You are a solider in the U.S. Armed Forces. You have been trained to carry out all orders from your superiors without question. Why? But, what if you disagree with an order? What are your options and risks?

Your former C.O. always said to “never walk the roads or trails in the Nam.” “You don’t want to meet the Viet Cong on their own terms,” he explained. “If you want to go home as a pile of limbs in a box, you go walking down the road looking for the V.C!” So your unit stayed off the roads and trails and nobody got hurt.

Your C.O. is given a desk job and is replaced by a new, younger commander. His first order to your unit is to walk two miles down a road to a landing point in broad daylight.

Later, you are at the base camp north of the U.S. airbase at Pleiku. At 2100 hours your C.O. tells you to patrol the perimeter for V.C. while the remainder of your exhausted unit gets some much needed sleep. “Shoot anything that moves out there,” he says. Lately the V.C. has been firing mortar rounds from beyond the perimeter, and last week, your buddy Trevor took a piece of shrapnel in his leg from a V.C mortar while sleeping.

As dusk approaches, you see a Vietnamese kid coming near you. He looks young, but it’s difficult to tell. He may be snooping around.

Do you shoot as your C.O. has ordered? Or do you have a moral obligation to wait and see?

Vietnam: My Lai

My Lai “4” My Lai is the name of several small hamlets in the village of Son My, located in Quang Ngai Province, near the South China Sea. The U.S. Military added the numbers “1” through “6” to distinguish among them.

In the spring of 1967, U.S. Marines on “search and destroy” missions in Quang Ngai Province suffered heavy casualties to an unseen enemy.

Frustration mounted, and emotions intensified in the weeks preceding My Lai, as G.I.’s saw many of their comrades killed and maimed by bombs, mines, and booby traps.

The Viet Cong guerillas, after attacking, often melted into Vietnamese village life, so that it was often virtually impossible to differentiate between peasants and the enemy.

The U.S. military command planned a large scale attack on My Lai. The village of Son My was believed to be a major Viet Cong stronghold, and V.C. soldiers, according to planners, were expected to be in the hamlet.

The order was given to search and destroy the village of Son My. The exact nature of the orders given are not clear to this day.

On March 16, 1968, Lieutenant William Calley and his 1 st Platoon entered the hamlet of My Lai 4. Accounts of what initially occurred vary, and it has never been determined whether or not the troops were fired upon by anyone.

Lt. Calley’s men moved into the village and systematically shot at anything that moved. Civilians were rounded up into the center of the village and killed. In a few hours, 504 people—mostly women, children, and elderly—were executed.

There was one American casualty—a man shot himself in the foot.

Cover up A report filed two weeks later referred to the attack as “well planned, well executed, and successful.”

My Lai was successfully “swept under the rug” until Ronald L. Ridenhour, a former soldier who had heard of the event from participating troops, wrote a letter to President Nixon and a number of Congressmen, which prompted an investigation.

The investigation of My Lai led to the indictment of twelve officers and enlisted men on charges of murder. All were aquitted or had charges dismissed, except Lieutenant William Calley, who was found guilty of murder.

AMERICAN REACTION Do you agree or disagree with the decision of the military court which found (Lt. William) Calley guilty (in connection with the My Lai incident) and gave him a life sentence? Agree 7% Disagree 78% No opinion 15%

Who is responsible for My Lai?