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Not everyone has forgotten My Lai. Over the years I reluctantly have taken a look deeper at it to get a picture of what went on, as time and patience permits. Certainly it is not for the squeamish. He divorced his wife in 2005, whom he married after ditching his girl that stood by him through Vietnam and just after the subsequent trial IIRC. The choice one was from a wealthier family, it seems.Believe it or not, by 1970 Calley tapped upon the vein of reactionary resistance, the Archie Bunker types in the South, and was rather felt sorry for, incredibly. On the sly he also curried up to the student protest group with the snappy ‘make war no more’. Wonder if that would have helped the ODESSA network?Calley is still alive in Georgia, though some very interesting testimony and interviews have taken place without him.‘Sometime in 2005 or 2006, Calley divorced his wife, Penny, whose father had employed him at the V.V. Vick jewelry store in Columbus, Georgia, since 1975, and moved to downtown Atlanta to live with his son, William Laws Calley III.[19]’William Calley - WikipediaWas he guilty of independent action or ‘just following orders’? How much of either? Certainly there was a lot of hype in getting the enemy, raising the spectre of even Amphetamine - Wikipedia use. However, the accounts were not frenzied, rather cool and calculating. I see no evidence of such drug use.Time Life Vietnam War series has some references to that, to be posted later, but frankly I would want to see some better sources than that, though they quoted mainly military photographer Ronald L. Haeberle - Wikipedia. Not a saint, he did not even think much of it, possibly in his own admission thinking war is always like that since it was his first shoot in an actual engagement. He also saw Calley order executions of civilians.There was a pep rally before the operation started. Probably he had some damaging evidence against the Army. In the trial he writes in his book at the time of joining the Anti War people, likely to save his skin. I think there was a poster in a picture behind him, but the book is at home and not available at present.Calley’s Ghost | VQR OnlineA bit of an exaggeration on the looks department, but he was certainly not the brightest tool in the shed.Calley ten years ago, with a hint of smile.‘He flunked out of college and received a draft notice, he was to return to’Keep in mind this was the year they were actually drafting Marines, as an experiment that failed. They never drafted officers, except doctors and engineers and lawyers, but here Calley was talked into becoming an officer by a recruiter, IIRC. Probably the recruiter was enamored by the fact Calley had some grade level military school, sent by parents because of the usual case in the institutions— childhood discipline problems.Don’t laugh, as it happened in WWII (see the military school drop out, later actor Marlin Brando biographies, as he was eagerly wanted as a military grade school school drop out — until rated a 4-F medical disqualification). Also in WWII, standards were relaxed for future religion maker of Scientology, L.Ron Hubbard became an officer and spent all his ordinance attacking a log and a few weeks later causing a diplomatic affair by a practice bombardment of an ‘uninhabited’ rock off of San Diego, which happened to be in Mexico with an occupied fishing camp and manned light house or something like that.Hubbard never led an independent command again, unlike Calley, and joined a sex cult with JPL founder Jack Parson to summon the anti Christ soon after WWII. (I think William Calley kept his commands, post My Lai, for about 18 months till publicity started, as the Army wanted to hide the company/regiment, attempting to bury the publicity of massacre.)Maybe it also happened in the Korean War, too. Clint Eastwood decidedly did not go to a military school, in fact opting out of a classy school to go to a blue collar one out of district, where he felt more comfortable. But stateside in the war and in uniform already, as newly enlisted he was asked to go OSC, probably he suggests due to ‘looking like what an officer’s bearing should be’ or words to that effect. Read it in a biography once.————————————————Anyway, when the military schedule men are desperate, standards are relaxed, in particular 1967–68 US Army. Then more so, as they were then even called “McNamara’s Dummies” What happened during the Vietnam War that nobody talks about today? I have read extensively about the event for about 20 years.‘Although, with over 400 questioned witnesses and over 20,000 pages of reports and most everyone stating the same facts, that Lt. Calley ordered and participated in the killings, it could be difficult to prove the scapegoat theory (Home - BBC News). But its not quite the scapegoat in that sense, during this time the morale of troops and U.S. sentiments for the war were at an all time low, people think that the [US government put all the blame on Calley].’Lieutenant William Calley and the My Lai Massacre—————————————————I recall another trial, this time of a substandard and incompetent Navy Captain of a ship, whose name escapes me, about 1964–65. In court the Navy’s prosecution went into over drive and over kill, so much so that alienated the jury (aren’t they military, too?) rebelled and blamed the Navy. Part of the reason he was found not guilty or of far lesser charges was that everyone was surprised that the Navy did not get rid of him sooner, and was thus culpable as an accessory. We are talking about the government here.—————————Calley says in his book that he heard his orders to kill them over the radio, and previously had been verbally disciplined by his direct superior Ernest Medina - Wikipedia for being too soft or something like that. Medina fairly recently arrived in a retirement home after employment at a helicopter factory owned by his famed lawyer F. Lee Bailey - Wikipedia and is still alive, by the way.My Lai “I will go to jail for this” Medina was reported to have said, possibly the night after the incident. He was disheartened to find out how many had been killed. Calley said more than fifty [far too low], Brooks said as many, and LaCross reported six.[thankfully a completely bogus report, akin to Vietnam War body count controversy - Wikipedia inflation — no people, including noncombatants, were shot] “Oh my God,” thought Medina “What happened? He knew noncombatants had died, but not that many.In the end, a clever lawyer got him off the hook. Medina was employed at the helicopter factory Bailey owned for the rest of his working life. Lt. Brooks later committed suicide in Vietnam.Many politicians, especially those in the South, came out in favor of both Calley and to an extent Medina, including the gushing then governor Jimmy Carter, later president who pardoned most draft resisters . ‘As governor of Georgia, he responded to the 1971 sentencing of Lt. William Calley of My Lai massacre infamy by calling upon his fellow Georgians to "honor the flag" as Calley had done, and to leave their headlights on to show their supportSo far the closest available found was, oddly, on April 1st, 1971, with the Palladium-Item - Wikipedia newspaper of Richmond, Indiana.This might have been made for out of state consumption, but generally gives favor for Carter in the last paragraph, insofar as saying that the trial was ‘legitimate’, but that his superiors should have gotten the same deal. We will see what the Georgian newspapers say, especially in Columbus (written December 2020), if like so many politicians say two different things to different audiences (biographies write he had already decided to run for the presidency by 1971). Southern Georgia, particularly near military bases, might take offense to thinking the trial was legitimate.Also on April 1st, Carter called the Calley verdict “shocking”, saying it “puts every man that has been drafted and sent there (Vietnam) in a very doubtful position. It will seriously demoralize our troops.”A day later, April 2nd, then Governor Jimmy Carter (printed in Lancaster New Era, defunct 2009, of Pennsylvania) said the following of Nixon's action: "I think it's a wise decision ... The people of this country were very disturbed about the outcome of the trial -- regardless of whether they felt the jury did right or wrong -- and I think it will help to alleviate tensions in the country." So far, not bad. Two days later he started to slip. Stay tuned.Time Magazine April 12, 1971 - support throughout the mid west and Southern states. Indiana's Governor, Edgar Whitcomb, ordered all flags on state property flown at half mast in protest against the verdict. Calley seen as the scapegoat. George Wallace paid a 12 minute call on Calley enroute to a pro Calley rally attended by Mississippi's Governor John Bell Williams and Georgia's Lt. Governor Lester Maddox. Jimmy Carter, then Governor of Georgia, proclaimed an "American Fighting Man's Day" the week Calley was convicted and asked citizens to drive with their car headlights on. Draft boards in Athens, Ga and Huron County, Mich, resigned en masse. A South Georgia sheriff said he would not arrest AWOL soldiers promising to protect them any way he could until this Calley mess is cleaned up. The Texas senate called for a presidential pardon; Free Calley bumper stickers started appearing everywhere. This response - is usually political; because America could not accept that the war was wrong, but improbably leftists and hippies also supported Calley and his freedom. Other veterans claimed that if the same rules had been applied to commanders in WWII they would have been tried. They too had ordered their troops to shoot anything that moved.[See Brian McCaskill in my question’s answer’s comment section, as I posted a ton of more sources for that, including the direct source of The Atlanta Constitution (front page April 2, 1971) as is online via registration. But you might get them here for the headlights issue.honor the flag as Rusty had done. headlights——————————————————79% of Americans were against the verdict according to one poll, and an election year was coming up for the presidency, all House of Representatives, and many others. In polarized times, both right and left wanted Calley freed, especially politicians with their Tail risk - Wikipedia..Even hippies and steelworkers, construction men and college radicals shared this idea, although for different reasons.6 Apr 1971, Tuesday political cartoon by Hugh Haynie Gave Louisville Great Editorial Cartooning, Contributed to Public Debate | 89.3 WFPL News Louisville===============================Beyond the Myth: Remembering Jimmy Carter, the President(New York Times in 1976 quotes the Atlanta Constitution for a somewhat watered down version. Carter did at the least subtly conflate the two, but also apparently gave distance in a politicians suave tongue. So see my comment below and some one do detailed research to how much Carter said what then, as well as my answer to Brian McCaskill for an enormous attention to the issue. Gah!=====================================Long after the event, the guy who may have shot the most people and was the last if not one of the last to stop shooting, interviewed in a rest home, was put into CD. Anyway it was horrifying to listen to. What happened to the company — as well as the helicopter pilot and crew that stopped the carnage at risk of his life by US troops? According to the CD, they covered it up, and sent them on hazardous missions.Calley, a commissioned officer, had an incident about a year after My Lai (still the long arm of the law, or rather the media, had not yet caught up with him). In May or June 1969 near Chu Lai Base Area, Calley and two other Americal Division officers were in a jeep that passed a jeep containing five Marines. The Army jeep pulled the Marines over and one Army officer (not Calley) told the Marines "You soldiers better square away!"One of the Marines yelled, "We ain't soldiers, motherfucker, we're Marines!" In the ensuing fracas, two of the officers were briefly hospitalized while Calley was merely beaten up. They pleaded guilty, saying they had not known the victims had been officers. Our friend testified against them. Here is a nice picture link of a sullen Calley with facial bruises after the encounter with these several Marines, he apparently being passive in the affair. Sadly the picture was used as evidence in the trial against said Marines:Marines and Military Law in VietnamA very strange situation about the Marines & hapless misfit Calley on the tail of a distinctly tragic situation.The American participants were for the most isolated and dangerous parts of Vietnam, told to shut up, and all evidence was covered up apparently was the Army cure for the incident. This includes hero Hugh Thompson Jr. - Wikipedia. , who was practically given a death duty after stopping My Lai from going on further and protected at the point of guns against fellow Americans. Maybe death duty is too strong a word. Were the participants allowed to go on the two week RR out of the country as everyone was, and if so did they contact the media there? Just curious.He came back, but severely wounded a few times including the last. He died in 2006. Also dead is Larry Colburn: The last ‘hero’ of My Lai . Dying in this carnage is fellow helicopter crew ,Andreotta, 20, died in combat three weeks after My Lai, Helicopters were always dangerous, though all the elements, guilty or pro villager, were send deep into ‘Indian county’ (sic).‘Thompson and Colburn were called traitors. Decades later they were lauded as heroes. Either way, My Lai never left them alone.’‘“It took a huge chunk out of our lives,” Colburn said in an interview last year with Stars and Stripes. “We felt terrible we didn’t intervene sooner, that we couldn’t do more. We completely took the word ‘hero’ out of our vocabularies.”’(Mind you, here was a company of heavily armed soldiers who were not in their chain of command. Calley and Colburn quarreled initially, but Colburn reluctantly backed down with Calley’s emphatic answers shouted that he was following lawful orders or something like that. Later he took up the issue to the point of guns, saving several dozens still in the area including many Viet about ready to be stormed in a building. Besides, Colburn was only a warrant officer while Calley was a Lt. )‘Thompson: What's going on here, Lieutenant?Calley: This is my business.Thompson: What is this? Who are these people?Calley: Just following orders.Thompson: Orders? Whose orders?Calley: Just following...Thompson: But, these are human beings, unarmed civilians, sir.Calley: Look Thompson, this is my show. I'm in charge here. It ain't your concern.Thompson: Yeah, great job.Calley: You better get back in that chopper and mind your own business.Thompson: You ain't heard the last of this!’Glenn Andreotta - Wikipedia(both quotations are in above link; but Four Hours in My Lai cites some court testimony from others in Calley’s platoon that heard just about the same, as well as radio chatter.)‘Soon after he was killed by hostile fire, Andreotta received a posthumous Bronze Star for his part in rescuing children at My Lai. The citation falsified what happened at My Lai by saying the children had been "hiding in a bunker located between friendly forces and hostile forces engaged in a heavy firefight." It went on to say "Andreotta's willingness to risk his life for innocent children and his bravery in action reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, the Americal Division, and the United States Army." Hugh Thompson's signature was forged on the eyewitness report.[citation needed] Andreotti received a posthumous Courage of Conscience Award for his unusual bravery and compassion in helping, along with helicopter crew members Hugh C. Thompson Jr. and Lawrence Coburn, to save civilian lives during the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968.’Covering up to the last. At least they did not have a line of men falsely receiving medals, only to have them taken back as soon as the media left. This happened in several books relating several different incidents and dates of eye witnessed events, including Col Hackworth’s About Face. Twice the person giving the medals was Westmoreland himself. Hackworth (and John Paul Vann) warned the military that the extreme push plus guerrilla warfare would make the men snap.This is attested to by 'Our Boys': 50 Years After the My Lai Massacre - Antiwar.com Original “This would not be just another fruitless and exhausting patrol, [Captain Medina] promised. Finally they would have an opportunity for "payback," a chance to avenge their buddies recently killed by booby traps and sniper fire. "When we go into My Lai, it’s open season," one man recalled Medina saying. "When we leave, nothing will be living (4)." Another man recalled these words: "Nothing [will] be walking, growing, or crawling…. They’re all VCs, now go in and get them."That should have damned Medina right there. I wonder how F. Lee Bailey (his famous lawyer) discredited those words, probably at the peak of his persuasiveness.“When Calley was convicted, the White House was inundated with thousands of telegrams calling on the president to offer clemency. Nixon responded by having Calley removed from prison and put under house arrest 7′ in his bachelor officers’ quarters. After three and a half years, the secretary of the army, with Nixon’s tacit approval, reduced Calley’s sentence, making him eligible for parole.” Some 80% of American adults were polled as stating something like Calley got a raw deal.Mmm.Lets continue with the Meadlo account: “about sixty Vietnamese who had been rounded up and made to squat down, Lieutenant Calley approached and ordered Meadlo to "take care of them. 9 At first, Meadlo did not understand. "Come on," Calley barked, "we’ll kill them. Fire when I say ‘Fire.’" Meadlo obeyed.https://www.pulitzer.org/article/i-sent-them-good-boy-and-they-made-him-murderer“Meadlo is curious also about the role of Capt. Medina in the incident.“I don’t know if the C.O. (commanding officer) gave the order to kill or not, but he was right there when it happened. Why didn’t he stop it? He and Calley passed each other quite a few times that morning, but didn’t say anything. Medina just kept marching around. He could’ve put a stop to it anytime he wanted.”“As for Calley, Meadlo told of an incident a few weeks before Pinkville.“We saw this woman walking across this rice paddy and Calley said, ‘Shoot her,’ so we did. When we got there the girl was alive, had this hole in her side. Calley tried to get someone to shoot her again; I don’t know if he did.”In addition, Calley and Medina had told the men before Pinkville, Meadlo said, “that if we ever shoot any civilians, we should go ahead and plant a hand grenade on them.”Again, pretty damning, but hopefully (?) this was gone over in the trial.However it is put, the whole place was a farce for the man in the field, in my opinion, including the cover-up. Were it not for the pictures, all would have been much, much harder to do so. Sgt. Haeberle was not bent on exposing, sort of ambivalent. However, he did not turn in the color copies, only the B/W ones, which languished in a desk drawer. The color ones eventually made its way back home and after a while into the Ohio newspaper Plain Dealer, via a high school classmate.He admitted to destroying a number of pictures which showed Americans murdering the Vietnamese citizens, as it happened, not just the aftermath. Pretty grim.‘And from there it grew’ “Yes, it grew. My platoon leader, my officer the Lt [Calley] said for me to kill everyone and he would watch me. If I didn’t do that he said I could be shot myself.” (mmm, Lt. Calley threatening to shoot his own men if they did not shoot women and children. Fry the bastard I say. There is no statute of limitations on murder, though sadly there is a proscription on Double jeopardy - Wikipedia.)==============================================================Several section My Lai interviews soon after they got back from Vietnam War (out of military service and able to talk).More interviewing, this time about 35 years afterwards, including Hugh Thompson, the helicopter pilot who stopped the massacre from going any further.Hugh Thompson: Shining Beacon In Vietnam’s Darkest MassacreNote the map on similar incident of the sister company at My Khe within minutes of My Lai (Son My), and only two kilometers (a little or a mile for those metric challenged) to the East/South/East. Maybe 70 people died in that one, but the evidence is really murky and really needs a lot of interviews before the people pass away.An earlier Hugh Thompson (helicopter) interview (at end of tape), specifically that he told his men to open fire if the other Americans (Army Infantry) started killing the civilians again while he got them out of the bunker to fly them out.==========================================================6:55 “Medina was almost a folk hero.”8:00 Lt. Calley was “Always trying to please Captain Medina … which were not called for … [it] made him resent him even more” “[Medina] ridiculed Calley, tried to make him do things.” “Rank went to his head, which is always a no - no.”My Lai Massacre : Documentary on the My Lai Massacre in the Vietnam War(American Experience Films) they keep on changing the address, so do a Youtube search with the words in bold. Actually, it looks like they took it off. Maybe better that way, despite the above quotes. Not very complete in my understanding.“"I don't think Medina had any interest in all the details what's going on out there. “Fred Widmer, radio operator remarking on the situation weeks before My Lai.“If officers and NCOs start behaving badly, then there is nothing in a difficult situation where young men are feeling frightened for their lives, not knowing the difference. They expected to be shown what is right and what is wrong by the officers by the NCO's. And when that discipline has fallen apart, they were on the road to hell, frankly.” Writer Michael Bilton 22:30 minute mark, The Vietnam War - My Lai Massacre Youtube DocumentaryFR3AKI highly recommend this video with the strange name. They seem to be fair, complete, and describe a chance situation with an already broken army group, a disaster just waiting to happen. For a more positive part, see the 40 minute mark, about Hugh Thompson’s effort to save victims.25 minute mark: “The brigade commander, a man named Orin Henderson, wanted his battalions to be much more aggressive with the enemy. And it is fair to say Henderson wound up Medina and Medina wound up Charlie Company.”And Medina, I believe believed he was very clear that they were facing the [crack] VC 48 Infantry Battalion ... but the intelligence was wrong [to up against the VC, which were Writer Michael BiltonAlso see “We assumed we were going to hit VC only, that the civilians would be gone from that village. [then people came out of their house] Wait a minute, they are not supposed to be here. At first, nobody did anything. Then a couple crazy guys said ‘Hey, they must be VC. Some of the [other] guys started shooting… Once the first civilian was killed, it was too late. Period. Whoever killed the first civilian, that was the end of the situation, it went out of control. It was shoot, shoot, shoot at anything.” 2 infantrymen and the photographer, starting at 30 minute mark. Very depressing, but important for context. Many were inside bunkers, which is more understandable from the soldiers’ standpoint as they could have been anyone (like in Okinawa 1945).This just in from the Time Life series on Vietnam (a usually leftist source, but still with some good information parts).Pg. 160 Time Life The Vietnam Experience/Collision of Cultures:Charlie Company was “better than average in infantry aptitude” although 10% had flunked the army’s basic intelligence test. At first the men were shocked with other outfits, like when seeing a troop carrier drive by with about twenty ears tied to the antenna. Yet soon Medina was happy with his first group kill.The Company incidents began, first an old man pleading for the return of his possessions, then shot and killed; a group of men stopped as they tried to hang a villager, and finally a woman raped in front of her child — both subsequently killed. So well before My Lie a pattern was of a balloon flopping in the breeze waiting for a nearby pin to pop it, and the responsible top officers not realizing the predicament.So we come to Medina and Calley. “Medina’s aggressive pursuit of higher body counts and indifference towards civilians was mated with a developing Company “hatred for the Vietnamese … treated like animals … ‘A lot of the guys didn’t feel that they were human beings.’”“The poor quality of the officers in charge of his platoons… particularly true of Lt. Calley, whose indecisiveness and chronic inability to follow instructions earned him Medina’s constant criticism, and whose own defense attorneys argued during his trial that he would never had become an officer if the army had maintained its normal standards of selection.”“I know the perfect answer.”, Calley could be imagined to say, “Kill everyone we see, and then Medina will be satisfied.” Add in a garbled radio message, plus the inability to follow instructions, and we have almost all of the My Lie incident massacre explained. You have to understand, the man was literally washing dishes for a living only days before receiving his draft notice.From what I have read elsewhere, this is a fair enough concentrated explanation of what happened and why. Under trial, Calley moved off to a new direction, to a modest degree that of an anti war peacenik, probably to garner support to save his skin, perhaps under advisement of his defense lawyers. IIRC they were typically very educated commissioned officer draftees straight from law school, chaffing at their own army time. Think of M*A*S*H Hawkeye Pierce.Note Thomas K. Willingham’s Thon Co Luy little more than a mile away from Calley’s doings. I have read two accounts about the Lt., in that he was killed a month later, and here https://www.quora.com/unanswered/How-did-the-United-States-government-attempt-to-cover-up-the-My-Lai-Massacre/comment/7304974 photos of him a year later fighting a charge. It does seem none of his group have given any interviews.Four Hours in My Lai (again cited) has more detailed analysis. That is evidence which can be made, since the charges were dropped and 8 (7?) of the company refused to testify, presumably the ones involved in the 90 (sic) deaths in that sector. To this day we do not have any information of those men, Willingham’s point men keeping their silence to the grave apparently.https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/05/archives/a-2d-massacre-involving-90-civilians-described-in-the-armys-secret.htmlThis URL also mentions that Calley, Brooks, LaCross and 1st Lt. Thomas K. Willingham (the murky My Khe massacre of about 70 people two kilometers from Calley), the platoon officers, were neither comfortable nor confident in disciplining their men. In short, a recipe for disaster. We can trace all of this to Westmoreland’s convincing LBJ that we could surge our way past the NVA and VC to victory with badly trained troops, which were in the best of shape just 2 or 3 years before (1965–1966).Willingham’s Bravo Company, as opposed to Calley’s Charlie CompanyIn just about all counts, the general strategy was a total, massive failure, which My Lai was a significant part of that. With an other war, maybe it would have all muddled through, but in the Vietnam War the American politicians probably did not know who was running North Vietnam, to what extent they would go, enough significant flaws to exploit for likely traction, and the US’s own limitations. The risk of failure was considerably higher than it should of, could have been, nor was a proper assessment made. Eisenhower made the assessment in 1954, correctly understanding all those above parts concerning Vietnam and nixing US intervention.24:00 minute mark, I think:Admittedly the US/Western world was also unaware that the Pathet Lao - Wikipedia was headed by Kaysone Phomvihane - Wikipedia rather than the Red Prince Souphanouvong - Wikipedia, as was believed until about 1986.And finally, no, there was more to it than only Calley. Case and point was the mysteriously hidden ‘My Khe’ as mentioned above, where about 70 people are believed to have been killed about two kilometers away, within minutes or during the exact same time of My Lai, by a sister company.Still, Calley needs the lion share of the blame, IMO, as we do not know the details and the death toll was more in keeping of a lower incident. I do not believe the higher up knew that was in the cards, meaning negligence rather than willful. Calley was the weakest link.Medina should have been convicted, too, and at least served a couple years in prison at hard labor for gross negligence. Calley was neither the ‘fall guy’ (despite the peace people’s intention to make him so), nor the whole picture, but merely the weakest link, and willful at that. In the eyes of the law, that is the differentiation between said crimes. And Calley was let off in the end due to checking-under-cushions-for-change politics of a waning war, a far cry from what went in to the breach during 1965.Gallup Finds 79% Disapprove of Verdict (Published 1971) (Immediately after the verdict, both on the right and left wanted Calley freed, which was unheard of in such polarized times; there is even a cartoon of a hippie and a construction worker holding up signs of such and improbably meeting gape mouthed.)https://www.quora.com/What-happened-during-the-Vietnam-War-that-nobody-talks-about-today/answer/Carey-Sublette/comment/77450078And finally, to be fair, here is a video excerpt from the man who broke the My Lai story, Seymour Hersh. While I respect his investigation skills, his beliefs are, well, often interesting. For example, he as off the cuff said that Obama is ‘probably the most competent president we will have for the next fifty years’ (in the 2016 interview by Tariq Ali). However, listen if you wish of the My Lai issue unfolding , and endure the Canadian interviewer Steve Paikin’s apparent smirk:For those of you who have had personal experience in Vietnam, or have friends and family who did, the intent was to examine what happened and why. My Lai on the scale was a unique event, though smaller individual issues happened. In a larger scope, the whole war was generally terrible for the inhabitants and other participants as far as I can see.I was too young for a strong impression. My next door neighbor was drafted and served a year or so before meeting him, as a doctor, and was in the rear areas. So my world was very distant. To many who fought in the American forces, it was a noble cause. It may have had religious (50% of the US troops were Catholic) or regional (enlisted were generally from poorer families, many from the South) issues. I do not know. It is a complicated topic.——————————————————————————————This has been a work in progress for myself as well. I tend to be right wing, not expecting absolutes in complicated issues, but this has gone beyond the pale. Originally I accepted that it was Calley, with a sideline of regular bureaucratic issues, much as happened in, say, the North West Frontier of India 1800’s to 1947 (Bugles and Tigers).More than I am comfortable with, the massacre showed some deeper issues than just Calley, though hardly just another cog in the chain. No one expects perfection in wartime, but some things were just not right (as happened in other wars, to a large degree). Some units go bad, some people went bad, including top and middle officers. War is hell, while that does not make this incident any easier. The 1st Infantry Division (United States) - Wikipedia, a formerly well famed unit, was returned to the US due to My Lai, as recalled.See also Benjamin Butler - Wikipedia who advertised on posters for loose women for the troops in New Orleans during the Civil War “No California Widows need apply”.Or the twenty men who got the Medal of Honor for the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre - Wikipedia, apparently for very little. Or the Medal of Honor winner Leonard Wood - Wikipedia (about 1900 the standards were vastly upgraded and many were taken back, but not these ones) was apparently not in the rape of Geronimo band’s women, including his wives, but associated with those who did.Hopefully few of these Medal of Honor winners were responsible for the rapes and killing of women and children, of which there were well over two hundred in Wounded Knee alone. Custer took a 13 year old girl after killing or driving off the men in battle, muscling out the other officers who did the same with lesser prizes . It was sort of consensual statutory rape, she got teased about it for the rest of her life by her tribe, and Custer’s wife put a stop to it after a while when she found out. So there were roots long ago in Army tradition.Just trying to keep perspective. I’ll post more about the last paragraph as is found in the book About Face, of David Hackworth - Wikipedia’s couple of pages on My Lai. He points out this Vietnam incident was not the norm by any means.

You’d have to be a little more specific.Here’s the thing about police work. In a country that’s dedicated to the welfare of its citizens, cops are, generally, also devoted to the welfare of its citizens. In a country that oppresses its citizens, cops are the most common instrument of that oppression.As a cop, I take great pride in the fact that organizations like Scotland Yard, the RCMP, the US Marshals Service, the Texas Rangers, etc., are all part of law enforcement’s professional heritage.But so, unfortunately, are the Gestapo, the East German Stasi, the North Korean People’s Security Directorate, etc.So speaking broadly, the Gestapo (which, at best, supported a system that allowed the Holocaust, and, at worst, participated in the genocide), and law enforcement bodies in other totalitarian regimes, have committed mind-churningly horrific acts, as a matter of official policy, and a hell of a lot of ’em have gotten away with it.But, if your question is meant to be limited to police forces in democratic countries, or even more specifically, in the United States, then one of the worst I ever heard of was Craig Peyer, a California Highway Patrol officer who made sexual advances towards attractive women he stopped for supposed traffic violations on his freeway beat. When he tried to do the same thing to a San Diego State undergrad named Cara Knott, it turned physical and Cara wound up dead. Peyer tried to cover up his crime, but was eventually found out, tried, convicted, and is still doing life. He’s been denied parole three times.Officer Antoinette Frank, New Orleans Police, working with her drug-dealing lover, killed a brother officer, and two members of a family that owned a Vietnamese restaurant, during a robbery of that restaurant. A jury took 25 minutes to convict (a record for quickness in capital cases in Louisiana) and 45 minutes to decide to recommend the death penalty (another record). She’s appealing her sentence, but the clock’s ticking. If and when she’s executed, she’ll be the first woman in Louisiana to face the ultimate penalty since the 1940′s.Former Huron, SD, police officer and Beadle County, SD, Sheriff Vern Miller, stole county funds while in office and fled the area. Convicted of embezzlement he did a year in prison. After his release, with Prohibition in effect and the Depression looming on the horizon, he began a career as a professional gangster, robbing banks, bootlegging, and hiring himself out as a gunman and contract killer. He was one of the men behind the Kansas City Massacre, in which four police officers wound up dead. When his continued existence became too much of a liability to his fellow gangsters, he was killed and left on the side of a road so that law enforcement would ease up on them. So he paid, but not legally.In 2013, Christopher Dorner, who’d been fired off the LAPD, killed five people, most of them cops or family members of cops. He was no longer a cop at the time, but he still self-identified as a cop (and, tellingly, the public thought of him as a cop). Dorner died resisting arrest when he barricaded himself inside a vacation cabin in San Bernardino County.Just last week, a federal cop named Eulalio Tordil was arrested after a two-day shooting spree that left three people dead in Maryland. Now, he hasn’t yet been convicted, so he’s still entitled to the presumption of innocence. Also, he had already been suspended, his gun privilege yanked, and his badge revoked, by his employing agency, the Federal Protective Service, some weeks earlier, so he wasn’t authorized to act as a cop when he is alleged to have committed the crimes he’s accused of. His case is still pending, so we won’t know what his punishment, if any, might be.There’ve been American cops who’ve committed murders for hire, who’ve dealt drugs, who’ve molested children, who’ve operated burglary rings, and otherwise abused their trusts and misused their badges.But here’s the thing to remember. There’s somewhere between 600,000 and 700,000 cops in the US. Most of them are honest, honorable people trying to do an honest, honorable job, a job that’s difficult at best, and life-threatening at worst. The ones who dishonor their profession are in the minority, and they make the news precisely because they are the exceptions.

HistoryThe name Cayuga (Gayogohó:no') means "People of the Great Swamp."They belong to the Iroquoian language family, and were one of the original the Five Nations of the League of the Iroquois, who traditionally lived in New York.[3]The Five Nations were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Senecaand Cayuga. When the Tuscarora joined the Iroquois Confederation in 1722, the confederacy was known as the Six Nations.In early times, the Cayuga lived primarily between Owasco and Cayuga lakes, which lay between the territory of the Onondaga and Seneca. Jesuits founded missions among the Cayuga in the mid-17th century. In 1660, there were approximately 1,500 Cayuga.[3]In the beginning of the 18th century, the Cayuga primarily lived in three villages, composed of at least 30 longhouses. About 500 people lived in each of these villages.[2]The Cayuga became trading partner with the French from Canada and were active in the beaver fur trade. They also traded with the Huron for birch bark goods.[2]All the main Iroquois nations except the Oneida had allied with the British in the American Revolution. They were considered defeated in the war. The British gave up both their and Indian claims to lands in treaty negotiations, and the Iroquois were forced to cede their lands to the United States. Most relocated to Canada after the Treaty of Canandaigua in 1794, although some bands were allowed small reservations in New York. New York made separate purchases and leases of land from the Indians, which were not ratified by the US Congress.GovernmentThe Cayuga Nation is headquartered in Seneca Falls, New York. They are governed by a council of chiefs, chosen by clanmothers. The Cayuga Nation is part of the Haudenosaunee confederacy.LocationUnder the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, 64,000 acres at the north end of Cayuga Lakewere reserved to the Cayuga. This reservation was never disestablished, but New York sold off the land.[4]For the past 200 years, citizens mainly lived on Seneca reservations.[5]In 2005 the Cayuga Nation began to purchase land within its reservation territory and provide assistance for Cayuga Nation members to return to their homeland.[6]Tribal enrollmentChildren of tribal members can be enrolled at birth. As the tribe has a matrilinealkinship system, children are considered to be born into the mother's clan. Descent and inheritance are passed through the maternal lines. The tribe requires members to have a mother who is Cayuga.[7]Economic developmentEditThe nation controls several businesses, including Lakeside Trading convenience stores; Pullens Towing and Recovery service; Harford Glen Water, a pure water bottler; Gakwiyo Garden, which grows 35 types of fruits and vegetables and provides food for over one hundred member households; Cayuga Corner, which sells fresh produce and flowers; and Cayuga Sugar Shack, an ice cream stand and miniature golf course in Seneca Falls.[8]They own Lakeside Entertainment, which includes two Class II Gamingfacilities; however, both are temporarily closed[9]due to ongoing legal battles with the State of New York.Lakeside Trading PostEditThe Cayuga Indian Nation owns two pieces of property from which it operates its Lakeside Trading Post: a convenience store and gas station operation. One store is located in the Town of Seneca Falls and the other in the Village of Union Springs.On November 25, 2008, the Seneca and Cayuga County Sheriffs' Departments seized all the cigarettes at two locations of the Lakeside Trading Post because of the Cayuga refusal to remit state excise taxes on sales. The Cayuga have said that as a sovereign nation, they do not owe taxes to the state. This was part of a long-standing issue with the counties and state. The Seneca County District Attorney said the counties were in the right because the Cayugas did not own any sovereign land in either county.The state contends that only by operating on sovereign land (a reservation) would the tribe be exempt from the taxes.A 2005 US Supreme Court decision ruled that Indian tribes could not claim sovereignty on land they purchased; they had to apply to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and have the land put in trust for their use.[10]The Cayuga Indian Nation sought to enjoin the authorities from initiating any prosecution and to compel them to return the seized cigarettes.[11]New York Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Fisher denied the Cayugas' motion for a preliminary injunction and dismissed the action.Land claimsEditThe Cayuga Nation of New York began a land claim action on November 19, 1980, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York to pursue legislative and monetary restitution for land taken from it by the State of New York during the 18th and 19th centuries. New York entered into land sales and leases with the Cayuga Nation after the signing of the Treaty of Canandaigua after the American Revolutionary War. Its failure to get approval of the United States Congress meant the transactions were illegal as it did not have the constitutional authority to deal with the tribes. The Treaty of Canandaigua holds that only the United States government may enter into legal discussions with the Haudenosaunee.In 1981, the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma was added as a plaintiff in the claim. A jury trial on damages was held from January 18 – February 17, 2000. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, finding current fair market value damages of $35 million and total fair rental value damages of $3.5 million. The jury gave the state a credit for the payments it had made to the Cayugas of about $1.6 million, leaving the total damages at approximately $36.9 million. On October 2, 2001, the court issued a decision and order which awarded a prejudgment interest award of $211 million and a total award of $247.9 million.Both the plaintiffs and the defendants appealed this award. On June 28, 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rendered a decision that reversed the judgment of the trial court. It ruled in favor of the defendants, based on the doctrine of laches. Essentially the court ruled that the plaintiffs had taken too long to present their case, when it might have been equitably settled earlier.The Cayuga Indian Nation of New York sought review of this decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which was denied on May 15, 2006. The time in which the Cayuga Indian Nation could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear the case has passed.