My Lai

[hornet32]

When Lt. William Calley ordered his men to gun down the villagers it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this was an unlawful order so WHY did his men comply ? a couple of things come to mind one the platoon was part of the Americal Division this Division was composed of the dregs and misfits of the American Army and were kept in the bush forever , two this platoon had been bashing through the bush for something like 40 days constantly being snipped at shot at , booby trapped , on an on day an night , with tempers flaring all it would take was a spark My Lai was the spark .

[Swampy]

My Lai is nothing compared to the Hue Massacre by the Viet Cong.

[hornet32]

Not trying to make a comparison My Lai was murder without a cause , Hue those people were murdered for what they represented anti-communist , religious leaders , government officials and those considered a pain in the ass .

[Swampy]

Jan 28, 2014 22:28:09 GMT -5 hornet32 said:

Not trying to make a comparison My Lai was murder without a cause , Hue those people were murdered for what they represented anti-communist , religious leaders , government officials and those considered a pain in the ass .

Doesn't matter - mass murder is still mass murder.

[hornet32]

Murder by any other name is still murder , is there such a thing as justifiable murder a good lawyer would have the answer to that , our good friends at Hue would argue the killings of course were justifiable , those at My Lai would also say of course the killings were justifiable the village people were aiding the enemy .

[Swampy]

Agreed. But the point remains that Hue was 30 times or more greater in terms of numbers killed.

[dontom]

Jan 28, 2014 20:36:52 GMT -5 hornet32 said:

When Lt. William Calley ordered his men to gun down the villagers it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this was an unlawful order so WHY did his men comply ?

When I was in Basic at Ft. Lewis, WA,(1969--before My Lai was exposed) we were told the correct procedure of what to do when we believe we have been given an illegal order.

1. First carry out the order which you believe is illegal.

2. Only after the order has been carried out, take the steeps to question its legality.

Now, that was what we were told. I never saw this in writing.

But since the My Lai thing, I doubt if anybody has been told such again!

-Don- Reno, NV

[dontom]

Jan 28, 2014 23:44:04 GMT -5 hornet32 said:

those at My Lai would also say of course the killings were justifiable the village people were aiding the enemy .

Most of those people in My Lia were helping the VC. Doesn't that make them our enemy? The only issue was they were unarmed and included women and children. However, soldiers were killed in Vietnam from both, women and children (Even I have been shot at by a young kid while in Cambodia). So perhaps the only real issue is that our enemy was unarmed in My Lai.

-Don- Reno, NV

[Sir John]

1. First carry out the order which you believe is illegal.

2. Only after the order has been carried out, take the steeps to question its legality.


Did they say that at Nuremburg?

So, an Officer says to a Private, "shoot those kids", and he does! Later that day he writes a letter to the Company CO setting out the problem. The Officer says, "he is a lying bastard, I never gave that order!"

Checkmate!


SJ

[hornet32]

Many a good American went home in a box for not shooting a kid .