My Lai Massacre - William Calley Convicted for Murder (1971)
On March 29, 1971, Lieutenant William Calley was convicted for the premeditated murder of 22 Vietnamese civilians, all of which took place during the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam in March of 1968. The My Lai Massacre was a mass murder of between 364 and 504 unarmed citizens in My Lai, South Vietnam committed by a U.S. Army unit. All the dead were civilians, and most of the dead were women, children, and elderly.
In December of 1967, the Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division was deployed to South Vietnam. In March of 1968, word came to the company that the hamlet of My Lai may have been hiding the 48th Battalion of the South Vietnamese Army (NLF). The Charlie Company was tasked with a major offensive against the hamlet. According to various sources, the company was to burn the houses, kill the livestock, destroy any foodstuffs, pollute the wells, and kill all "suspects" including women and children.
On March 16, 1968, the Charlie Company entered the village and began their attack. BBC News described the attack:
Soldiers went berserk, gunning down unarmed men, women, children and babies. Families which huddled together for safety in huts or bunkers were shown no mercy. Those who emerged with hands held high were murdered. ... Elsewhere in the village, other atrocities were in progress.
The massacre lasted two days, with most of the killing done on the first day, and burning and destruction of buildings on the second day. After the massacre, the Army and the United States publicized the events as a military victory where only a few civilians were inadvertently killed. If not for the actions of several soldiers who wrote letters to the commander of the U.S. forces in Vietnam, the incident may never have been further investigated.
In 1969, the massacre became public knowledge and prompted widespread outrage, both in the U.S. and around the world. The massacre reduced support for the Vietnam War and fueled protests. Eventually, 26 U.S. soldiers were charged with criminal offenses for their actions at My Lai. Of those 26 soldiers, only William Calley was ever convicted.
Calley was charged with six counts of premeditated murder for the deaths of 104 Vietnamese civilians. The prosecution contended that Calley, in defiance of the U.S. Military Rules of Engagement, ordered his men to deliberately murder unarmed Vietnamese civilians. The defense claimed that Calley was following the orders of his immediate superior, Captain Ernest Medina. Further, in Calley’s defense, many people were outraged that only Calley was convicted when many others were involved higher up in the military chain of command.
On March 29, 1971, after a five month trial, William Calley was convicted on 22 counts of premeditated murder. Two days later Calley was sentenced to life in prison with hard labor at Fort Leavenworth, Texas. However, Calley never served any time at Fort Leavenworth. Instead, he was placed on house arrest by President Nixon and his defense counsel eventually got his guilty verdict overturned based on multiple prejudicial grounds from the trial.