"Calley’s attorney said in an interview: “This is one case that should never have been brought. Whatever killing there was was in a firefight in connection with the operation.... You can’t afford to guess whether a civilian is a Viet Cong or not. Either they shoot you or you shoot them" This case is going to be important—to what standard do you hold a combat officer in carrying out a mission?... Calley’s friends in the officer corps at Fort Benning, many of them West Point graduates, are indignant. However, knowing the high stakes of the case, they express their outrage in private. “They’re using this as a Goddamned example,” one officer complained. “He’s a good soldier. He followed orders. There weren’t any friendlies in the village. The orders were to shoot anything that moved.” Another officer said “It could happen to any of us. He has killed and has seen a lot of killing. ..Killing becomes nothing in Vietnam. He knew that there were civilians there, but he also knew that there were VC among them.”"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Pulitzer Prize winnersNon-fiction authors from the United StatesPolitical authors from the United StatesInvestigative journalistsJournalists from Chicago
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Lieutenant Accused of Murdering 109 Civilians St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 13, 1969
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Seymour Hersh
181 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Seymour Hersh →
Related Quotes
"I would close down the news bureaus of the networks and let's start all over... The majors, NBCs, ABCs, they won't li…"
"The republic's in trouble, we lie about everything, lying has become the staple."
"William L Calley Jr., 26 years old, is a mild-mannered, boyish-looking Vietnam combat veteran with the nickname “Rust…"
"Three American soldiers who participated in the March 1968 attack on a Vietnam village called Pinkville said in inter…"
"Bernhardt, short and intense, told his story in staccato fashion, with an obvious sense of relief at finally talking …"
"In a private letter dated Aug. 6, 1969, Col. John G. Hill, a deputy for staff action control in the office of Army Ch…"
"A former GI told in interviews yesterday how he executed, under orders, dozens of South Vietnamese civilians during t…"
"Meadlo said he crashed through the door and “found an old man in there shaking. “I told them, ‘I got one,’ and it was…"
"The whole operation took about 30 minutes, Meadlo said. As for Calley, Meadlo told of an incident a few weeks before …"
"The New York Times still has investigative journalists but they do much more of carrying water for the president than…"