Papers on "Lieutenant William Calley" and similar term paper topics

Paper #062622 :: Lieutenant William Calley
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An analysis of the My Lai Massacre and the war crimes committed by Lieutenant William Calley.

Written in 2005; 1,506 words; 8 sources; MLA; $ 49.95

Paper Summary:

This paper presents a brief history of the My Lai Massacre and the war crimes Lieutenant William Calley committed during the Vietnam War. The paper explains that Calley's sentence was reduced by President Nixon from life in prison to a three-year house arrest at Ft. Benning, GA. The paper examines the dilemmas that the jury had to face when coming to a final verdict and discusses why that verdict should not have been pardoned by President Nixon. The paper justifies this with very strong supporting evidence. The psychological experiments done by Stanley Milgram on the human nature regarding authority is also addressed in the paper. The paper also provides a comparison to a modern day war crime, the Abu Ghraib Prison scandals during the Iraqi War.

From the Paper:

"On March 16, 1968 the southern Vietnamese hamlet My Lai, was invaded by a demoralized platoon of U.S. soldiers, led by Lt. William L. Calley. During the four hours at My Lai, an estimated 347 unarmed civilians were brutally massacred by American GI's. These civilians included women, babies, children, and old men. Many of these civilians were raped, sodomized, mutilated, tortured, and then shot to death in cold blood. This shameful incident remained unknown to the American public until the autumn of 1969. That is nearly 18 months that the government and U.S. Army kept it covered up from the public. We may not have ever known of this abhorrent event if not for journalist Seymour Hersh, who tapped Pentagon sources and began publishing syndicated stories about My Lai. After the bloodshed was made public, special investigations by the U.S. army and the House of Representatives took place. Several soldiers and veterans were charged with murder, and a number of officers were accused of dereliction of duty for covering up the massacre at My Lai. However, only five of these soldiers were court-martialed and one of them, Lt. William Calley, was convicted. Calley was found guilty on March 29, 1971 for premeditated murder of at least twenty-two Vietnamese civilians and was sentenced to life imprisonment. However, President Nixon pardoned his sentence, and reduced his punishment to serve just 3 ? years under house arrest at Fort Benning in Georgia. Is this justice? Was Nixon's pardon justifiable? Is Lt. Calley a sadistic lunatic fringe on society or was he innocently and blindly obeying orders given by a higher ranking authority figure?"

Tags: abu calley ghraib milgram nixon vietnam

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