Posted on 07/30/2024 3:38:36 AM PDT by DFG
William Calley, the army officer who was the only person to be convicted in relation to the mass murder of Vietnamese civilians, including children, in what came to be known as the My Lai massacre, has died at the age of 80.
The Washington Post on Monday first reported Calley's death, which happened in April, according to a death certificate the newspaper cited. The New York Times, citing Social Security Administration death records, also reported Calley's death.
Neither paper reported a cause of death. Calls to numbers listed for Calley's son, William L. Calley III, were not returned.
William Calley, the army officer who was the only person to be convicted in relation to the mass murder of Vietnamese civilians, including children, in what came to be known as the My Lai massacre, has died at the age of 80.
The Washington Post on Monday first reported Calley's death, which happened in April, according to a death certificate the newspaper cited. The New York Times, citing Social Security Administration death records, also reported Calley's death.
Neither paper reported a cause of death. Calls to numbers listed for Calley's son, William L. Calley III, were not returned.
William Laws Calley Jr. was born June 8, 1943, the only son and fourth child of a Miami businessman. In his youth, he went by the nickname Rusty.
He attended four high schools in four years, two of them military academies. Calley was forced to repeat the seventh grade after being caught cheating.
After he flunked out of junior college, he worked as a bellhop, dishwasher, insurance investigator and train conductor.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
ping
Rusty should never have been an officer. He was last in his class in OCS. Some of those shirkers who went to Canada should have bumped him out of his OCS slot.
We should turn the headlines on the sanctimonious Brits using the anniversary of the Sepoy Rebellion during which they killed thousands of innocent Indians.
This is why DEI is not acceptable to a military. DEI causes deaths and atrocities. Calley was a white guy, so how is this DEI: Didn’t Earn it.
Sad fact is every nation has its foul history. Some manage to recognize it and even occasionally punish their own bad actors. And some don't (Japan, are you listening?).
interesting that as UK paper would comment thusly on Lt. Calley...
Britain was the originator of the concentration camp as well as torture and ethnic cleansing during the ‘Boer ‘war.
I recall hearing about this when it happened.
It was all over the news, in all the magazine’s, back when being featured in Time, Life, Look, Newsweek meant something significant. I don’t know the story well enough to say why this man was the only one convicted for the killings.
Still, this was during a hot war, and every such conflict will have some collateral damages done - from all sides.
I think the next time a military man waa targeted (scapegoated?) in like manner was with Oliver North, but North was not thrown under the bus. Reagan expressed his support.
And how many NVA Officers were prosecuted for the massacre at ‘Hue? Nearly ten times the number killed at My Lai.
The military didn't care, they just wanted bodies.
Prior to start of basic, I tested high and was offered OCS. Even tho I had enlisted, I said no way. I was just an immature 18 year old kid out of high school and there was no way in hell would I have been able to lead soldiers as an officer.
Lots of bad crap happened in Vietnam and I was fortunate not to have been sent there. So I am in no position to judge Calley or any of the soldiers (kids?) involved in My Lai.
this was also 4 years into the worst war fighting stratedgy in history. LBJ, McNamara, Westmoreland, Wheeler, the whole bunch should have been prosecuted. Heck yes it was a hot war, and those guys were just sitting ducks walking thru those jungles. You can put a soldier thru only so much stress..something was bound to happen. And never mind that the US firebombed Dresden and Cologne and killed 100,000 civilians in a single night. Yet they try and hang one guy. SMH.
I now understand the constant threat of people trying to kill you. These soldiers undoubtedly had comrades killed. Something snapped. Or they got misinformation. Or they were drafted and took out frustrations.
If anyone is at fault it’s LBJ and the US government, along with their media conspirators.
Now the propaganda media is trying to say it’s wrong only one person was jailed. Well, that’s because they they needed a scapegoat, just like they are trying Hunter Bye-Done for lower crimes instead of worst crimes such as pedophilia and traitorous acts.
I don’t remember the Daily Mail having any problem with Pol Pot dying peacefully in his bed of old age...
All I can think about is how difficult it must have been to carry that load for such a long time.
VC basically used the populace as human shields like Hamas does. They operated in same guerrilla fashion as in no uniforms.
So it’s not really surprising at some point there’d be a big hit on civilians, whether or not they were “innocent”.
On the other hand, there was a saying that came out of that war (forget who said it) - Sometimes you have to destroy the village to save it.
A quote invented by a reporter and loved by the media and the left.
Calley was the platoon leader of the troops who attacked the village. As such he was held responsible once the event came to light. That’s why he was prosecuted. No court was going to sit for a mass trial of the men as a group, prosecuting the innocent along with the guilty, and there was no way to singly prosecute each member of the unit separately. It was a bad episode, such as happens in any war. Inflated beyond its significance for political reasons by the Left.
This was an instant bestseller in the weeks after Calley's conviction.
The quote was attributed to a battalion commander when questioned about the razing of a village and relocation of its population. No one doubted it at the time, but who knows if he really said it.
Indeed they mush have a IT’S OK WHEN WE DO IT card.
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