Rights Breached, Responsibilities Neglected: How the My Lai Massacre Exposed the Ethical Issues of the Vietnam War
Responsibilities of Military Superiors
"Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland during press conference. The Army filed court martial charges against 14 officers including Major General Samuel W. Koster, now superintendent of West Point, in an alleged cover-up of information concerning the My Lai massacre." Getty Images/Bettman Archive
Task Force Barker’s senior commanders also bore legal and ethical responsibilities to enforce lawful conduct, give orders that aligned with international conventions, and uphold accountability.
“FM 27-10, Department of the Field Army Manual, Law of Land and Warfare, 18 July 1956.” Department of the Army Washington D.C.
“We only want this country to realize that it cannot try Calley for something which generals and Presidents and our way of life encouraged him to do. And if you try him, then at the same time you must try all those generals and Presidents and soldiers who have part of the responsibility. You must in fact try this country.”
-Future Secretary of State and Vietnam War Veteran, John Kerry, at a My Lai protest in New York
Instead, 14 officers participated in the cover-up of the massacre by botching reports and concealing evidence.
“APPENDIX 2 - UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE.” Joint Service Committee on Military Justice
"General Peers does make it clear that the Military Assistance Command Vietnam had issued appropriate directives concerning the training of troops in the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 on the Protection of Civilian Persons, on the safeguarding of noncombatants and private property and on the reporting and investigation of war crimes. The directives and the machinery were there, but they were unavailing when individuals disobeyed them and lied and distorted the facts."
-The New York Times, R. R. Baxter, 1976
Responsibility for My Lai extended all the way up the military chain of command in Vietnam.
"My Lai Chain of Command" TIME Magazine, April 12, 1971, Vol. 97, Pg 13
"Who Shares the Guilt?" TIME Magazine, April 12, 1971