William Calley, officer convicted for his role in My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, dead at 80

(CNN) — William L. Calley Jr., the only US Army soldier to be convicted in the 1968 My Lai massacre, which saw more than 300 unarmed Vietnamese civilians killed by US soldiers in one of the most notorious war crimes in American history, has died. He was 80.

Calley’s death was first reported by The Washington Post, citing his death certificate. CNN later confirmed Calley died on April 28, through public records maintained by the Social Security Administration. He had been living in Gainesville, Florida, according to those records.

For decades, Calley’s name was synonymous with one of the worst atrocities of the Vietnam War, as the lieutenant who led Charlie Company to My Lai, though he maintained he was following orders. While multiple officers were charged in connection with the massacre, Calley was the only one convicted.

According to historians, his actions sharply divided the nation, pitting those who supported the US efforts to rout out communism against those who felt the tragedy underscored the country’s moral and ethical decline during the war.

“The photograph of the Napalm Girl … the picture of General Loan shooting the Viet Cong in Saigon. Calley just brings to mind all of those things,” said Bill Allison, history professor at Georgia Southern University and author of the book “My Lai: An American Atrocity in the Vietnam War.”

“But the fact is, the vast majority of the NCOs and young lieutenants and captains served with honor in Vietnam and did the best they could in this horrible situation,” Allison said.

“And they didn’t wantonly kill unarmed men, women and children.”

The massacre

On March 16, 1968, US Army soldiers gunned down hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians in the remote hamlet of My Lai in South Vietnam.

“It is the worst war crime in American history – certainly the worst war crime committed by soldiers in the American Army,” said retired Col. Fred Borch, a military lawyer and the former regimental historian and archivist for the US Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

The US Army concluded nearly 350 people died in the attack, but the Vietnamese government puts the number at closer to 500, Borch said.

A 1970 investigation by the House Armed Services Committee details what began in the early hours of the morning, when units of the Army’s 11th Brigade landed outside the small hamlet they referred to as My Lai.

The soldiers, acting on flawed intelligence that a Viet Cong unit had been stationed in the village, had been briefed that “all civilians were expected to be gone from the hamlet at the time set for the assault,” according to the report.

“The units involved in the My Lai operation had minimal training with respect to the handling of civilians under the Rules of Engagement and the Geneva Conventions,” the report stated.

Although Charlie Company – where Calley was an officer – had yet to see direct combat, the report noted the unit had also suffered more than 40 casualties in their four months in Vietnam as a result of “mines, booby traps, and sniper fire.”

Allison said some would later speculate if the attack was an attempt at “payback.” Calley would claim during his court martial hearing that he had been ordered to kill the unarmed civilians, an allegation his superiors denounced.

“When they got to the village, it was full of unresisting and unarmed women and children and old men,” Borch said. “Calley and his men rounded up these civilians and then Calley ordered his men to kill them.”

The massacre lasted for hours. Homes were destroyed and set ablaze. Women were raped by soldiers and an investigation later revealed that dead civilians were found on roads, in ditches and in rice paddies throughout the village. Many women died protecting children.

During the melee, US Army pilot Hugh Thompson landed his helicopter between soldiers and civilians. With the help of his crew, Thompson gathered those he could and evacuated them to safety.

Thompson later reported what he’d witnessed to his commanders – including a military chaplain – but it would take years before a full accounting of the massacre would come to light.

The Armed Services Committee report concluded the responsible officers “failed to make adequate, timely investigation and report of the My Lai allegations.”

Borch put it more bluntly.

“The war crime was covered up for a year,” he said.  “Thompson reported that he had seen this war crime to his superiors, but nothing was done.”

The revelation

A soldier named Ron Ridenhour was so appalled to learn about the My Lai massacre from soldiers who had witnessed the attack that he began a letter campaign to lawmakers and Army commanders, demanding a federal investigation.

Then, in 1969 – more than a year after the massacre and cover-up – journalist Seymour Hersh’s investigative reporting on the tragedy made headlines, and Life Magazine published gruesome images taken by an army photographer during the attack that rocked the American conscious.

The country was not far removed from the atrocities of the Holocaust and World War II and Allison said the images sparked soul searching.

But convicting those responsible for the massacre would prove to be a challenge.

At the time, Allison said, the Uniform Code of Military Justice required anyone brought on charges to be an active member of the military and in the year since the attack at My Lai, many who were involved had been discharged.

Calley was charged with the premeditated murder of Vietnamese civilians “literally a day or two before he was supposed to be discharged,” Allison said.

An investigation and trial were held at Fort Benning, which is today known as Fort Moore, and evidence was presented to a jury of soldiers and veterans.

“There was this fear that the jury of five officers might be inclined to say something like, ‘There but for the grace of God go I,’” Borch said. “But they found him guilty of premeditated murder and he was sentenced to life in prison.”

A 1971 Gallup poll taken shortly after Calley’s guilty conviction found that 79% of Americans disapproved of the verdict, while only 9% approved and 12% said they had “no opinion,” The New York Times reported at the time.

But in a shocking turn of events, Calley was released on parole after spending just a few years of his sentence under house arrest.

Calley’s sentence was initially reduced to 20 years by the general who convened the case, Borch said. “Then, the Secretary of the Army, in an unprecedented action, reduced the sentence further to 10 years,” Borch said, adding at the time, soldiers were eligible for parole if they served a third of their sentence.

President Richard Nixon intervened in the case and ordered Calley’s sentence to be reduced to house arrest, according to the Associated Press.

“He was paroled almost immediately,” Borch said. “He went on with his life as a civilian.”

Allison noted Nixon was heading into an election year and said he believes politics ultimately began to outweigh morality.

“Everybody was sick of Vietnam,” he said. “It was in the news all the time and they just wanted to get away from Vietnam as quick as they can.”

The fragile line

Thousands of miles away and 30 years later, those who lost loved ones in the My Lai massacre would tell CNN they were never truly able to move on.

A crowd of more than 1,000 Vietnamese citizens and US soldiers gathered in 1998 in the remote village to honor those who were killed and reflect on the horrors that took place.

Thompson, who was hailed as a hero by the Vietnamese for his actions that day, told those gathered at the 1998 memorial he wished they could’ve done more.

“I cannot explain why it happened,” Thompson said at the time.  “I just wish our crew that day could have helped more people than we did.”

Thompson and his door gunner, Lawrence Colburn, were later awarded the Army’s prestigious Soldier’s Medal for their efforts to stop the massacre.

Nguyen Chung, who lost his father and his 6-year-old daughter during the massacre, told CNN he was still haunted by their memory.

“I usually keep it in my heart, but the emotion grows as their death day grows near,” he said.

In 2009, Calley – who had long shunned reporters – publicly apologized for his role in the massacre for the first time during a speech at the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus in Georgia.

“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” Calley said, according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.”

In response to the tragedy at My Lai – and in an effort to prevent such war crimes from happening again – Borsh said the US military began embedding military legal experts into active-duty units.

“Every single military operation that’s ever planned or ever carried out now, military lawyers are involved in making sure that what’s done is legal,” he said. “And that’s all a result of a recognition that we can’t have another My Lai.”

For Allison, the lesson of the massacre is also one of how war can mar both individuals and a nation.

“(My Lai) reminds us how fragile the line is between who we think we are as Americans, what we value, and how we behave in war – and what war can actually do to you,” he said.

“No war is a ‘good war,’ … we need to just do the best we can to ensure that the young men and women in uniform are as prepared as possible to face these moral and ethical choices.”

CNN’s Brad Lendon contributed to this report.

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