International law extra Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

International law extra - Essay Example It was however difficult to pinpoint the location of the 48th Battalion responsible for the Tet offensive. After gathering intelligence reports, the military authorities collectively decided that the 48th Battalion was near the village of My Lai. American military authorities then planned to seek out and neutralize the 48th Battalion through the elements of the Task Force Barker. Their orders from their military officers were to clean out the area and destroy the villages. The civilians however were to be spared. When the different platoons, including Charlie Company, were deployed to the suspected area, they met no resistance, no Viet Cong, no 48th Battalion. Only Vietnamese civilians appeared to occupy the village. And for William Calley and other members of the Charlie Company, they felt it was their time to take revenge for the men they lost in combat and for the atrocities that the Viet Cong committed against them. â€Å"Soldiers shot old men sitting outside their homes, women carrying water, children searching for places to hide† (Olson & Roberts, p. 22). Not one of these Vietnamese fired back, and yet they were gunned down by the soldiers. Calley ordered his men to shoot all the civilians because their superior officers ordered them to. Some of the soldiers disobeyed the orders and others reluctantly carried out the orders. Calley was in his element. He happily pulled the trigger on every man, woman and child at the My Lai village. And in the end, Charlie Company â€Å"rounded up and killed as many as 500 unarmed women, children, and elderly Vietnamese in the hamlet of My Lai 4 in Son My, South Vietnam† (Wilkins, p. 77). Lt. Calley was court-martialed, charged with the murder of Vietnamese civilians. Four officers and nine enlisted men were also charged with murder. However, most of these charges were dropped and only a few, especially the charges against Calley, made it through to trial. Private