Hi there,

In the six months since President Trump’s inauguration, we have seen unprecedented attacks on the press. Instead of pushing back, corporate owners of commercial networks are caving in. Because we do not accept any corporate or government funding, we rely on audience members like you to sustain our work. I hope you will donate today to support our independent journalism.Thanks to a group of generous donors, all donations today will be TRIPLED, which means your $15 gift is worth $45. If you believe that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential to the functioning of a democratic society, please donate today. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much.

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

William Calley, the Only Person Convicted over the My Lai Massacre, Dies at 80

HeadlineJul 30, 2024

The only person ever convicted over the notorious My Lai massacre of 1968 has died at the age of 80. Army Lieutenant William Calley was convicted in 1971 of murdering 22 North Vietnamese civilians and sentenced to life imprisonment and hard labor at Fort Leavenworth prison for his role in the massacre, when U.S. soldiers killed more than 500 Vietnamese women, children and old men. Calley ultimately served just three years under house arrest for the murders, and his sentence was commuted by President Nixon. In 2009, Calley issued a public apology for the massacre. The previous year, I spoke about Calley’s role at My Lai with investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who first broke the story.

Seymour Hersh: “They all got up at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, jumped on choppers and went to kill and be killed — you have to give them their due. And they got into the village, and there’s no soldiers there. The intelligence was bad, as it always is. And they gathered people. There was no fire at all, really, just old women, men and children making their — heating up water for their morning rice. And they gathered them eventually into three large ditches and began to execute them. Calley was — become infamous, but there were five or six first and second lieutenants that were also organizing it.”

Click here to see our coverage of the My Lai massacre.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top