai as a direct result of the military's attrition strategy with its emphasis on
body count A body count is the total number of people killed in a particular event. In combat, a body count is often based on the number of confirmed kills, but occasionally only an estimate. Often used in reference to military combat, the term can also r ...
s and kill ratios. Many in the United States were outraged by what they perceived to be an overly harsh sentence for Calley.
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
's Governor,
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
, future
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...
, instituted American Fighting Man's Day, and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on.
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
's Governor
Edgar Whitcomb Edgar Doud Whitcomb (November 6, 1917 – February 4, 2016) was an American attorney, writer and politician, who served as the 43rd governor of Indiana. His term as governor began a major rift in the Indiana Republican Party as urban Republica ...
asked that all state flags be flown at half-staff for Calley, and the governors of Utah and Mississippi also publicly disagreed with the verdict. The legislatures of
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
,
Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...
,
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
,
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
, and
South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...
requested clemency for Calley. Alabama's governor,
George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist a ...
, visited Calley in the stockade and requested that President
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
pardon him. After the conviction, the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
received over 5,000 telegrams; the ratio was 100 to 1 in favor of leniency.Cookman, Claude, ''Journal of American History'' (June 2007), Vol. 94, Issue 1, pp. 154–62 In a telephone survey of the U.S. public, 79 percent disagreed with the verdict, 81 percent believed that the life sentence Calley had received was too stern, and 69 percent believed Calley had been made a
scapegoat In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designate ...
. In a recollection on the Vietnam War, South Korea's "Vietnam Expeditionary Forces" commander
Chae Myung-shin Chae Myung-shin (; November 27, 1926 – November 25, 2013) was a South Korean army officer who commanded South Korean military forces in the Vietnam War. He was also the co-founder of the Korean Taekwondo Association. Early life Chae Myung-s ...
stated that "Calley tried to get revenge for the deaths of his troops. In a war, this is natural." Conversely, Colonel
Harry G. Summers Jr. Harry G. Summers Jr. (May 6, 1932 – November 14, 1999) is best known as the author of an analysis of the Vietnam War, ''On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War'' (1982). An infantry colonel in the US Army, he had served as a squad l ...
declared that Calley and Medina should have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, with their remains placed "at the gates of Fort Benning, at the Infantry School, as a reminder to those who pass under it of what an infantry officer ought to be."


Appeals

Three days after Calley's conviction, President Richard Nixon ordered Calley removed from prison and placed under house arrest at Fort Benning. On August 20, 1971, Lt. Gen.
Albert O. Connor Albert Ollie Connor (28 August 1914 – 20 October 1989) was a United States Army lieutenant general who served as commanding officer of the Third United States Army from 1969 to 1972. He previously served as the U.S. Army Deputy Chief of Staff f ...
, Commanding General of Third Army, in his capacity as the
convening authority The term convening authority is used in United States military law to refer to an individual with certain legal powers granted under either the Uniform Code of Military Justice (i.e. the regular military justice system) or the Military Commissions ...
, reduced Calley's sentence to 20 years in prison. As required by law, his conviction and sentence were reviewed and sustained by the United States Army Court of Military Review, and the United States Court of Military Appeals. Calley appealed his conviction to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. On February 27, 1974, Judge J. Robert Elliott granted a writ of ''habeas corpus'' and set Calley free on bail. The court held that Calley had been improperly convicted due to extensive pre-trial publicity, the military court's refusal to permit certain defense witnesses, the refusal of the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
to release testimony about the My Lai massacre taken in executive session, and inadequate notice of charges. As the Army appealed Judge Elliott's decision,
Secretary of the Army The secretary of the Army (SA or SECARMY) is a senior civilian official within the United States Department of Defense, with statutory responsibility for all matters relating to the United States Army: manpower, personnel, reserve affairs, insta ...
Howard H. Callaway reviewed Calley's conviction and sentence as required by law. After reviewing the conclusions of the court-martial, Court of Military Review, and Court of Military Appeals, Callaway reduced Calley's sentence to just 10 years. Under military regulations, a prisoner is eligible for
parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
after serving one-third of their sentence. This made Calley eligible for parole after serving three years and four months. A three-judge panel of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * Eastern District of Louisiana * ...
reversed the district court's ruling and returned Calley to custody on June 13, 1974. Calley once more appealed his conviction to Judge Elliott. He asked the Circuit Justice of the Fifth Circuit, Lewis F. Powell Jr., to set him free on bail while his appeal was pending, but Justice Powell denied the request. The district court once more found the pre-trial publicity, the denial of defense witnesses, and improperly drawn charges had denied Calley a fair trial, and ordered him released on September 25, 1974. Calley was released on bail while the government appealed the ruling. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the Army's latest appeal ''
en banc In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller p ...
''. The full court ruled 8-to-5 to overturn the district court, and ordered Calley's conviction and sentence reinstated on September 10, 1975. Because Calley had less than 10 days to serve before his possible parole, and because Army Secretary Callaway had expressed his intention to parole Calley as soon as possible, the Army refused to incarcerate Calley for the remaining 10 days of his sentence. Calley appealed the Fifth Circuit's ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it declined to hear his case on April 5, 1976.


After release

On May 15, 1976, Calley married Penny Vick, the daughter of a
Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it o ...
, jewelry store owner. Judge J. Robert Elliott attended the wedding. The couple had one son, and divorced in 2005 or 2006. Calley worked at his father-in-law's store, and became a gemologist and obtained his real estate license, which had initially been denied due to his prior criminal record."Follow-Up on the News; William Calley Jr."
''The New York Times'', July 10, 1983; accessed August 9, 2017.
During his divorce, Calley claimed to be suffering from
prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that su ...
and gastrointestinal problems leaving him with no chance of earning a living. On August 19, 2009, while speaking to the
Kiwanis Club Kiwanis International ( ) is an international service club founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, and is found in more than 80 nations and geographic areas. Since 1987, the organizatio ...
of Greater Columbus, Calley issued an apology for his role in the Mỹ Lai massacre. Calley said:
There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in Mỹ Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.
As of 2018, he was living in
Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, which had a population of 339,247 in ...
.


See also

*
Glenn Andreotta Glenn Urban Andreotta (October 30, 1947 – April 8, 1968) was an American helicopter crew chief in the Vietnam War noted for being one of three who intervened in the Mỹ Lai massacre, in which 504 unarmed children, women and men were murder ...
, Lawrence Colburn, and
Hugh Thompson Jr. Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr. (April 15, 1943 – January 6, 2006) was a United States Army Major, and a former warrant officer in the 123rd Aviation Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Division. He is credited with ending the Mỹ Lai Massacre of the So ...
 – U.S. helicopter crew members who intervened to stop the My Lai killings *
Samuel W. Koster Samuel William Koster (December 29, 1919 – January 23, 2006) was a career officer in the United States Army. He attained the rank of major general, and was most notable for his service as commander of the Americal Division and Superintendent of ...
 – commanding officer of the Americal Division * John W. Donaldson – later commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade who in 1971 was accused and acquitted of killing 6 Vietnamese civilians in 1968/9 * Terry Nelson –
one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...
who released " The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley" (1971), a song about Calley * Robert Bales – former United States Army soldier who murdered 16 innocent Afghan civilians and was sentenced to life in prison without parole *
Superior orders Superior orders, also known as the Nuremberg defense or just following orders, is a plea in a court of law that a person, whether a member of the military, law enforcement, a firefighting force, or the civilian population, should not be conside ...
 – the practice of pleading not guilty, by means of "following orders"


References


External links


Hugh Thompson Foundation web site
501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by Lawrence Colburn in honor of Hugh Thompson
Famous American Trials: The My Lai Courts-Martial 1970
* Beidler, Philip D.
"Calley's Ghost"
''Virginia Quarterly Review'', Winter 2003.
BBC.co.uk , 29 , 1971: Calley guilty of My Lai Massacre


nbsp;– Doug Gilford's ''Mad'' Cover Site {{DEFAULTSORT:Calley, William 1943 births Living people American mass murderers American people convicted of murder American people convicted of war crimes United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War Criminals from Florida Military personnel from Florida People convicted of murder by the United States military People from Columbus, Georgia People from Miami People paroled from life sentence Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States military United States Army officers United States Army personnel who were court-martialed Palm Beach State College alumni Mỹ Lai massacre perpetrators