“Calley maintains that he was following orders from his superior”
Following illegal orders is never a defense.
The way things were done in Viet Nam his orders were legit. “Illegal” kills happened all the time. I was in the military when he was tried but was not in Viet Nam. However, every friend I have who served there told me that this type thing happend a lot. Maybe not on ths scale but is killing 500 civilians any worse than killing two?
Plus, from what I’ve read about this incident, the soldiers went bonkers. Calley couldn’t have stopped them if he wanted to. Should he have been held accountable for HIS actions? You bet. But there were many above him who should have been tried starting with McNamara. He is single handedly responsible for causing a lot more deaths that Calley.