William Calley, Vietnam-era U.S. war criminal, dead at 80
The Hindu
William Calley, convicted in the My Lai massacre, died at 80 in Florida, ending a dark chapter in U.S. military history.
William Calley, a former U.S. Army lieutenant convicted of war crimes in a Vietnam-era tragedy called the My Lai massacre, has died at age 80, a U.S. newspaper reported on July 29.
The Washington Post said Calley died on April 28 in Gainesville, Florida, but his death had not been publicized until a recent public records search.
In 1971, Calley became the only member of the U.S. Army found guilty of war crimes over the My Lai massacre, one of the darkest chapters in U.S. military history.
It occurred on March 16, 1968, when Calley’s brigade entered the village of My Lai based on faulty intelligence that enemy Viet Cong soldiers were disguised among the civilians there.
Calley, age 24 at the time, ordered soldiers to kill villagers even though they had found no evidence of enemy combatants.
The massacre involved the torture, rape and slaughter of hundreds of innocent Vietnamese.
The U.S. Army covered up the events at My Lai for more than a year afterward.