My Lai

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade October 2001

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In the case against William Calley it is said that he ordered his troops to kill civilians at a place in Vietnam called My Lai or was he following orders from his superior Captain Earnest Medina. At the end of the trial after hearing all the evidence against and for Calley I decided that he was not guilty of what they said that he had done. I think that Calley is not guilty of premeditated murder because in war you pretty much premeditate everything except when you are the one being attacked. I guess the question then goes who gave the premeditated order to kill all the people in the town of My Lai, Calley or Medina.

        It was said that 5 out of the 105 troops said that it was Medina that gave the order to kill everyone in the village and the prosecution used those numbers to show that very few heard it come from him, but they never said all of the 105 were there when he gave whatever order he gave so maybe good 20 to 80 were not around to here the order and just heard what Calley told them to do.

Killing was also encouraged because a higher body count was better. It was also said that Calley did not always follow the orders that were given to him and the prosecution tried to use that Calley had trouble with authority and because of this he was not that good of a person or something like that.

        The prosecution tried to make Calley look like an evil guy by telling his men to kill all the civilians that they had rounded up in My Lai and a few followed his orders and then tried to get sympathy from us by saying that they cried...