The Guarantee of Future War Crimes: My Lai, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth

Jan 17, 2025

My Lai victims

Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert Jackson appointed by President Harry Truman to serve as the Chief U.S. Prosecutor at Nuremberg said to those organizing the trial some very important words that most people, including political leaders seem to have forgotten:

“If certain acts of violation of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us.”

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There is no doubt in my mind that the most unqualified man ever to become Secretary of Defense will be confirmed by the Trumpified Toadies of the Republican majority in the United States Senate. That was decided after the farce hearing conducted by Republicans on the Armed Services Committee resulted n Senator Joni Ernst announce that she would vote for Hegseth, despite being a sexual assault survivor. She did so to preserve her political career in the GOP after pro-Trump PACs ran brutal attack ads against her in Iowa shredded her, so rather than vote as an Army Lieutenant Colonel, combat veteran, or sexual assault survivor, she folded. With her surrender he has the votes to go through unless something completely unexpected happens.

True to form the other Republicans on the committee asked no hard questions about Hegseth’s lack of experience or qualifications, military or civilian, excused his misogyny, infidelity, White Nationalism, and his radical and outlandish statements about military personnel and leadership. Democrats shredded him, but they don’t have the votes to stop him with Republican support. That will not happen. Hegseth, who advised Trump to pardon convicted war criminals in 2019, will be the next Secretary of Defense.

SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher holding a Knife to the Scalp of a Dead ISIS fighter

The men Trump pardon were convicted at Court Martial by juries of their military peers, and in each case members of their units, men who they trained with and served alongside them in combat. Their accusers were fellow soldiers and sailors who saw their war crimes and reported them, as required by the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

This is profoundly troubling. Hegseth is a Christian Nationalist of the most violent type. His view of the Christian faith is much like the Medieval Crusaders, to eliminate the enemies of his understanding of the Christian faith through military action. Those include enemies foreign and domestic. He tried to skirt questions about violating the Geneva Conventions and other international treaties regarding the conduct of war, which the United States helped bring into force, or using the active duty military against American citizens, both of which he advocated as a Fox News host while Trump was in office and afterward.

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All of this takes me back to formative parts of my military career, which truthfully began when my dad was in the Navy during the Vietnam War. Once of those was the infamous My Lai massacre, committed by a platoon led by Lieutenant William Calley of the 23rd, Americal Division.

Lieutenant William Calley at his Court Martial

Richard Nixon defended Calley throughout his trial and commuted his sentence. In 2019, Donald Trump became the first president to pardon convicted of military courts-martial for murdering prisoners and other crimes. He followed the advice of Pete Hegseth, not military leaders, most who had served in combat far longer than Hegseth, as well as for more experience leading soldiers and much more knowledge about military history, operations, and law.

Vietnamese Civilians before being Murdered at My Lai

When Nixon commuted the sentence of Lieutenant William Calley, who was convicted of leading his platoon in the deadliest atrocity committed by American Troops in the Vietnam War, at a village called My Lai. His men’s butchery had to be stopped by an American helicopter commanded by Hugh Thompson, and its crew who interposed their bird between Calley’s men and other potential victims. Thompson threatened to shoot at Calley’s men if they didn’t stop. The crime was covered up by Calley’s chain-of-command, but because witnesses began to tell their stories, it became public and the Army was forced to deal with it.

Of all the officers charged and soldiers charged, only Calley was convicted. It took thirty years for the military to award the heroes who stopped the massacre.

U.S. Soldier Lighting a Hut on Fire at My Lai

In the six degrees of separation I am just twice removed from My Lai, two times. In my MSIII, junior year of Army ROTC in the Fall of 1981. My instructor was Major Barry Towne commanded part of the security force that guarded the investigators. He told us that Calley and his platoon were a criminal element who committed gross misconduct and indefensible war crimes by murdering hundred of Vietnamese civilians, including large numbers of women and children, before torching their village. Calley defended himself at his Court Martial by claiming that he was that “he was just following orders.” It was an excuse that was not accepted at Nuremberg or Tokyo when uttered by German and Japanese war criminals.

Major Towne told us of the massacre’s effects on the troops, the public, and the war. He told us that we would be war criminals if we ever ordered or allowed such crimes if we were in command, or if we followed orders to commit them.

The second time was in June of 1998 while I was serving as the Garrison Chaplain at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. I performed the funeral of Calley’s Brigade Commander, Colonel Oran Henderson. He was acquitted of all charges including the cover-up which he began the day of the massacre. At the time I didn’t know his fully complicity in the massacre. I began to discover that when I read his obituary in the New York Times the following day. All that I knew at the funeral was that his last active assignment was as the Garrison commander at Indiantown Gap in the 1970s and about his service as the emergency management director of Pennsylvania and a bit about his family. I don’t know if I could have conducted the service had I known of his conduct at My Lai.

However, the investigation revealed that Colonel Henderson, who had just taken command of the brigade ordered his commanders to "go in there aggressively, close with the enemy and wipe them out for good". The battalion commander, LTC Frank Barker reportedly ordered his company commanders to burn the houses, kill the livestock, destroy food supplies, and destroy or poison the wells. Note, all of these are crimes under the Geneva and Hague Conventions. Captain Ernest Medina, Calley’s company commander told his platoon leaders that the civilian population would have left the village to go to market, and that anyone remaining would be Viet Cong. Some platoon leaders testified that their orders were to kill all VC and North Vietnamese combatants and "suspects", which included women and children, as well as all animals, to burn the village, and pollute the wells.

One defense witness at Calley’s trial testified that he remembered Medina giving orders to destroy everything in the village that was "walking, crawling or growling.” A rifleman in Charlie Company, said, "We were told to leave nothing standing. We did what we were told, regardless of whether they were civilians."

During the operation, a group of approximately 70–80 villagers was rounded up by First Platoon and led to an irrigation ditch east of the settlement. They were then pushed into the ditch and shot dead by soldiers after repeated orders issued by Calley, who was also shooting. PFC Paul Meadlo testified that women were saying "No VC" and were trying to shield their children. PFC Dennis Konti, a witness for the prosecution, described the killings of children by Calley. "A lot of women had thrown themselves on top of the children to protect them, and the children were alive at first. Then, the children who were old enough to walk got up and Calley began to shoot the children"

PFC Michael Bernhardt entered the village as the massacre was underway, he testified:

“I walked up and saw these guys doing strange things ... Setting fire to the hootches and huts and waiting for people to come out and then shooting them ... going into the hootches and shooting them up ... gathering people in groups and shooting them ... As I walked in you could see piles of people all through the village ... all over. They were gathered up into large groups. I saw them shoot an M79 grenade launcher into a group of people who were still alive. But it was mostly done with a machine gun. They were shooting women and children just like anybody else. We met no resistance and I only saw three captured weapons. We had no casualties. It was just like any other Vietnamese village – old papa-sans, women and kids. As a matter of fact, I don't remember seeing one military-age male in the entire place, dead or alive.”

A Dead Mother and Child at My Lai

The massacre only ended when Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot providing air cover for the operation, saw the large number of dead civilians, landed and confronted Calley, rescuing some villagers and threatening to fire at the American soldiers if they continued. Thompson returned to his base, reported the situation which was verified by other aviators, which led to Lieutenant Colonel Barker ordering a cease fire.

Charlie Company, including Calley’s platoon killed 504 men, women, and children, none of whom were Viet Cong soldiers. They ranged in age from 1 year to 84 years old.

Telford Taylor, one of the Senior American prosecutors at Nuremberg “wrote that legal principles established at the war crimes trials could have been used to prosecute senior American military commanders for failing to prevent atrocities such as the one at My Lai.” Those included Generals, and many other senior officers.

High ranking officers directed a cover-up ans issued commendations to the unit for the “damage” it did to the Viet Cong. The problem was that no Viet Cong soldiers were present, and only a few weapons captured.

President Nixon commuted Calley’s life in prison sentence to three years house arrest, and in September 1974 Calley was pardoned by Secretary of the Army Howard Callaway. Callaway pardoned Calley because “Calley believed that he was following orders.” Based on the testimony of others, he might have actually believed that, but as an officer he had the responsibility to refuse to follow illegal orders, nor excuse him from the murders that he ordered and took part.

The massacre was unknown outside of the Army, and not seriously investigated until a number of soldiers wrote senior officers. In March, 1969 Specialist 5 Ron Ridenhour, a helicopter crew member of the 11th Brigade wrote a letter detailing what he saw and what other told him of the massacre to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Earle Wheeler, President Nixon, and over 30 Senators and members of Congress. Only Congressman Mo Udall and Senators Barry Goldwater and Edward Brooke responded and took action. Udall urged the House Armed Services Committee to demand that the Pentagon to take action. Under pressure the Army charged Calley with six specifications of murder for the 109 deaths of Vietnamese civilians. The Army did not report the Court Martial proceedings to the public and did not begin the trial until November, 1970.

The massacre was made public in November 1969 by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh who had learned of the Court Martial. On 13 November Hersh’s story was reported in 35 newspapers, while the New York Times and the Montgomery Alabama based Alabama journal ran separate stories in the court martial on the 12th and 13th. But the biggest reveal was when the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a story on 20 November with the testimony and color photographs taken by Army combat photographer Ronald L. Haeberle who was at My Lai during the massacre. The same day it was reported in Life, Time, and Newsweek, while CBS televised an interview with Paul Meadlo.

The result was a public relations debacle that the military knew could not be covered up and that the Nixon White House desperately wanted to contain. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird to Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger that he wished that the story could be swept under the rug but that the photographs prevented it. He said, “They’re pretty terrible… There are so many kids just laying there; these pictures are authentic". In response the White House formed Task Force My Lai to coordinate the government response, contain the damage, and use a public relations campaign to shape the story, even how to use “dirty tricks” to discredit witnesses and reporters, especially Hersh.

An investigation led by Lieutenant General

Captain Medina was tried for the murder of 102 civilians under the theory of “command responsibility” which was found in FM-100, Military Leadership, which states: “The military commander has complete and overall responsibility for all activities within his unit. He alone is responsible for everything his unit does or does not do." However, Medina’s attorney, the brilliant but infamously unscrupulous F. Lee Bailey, waged a successful strategy to suppress key evidence, including the Haeberle photos. After 56 minutes of deliberation the jury returned a not guilty verdict. Army investigators were furious and condemned the verdict.

Colonel Oran Henderson enters his Court Martial

Colonel Henderson was also acquitted of his role in the cover up. He retired in 1974 as the Garrison Commander of Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. He died on 2 June 1998, and I conducted his funeral and burial a few days later.

Major General Koster was not prosecuted but reduced in rank to his permanent grade of Brigadier General, given a letter of censure, relieved of his command as the Commandant of the U.S. Military Academy, and stripped of his awards for his tour as CG of the Americal Division. His deputy, Brigadier General Young was stripped of his awards and given a letter of censure.

Only Calley was convicted and sentenced for his crimes.

During the trial President Nixon worked to turn public against the Army and the prosecutors. Though he secured a guilty verdict, Captain Daniel was furious when Nixon commuted the sentence from life in prison with hard labor to house arrest. Daniel wrote Nixon a letter that reflected how I felt when Trump intervened and commuted the sentences of the war criminals in 2019. In part he wrote:

"Certainly, no one wanted to believe what occurred at My Lai, including the officers who sat in judgment of Lieutenant Calley. To believe, however, that any large percentage of the population could believe the evidence which was presented and approve of the conduct of Lieutenant Calley would be as shocking to my conscience as the conduct itself, since I believe that we are still a civilized nation.

"If such be the case, then the war in Viet-Nam has brutalized us more than I care to believe, and it must cease. How shocking it is if so many people across the nation have failed to see the moral issue which was involved in the trial of Lieutenant Calley-- that it is unlawful for an American soldier to summarily execute unarmed and unresisting men, women, children, and babies.

"But how much more appalling it is to see so many of the political leaders of the nation who have failed to see the moral issue, or, having seen it, to compromise it for political motive in the face of apparent public displeasure with the verdict.

"I would have hoped that all leaders of this nation, which is supposed to be the leader within the international community for the protection of the weak and the oppressed regardless of nationality, would have either accepted and supported the enforcement of the laws of this country as reflected by the verdict of the court or not made any statement concerning the verdict until they had had the same opportunity to evaluate the evidence that the members of the jury had.”

Since Trump has promised to fire Generals and Admirals that he believes are not completely loyal to him, or those he considers to be “woke”, and those who he believes failed in their duties we can expect the last guardrails preventing war crimes and crimes against humanity by American soldiers, save the individual moral courage of unit commanders and soldiers to disobey criminal orders have been shattered.

Dedicated to the Proposition that All Men are Created Equal

The Guarantee of Future War Crimes: My Lai, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth

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