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Lieutenant Calley: His Own Story
America's most infamous soldier tells all.
- GenresBiography
181 pages, Hardcover
First published September 15, 1971
39 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 3, 2022
This work is the result of Lieutenant Calley's pathetic attempts to move the blame for the massacre in My Lai from himself to everyone else.
Second Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr. became infamous not because he had overseen and participated in the My Lai killings, but because, after the investigation of the massacre and the subsequent trials, he was the only one convicted. The accusations against the majority of his superiors and inferiors were dropped. The rest of them were acquitted. The jury's decision was unfair. Calley should not have been the only one punished for the war crimes of a hundred American soldiers, if we count only the immediate perpetrators and not their superiors, in the South Vietnamese village. Rumors spread that the lieutenant had been framed, and the words Calley and scapegoat were often mentioned in the same sentence. The myth that Lieutenant Calley was the My Lai trials' scapegoat was born.
In this memoir, he tries to foster this myth by actively implying that the members of Charlie Company testified against him during his trial to save themselves from lengthy prison sentences. He claims that he had neither participated in the killing of civilians nor ordered other Americans to do so. However, the story he attempts to sell sharply contrasts with the confessions of the guilt-ridden Charlie Company men and with the testimony of reconnaissance pilot Hugh Thompson, who, together with his crew and other pilots, risked his life to save My Lai villagers from the American soldiers.
Calley entered the village of My Lai on the morning of March 16, 1968, with his infantry platoon and initiated the massacre of about 500 civilians with automatic weapons, grenades, knives, and bayonets. Other platoons joined in the mass murder, and eventually the whole C Company engaged in countless acts of rape, torture, killing, and mutilation.
It was not difficult for Calley or anyone else to figure out that there were not any Viet Cong guerrillas in the village of My Lai. Not a single shot was fired back at the Americans. The only wounded American soldier had accidentally shot himself in the foot while trying to clear a jammed .45 caliber pistol that another soldier had borrowed from him to shoot a child. Calley nevertheless allowed his men to butcher the women, children, and old men who were the only inhabitants of the village. They died together, by the hundreds, but they also died individually, each one in unfathomably violent, painful, and terrifying way.
Some soldiers herded villagers into groups and blew them apart piece by piece with rounds from grenade launchers. Others subjected the helpless people to machine gun and automatic weapons fire at point-blank range. Calley, who insists to have stayed clear of what was happening, participated in two of those mass executions. Furthermore, when a child, barely old enough to walk, tried to crawl out of the ditch where its mother had just been murdered, Calley personally pushed it back into the ditch and shot it. Then he returned to beating the old man that he had been interrogating. The second lieutenant behaved like a monster.
Both during the trial and in his memoir, he claims that in My Lai his men had become uncontrollable, and he could not do anything about that. This contradicts Thompson's story, though. As the shocked pilot told his commander immediately after he returned from My Lai, when he had landed near the ditch full of wounded victims and demanded to know what was going on and how he and the other aeroscouts could help, it had been Calley who had screamed at him that he, Calley, was the boss on the ground, not Thompson, and that Thompson should mind his own business. This demonstrates that Calley was, or at least believed to be, in control of his men, and that he was overseeing the killing rampage willingly.
LIEUTENANT CALLEY is a deliberately misleading account. Calley was not a scapegoat in the sense that he was unjustly accused. He encouraged and committed unspeakable atrocities in My Lai. His attempts to cover up the evidence for his participation in the massacre are unconvincing. This book is full of lies. I do not recommend it.
Second Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr. became infamous not because he had overseen and participated in the My Lai killings, but because, after the investigation of the massacre and the subsequent trials, he was the only one convicted. The accusations against the majority of his superiors and inferiors were dropped. The rest of them were acquitted. The jury's decision was unfair. Calley should not have been the only one punished for the war crimes of a hundred American soldiers, if we count only the immediate perpetrators and not their superiors, in the South Vietnamese village. Rumors spread that the lieutenant had been framed, and the words Calley and scapegoat were often mentioned in the same sentence. The myth that Lieutenant Calley was the My Lai trials' scapegoat was born.
In this memoir, he tries to foster this myth by actively implying that the members of Charlie Company testified against him during his trial to save themselves from lengthy prison sentences. He claims that he had neither participated in the killing of civilians nor ordered other Americans to do so. However, the story he attempts to sell sharply contrasts with the confessions of the guilt-ridden Charlie Company men and with the testimony of reconnaissance pilot Hugh Thompson, who, together with his crew and other pilots, risked his life to save My Lai villagers from the American soldiers.
Calley entered the village of My Lai on the morning of March 16, 1968, with his infantry platoon and initiated the massacre of about 500 civilians with automatic weapons, grenades, knives, and bayonets. Other platoons joined in the mass murder, and eventually the whole C Company engaged in countless acts of rape, torture, killing, and mutilation.
It was not difficult for Calley or anyone else to figure out that there were not any Viet Cong guerrillas in the village of My Lai. Not a single shot was fired back at the Americans. The only wounded American soldier had accidentally shot himself in the foot while trying to clear a jammed .45 caliber pistol that another soldier had borrowed from him to shoot a child. Calley nevertheless allowed his men to butcher the women, children, and old men who were the only inhabitants of the village. They died together, by the hundreds, but they also died individually, each one in unfathomably violent, painful, and terrifying way.
Some soldiers herded villagers into groups and blew them apart piece by piece with rounds from grenade launchers. Others subjected the helpless people to machine gun and automatic weapons fire at point-blank range. Calley, who insists to have stayed clear of what was happening, participated in two of those mass executions. Furthermore, when a child, barely old enough to walk, tried to crawl out of the ditch where its mother had just been murdered, Calley personally pushed it back into the ditch and shot it. Then he returned to beating the old man that he had been interrogating. The second lieutenant behaved like a monster.
Both during the trial and in his memoir, he claims that in My Lai his men had become uncontrollable, and he could not do anything about that. This contradicts Thompson's story, though. As the shocked pilot told his commander immediately after he returned from My Lai, when he had landed near the ditch full of wounded victims and demanded to know what was going on and how he and the other aeroscouts could help, it had been Calley who had screamed at him that he, Calley, was the boss on the ground, not Thompson, and that Thompson should mind his own business. This demonstrates that Calley was, or at least believed to be, in control of his men, and that he was overseeing the killing rampage willingly.
LIEUTENANT CALLEY is a deliberately misleading account. Calley was not a scapegoat in the sense that he was unjustly accused. He encouraged and committed unspeakable atrocities in My Lai. His attempts to cover up the evidence for his participation in the massacre are unconvincing. This book is full of lies. I do not recommend it.
September 6, 2025
Intriguing, I guess, is the best word I can use here. This book was an insightful addition to a collection of books on Vietnam I've been going through, and I'm glad I read it. I appreciate the deeper context he provides so now when I hear about the Mylai Massacre, I can consider the situation beyond the surface level "he killed old men, women, children, and babies." It is just not that simple. The other people involved, orders from higher ups, the psychology of a brutal war, and the somewhat understandable (if not agreeable) reasons for his actions paint a much more complex picture than the media ever led America to believe.
(Lots of graphic content, as is typical with Vietnam War memoirs!)
(Lots of graphic content, as is typical with Vietnam War memoirs!)
March 26, 2019
One star for historical value, I guess, but it's clearly the BS of a murderer trying to get sympathy by attacking the war and waxing philosophical about war in general.
November 6, 2022
What a powerful book. It was told with a real honesty and passion. It was a look inside being in the Vietnam War on the front lines. Calley followed orders as best he could. He also wanted to stay alive. He was blamed for the whole situation he was trapped in. War is Hell and he lived through it.
When we went to fight in Afghanistan all I could think of is how we had learned nothing from the Vietnam War. We were repeating it.
When we went to fight in Afghanistan all I could think of is how we had learned nothing from the Vietnam War. We were repeating it.
April 29, 2018
This book was hard to read because it brings out a lot of hard to face truths. It brings to light the insanity of the Vietnam War. But, I give it 5 stars because Lt Calley tells it like it is ... it's not a pretty story but one that needed to be told. The book flows well, it's essentially Lt Calley talking, presenting his side of what happened and why. The most difficult truth exposed is this ... Lt Calley was carrying out orders with the full force and backing of the US government and the US army. I cringe to think if I was in his shoes ... I have to ask myself, 'would I have done the same thing?' I'd like to think I wouldn't have, but that's easy to say when you're at home sitting in a lounge chair. Not so easy when you're in the middle of it. And, here's another ugly truth that comes out in the book ... lots of other officers and soldiers committed atrocities ... which leads me to believe, Calley's My Lai was no isolated incident.
June 9, 2021
Yikes!
An invaluable look into the inflexible military mind. Calley is not the sharpest pencil in the bunch, and admits it. He also says he was just following orders that came from way, way up high. To wit: Who's responsible for the My Lai Massacre? The gov't and people of the United States.
Also full of hair-raising detail. Ever wonder what it'd be like to be shooting up villages in Vietnam? Shooting women in the face? Shooting babies? Burning them? Then this book is for you.
And just FYI, well-written it's not. It's more first person stream of consciousness.
An invaluable look into the inflexible military mind. Calley is not the sharpest pencil in the bunch, and admits it. He also says he was just following orders that came from way, way up high. To wit: Who's responsible for the My Lai Massacre? The gov't and people of the United States.
Also full of hair-raising detail. Ever wonder what it'd be like to be shooting up villages in Vietnam? Shooting women in the face? Shooting babies? Burning them? Then this book is for you.
And just FYI, well-written it's not. It's more first person stream of consciousness.
May 16, 2023
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AbeBooks' uniqueness is our network of independent booksellers who work with us to provide the most diverse selection of rare, used and out-of-print books on the Internet. It is these sellers, with their experience, commitment and love of the used and out-of-print book business who help all our buyers find that treasure they've been looking for.
September 2, 2014
Lieutenant Calley: His Own Story by William L. Calley as told to John Sack (Viking Press 1971)(Biography). Juvenile and foul by all accounts, this volume apparently captures the real Rusty Calley of Vietnam War era My Lai massacre fame. Let’s hope that it does not. My rating: 6/10, finished 10/1/2010.
February 23, 2014
although the book supposedly gives Calley's side of the story. it really offers no answers.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews