Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Former Lieutenant William Calley (U.S. army officer) has recently apologized publicly for having executed a massacre in South Vietnam on March 16th, 1968 for which he faced world-wide outrage.

“I am very sorry,” he said. “There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai.”

The unfortunate event which occurred 40 years back happened when a “search and destroy” mission was taken up by the men of Charlie Co. under the commandment of Calley. There was unverified information given to him that the village would have artillery barrage, and the soldiers had gone in with hostile intentions. It however turned out that there was no such armed resistance in the area but that dawned on them pretty late after they had caused damage by open firing on civilians. The men killed in the massacre were old defenseless natives working in the fields, and several children of the village who lost lives for no fault of theirs.

Pham Thanh Cong director of a museum at My Lai told AFP in a phone conversation that Calley would put to rest many grieving hearts and intriguing questions of the past by his apology that would be accepted by My Lai natives in good earnest. He also said that the apology had come too late to change anything since the event occurred 40 years back. Cong ’s mother and few brothers were victims of the massacre reportedly.

Calley revealed to his audience that he had precisely and obediently followed orders admitting to have “followed them(orders)….foolishly I guess.” However he stressed that he had done it solely because the lives of his troops was more dear to him than anybody else’s.