Trial of U.S. soldiers. U.S. Lieutenant William Calley Jr. faces court-martial for ordering his platoon to massacre 102 unarmed peasants in My Lai, South Vietnam, in March 1968. The Army hoped to conduct Calley’s trial in secret, but independent journalist Seymour Hersh discovered and published details of the massacre on November 13. Calley was ultimately imprisoned, but was released three years later after a federal judge ruled his detention unconstitutional. The Army’s original sentence was life imprisonment, but it was later commuted to 20 years and then 10 years, before finally being released. Others were also accused of participating in the massacres and subsequent cover-ups, but only Calley was convicted. Eyewitness accounts indicate that U.S. soldiers murdered between 300 and 500 women, children, and elderly people in My Lai.
