ed VC men, women, and children, or those who were VC sympathizers.One reason that the attack on My Khe remained buried for so long was that there were only 10 men involved at the massacre. Two were dead, and the others refused to testify. There were instructions given by CPT Medina not to discuss or report the operation of March 16.Of the soldiers charged, only Lt. William Calley was convicted by court-martial. These led to formal charges of murdering approximately 100 civilians at My Lai. Considerable public sympathy surprisingly developed for Calley, many thought that he had "taken the rap" for his men. Others thought that it was war, and in war innocent people die, and that Calley was only doing his job. On March 29, 1971, Calley was found guilty of the slaying of at least 22 Vietnamese Civilians. On April 1, 1971, Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment. The options were this or death. He was ordered "To be confined at hard labor for the length of your natural life, to be dismissed from the Army and forfeiture of all pay, and allowances here of" (NY Times).After all is said and done, one wonders; Now that I know what happened and the results of it, but why? What would lead a person to do this kind of thing? Surely not any law abiding citizen, and especially not an army officer in his/her right mind would ever do a thing like this. One question that we may never know is what was going through the minds of the soldiers at that time. James Armstrong Ph.D. once said, " They say we were there to defend the Vietnamese civilian, yet of all the persons involved, they were undoubtedly the primary casual, the primary victim of the war." (Armstrong 133).I feel this statement is so true. It really expresses the truth that I have not been able to put into words before. The main victims of Vietnam were not the soldiers who went off to war and not always those who even gave their lives, but perhaps the victims were the poor Vietnam...
