The U.S. army officer convicted on 22 counts of murder after he took part in the 1968 massacre of civilians in the village of My Lai in Vietnam, has spoken of the matter for the first time in public and told of his remorse at what happened.
After many years shying away from publicity William Calley, a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the conflict in Vietnam, finally accepted the invitation from his friend of many years Al Fleming to speak at the meeting in Greater Columbus, Georgia of the
Kiwanis Club. And what he had to say left his audience, in the words of Mr Fleming, "slack-jawed".
Lennie Pease, the club president, opined that Lt. Calley was quite sincere in what he said when he told those gathered:
There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My 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
Reiterating that what occurred in My Lai was a simple case of him following the orders he received, he conceded that in doing so he may have been "foolish", stating:
If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a second lieutenant getting orders from my commander and I followed them
Lt. Calley was 24 years old when on March 16 1968 he led his platoon of men in to the village of My Lai in South Central Vietnam. Whilst the soldiers were searching for any Vietcong guerrillas that may be operating from the village, the
Independent reports that no gunfire had actually been heard from its direction, when none were found the men turned their attentions to the villagers themselves and a massacre ensued, which claimed the lives of 500 men, women and children.
But despite 26 of the soldiers present on that day later being charged with offenses relating to the atrocity only Lt. Calley was ever convicted. Readily acknowledging his part in the massacre Lt. Calley nevertheless insisted that he was acting on the orders of his superior, Capt Ernest Medina. In 1971 Capt. Medina also stood trial in relation to his alleged ordering of the massacre but was acquitted on all charges.
Chief Prosecutor in the trials connected with the massacre at My Lai was William Eckhardt and he remains adamant that Lt. Calley's actions on that day in 1968 were his responsibility and his alone. Mr Eckhardt said that he "cringed" when he heard of Lt. Calley's apology and added:
It's hard to apologize for murdering so many people. But at least there's an acknowledgment of responsibility
Following his conviction Lt. Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment, a sentence, reports the
BBC, commuted in 1971 by U.S. President Richard Nixon to three years under house arrest.
In some quarters Lt. Calley was seen as a convenient scapegoat for the failures of those higher placed than him in the chain of command. Several state Governors, later-to-be President Jimmy Carter amongst them, protested his conviction at the time..
When details of the acts committed in My Lai emerged during Lt. Calley's trial in 1969 opposition to the U.S. presence in Vietnam intensified, although the conflict, which also heavily impacted on the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia, did not finally end until 1975.
The gathering of the Kiwanis Club at which Lt. Calley spoke, and which was first reported on by the local Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, was not meant to attract the publicity it has. A perhaps unrealistic expectation given the significance of the speech.
Kiwanis International, to give the Kiwanis Club its correct name, is a global volunteer organization headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana which states that its mission is "Serving the Children of the World". Its membership is estimated at 275,000.
