arn. Then, on March 16, Lt. Calley became fed up with notreceiving the respect the thought the deserved. On a routine investigation of the small village ofMy Lai, Calley discovered an outlet for his rage (Hersh, Chpt. 2). Calley ordered for the 300 plusVietnamese civilians to be lined up and be systematically excited, one by one while the otherswatched. Every civilian found was killed. The following is a portion of a letter from a GIconcerning the incident: ...Some of the guys are so careless! Today a buddy of mine called "LaDai" (come here) into a hut. An old man came out of the shelter. My buddy told the man to getaway from the hut, and since we have to move quickly on a sweep, just threw a hand grenade intothe shelter. As he pulled the pin the old man got excited and started jabbering and running towardmy buddy and the hut. A GI, not understanding, stopped the old man with a football tackle just asmy buddy threw the grenade... After he threw it, and was running for cover, we all heard a babycrying from inside the shelter. There was nothing we could do.... After the explosion we found themother, two children (ages about six and twelve, boy and girl), and an almost newborn baby. Thatis what the old man was trying to tell us!... (Hersh, 12-13) November 17, 1970 Lt. Calley wastried for, and eventually convicted for, his part in the premeditated murder of 109 "Orientalhuman beings". In a court-martial, murder is punishable by death by hanging. After a longdeliberation, the jury returned a sentence of life imprisonment, of which William Calley servedthree years. Calley is now a successful jeweler in Columbus, Georgia (Knappmar, 598-601).Whether or not Lt. Calley was acting on order, as he claimed, or out of pure rage may never beknown. It is known, however, that without the psychological stresses caused by Vietnam, the MyLai Massacre may have never happened. The remainder of this paper is an investigation of thecauses and effects of those ...
