The Massacre at My Lai | Justice on Trial | 4

0:00American scandal uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some elements, including dialogue, might be invented, but everything is based on historical research. A listener note, this episode contains descriptions of violence and may not be suitable for all audiences.

0:31It's November 27, 1969, in Key Biscayne, Florida, an island just off the coast of Miami. President Richard Nixon has retreated to his private estate here to discuss strategy with his team. It's been two weeks since news of the My Lai massacre hit the front pages. Since then, the press coverage has been relentless. Journalist Seymour Hersh was once only known in certain circles, but now he seems like a household name, and every one of his stories seems more damning than the last. Then there are soldiers like Paul Meadlow and Michael Bernhardt who have gone public giving interviews on national television about what they saw and did at My Lai.

1:10Nixon has had enough of it. Hold up with one of his most trusted aides, he jabs his finger at a yellow legal pad filled with notes and ideas.

1:22Now all the talk about this massacre business is going to destroy my Vietnam policy just as we're getting traction, just as I'm about to turn the damn tide. We've got to bury this story, get it out of the papers. Well, I understand, sir, but people seem to want accountability. They see this as a moral crisis. It's not a moral crisis, it's a political one. and we're getting boxed in by the press. These guys, they're not on our side. They don't care about the truth. Nixon looks through his pages of notes. This Ridenour kid, he's a liberal punk, a washout. Why was he the one who started kicking up the dust?

1:53He wasn't even there. And Seymour Hersh, some nobody freelancer just trying to make a name for himself. Now we've got Mike Wallace giving them a platform on 60 Minutes. The army photographer who sold his pictures. How much did he get? His parents are Cleveland peaceniks, you know. And if you ask me, Meadlow is a little too smooth for a farmer. I don't trust any one of them. So, sir, what do you want me to do? I want to smear them so hard that their next interview ends up on the cunning room floor. The Pentagon's too scared to touch them, so it'll have to be us. I want to make sure no one believes another word out of their mouths.

2:27Well, we could float something through a senator, someone senior who could raise just enough doubt to muddy the water. All right, all right, maybe a big senator, a gunfighter, stand-up senator, or someone who'll ask hard questions and get the press to chase their own tail. Time, life, CBS will make them all pay for running this story. By the time President Nixon boards Air Force One to head back to Washington three days later, he has a concrete plan for how to deal with the My Lai scandal. Soon there is a covert team at the White House running background checks and assembling dossiers on the men on his list.

3:02Nixon's instructions are blunt. bury the story, crush the sources, and make sure no one traces it back to him.

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4:10From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American Scandal.

4:34By late 1969, the massacre at My Lai was no longer a rumor. It was front-page news. Thanks to the work of a handful of whistleblowers and a relentless freelance reporter, the world now knew what happened that March morning in Vietnam. U.S. troops had gunned down hundreds of unarmed civilians, and the army had tried to sweep it under the rug. With public outrage growing, a formal investigation was launched at the massacre and the cover-up that followed. Led by three-star General William R. Pierce, the inquiry was tasked with establishing the facts and identifying the guilty men. But the question of what justice really meant would linger for the survivors, for the soldiers, and for a nation still struggling to face up to what it was doing in Vietnam.

5:19This is Episode 4, Justice on Trial.

5:25It's early afternoon on December 5th, 1969, outside of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A chilly wind whips through the air as Lieutenant William Calley steps from a government car and makes his way toward the building. Accompanied by his attorney and an Army officer, he wears his dress uniform with his cap low and his jaw clenched. Kali led Charlie Company's first platoon when it entered My Lai, and has been named as one of the protagonists in the violence that followed. Now he's been summoned to the Pentagon to testify before the Piers inquiry, which is now in its third day of closed-door hearings.

6:01Kali tries to slip into the building through a discreet side entrance, but it's too late. He's been spotted. Nearly a hundred reporters, photographers, and onlookers swarm the sidewalk toward him. He shields his face as cameras flash in rapid bursts. Voices rise in a chaotic blur of questions and accusations. Callie's attorney and the Army officer carve a path through the crowd, guiding him toward the building's doors. Callie keeps his gaze downward and moves as quickly as he can, refusing to engage with the barrage of hostile comments. Then, as he climbs the final steps, one reporter shouts above the noise, Lieutenant Callie, are you sorry you couldn't have killed more women and children?

6:42There's an intake of breath from the crowd, but Callie doesn't stop to answer. He simply pushes through the doors and lets them swing shut behind him. Three flights down, in the belly of the Pentagon, Callie enters the Army Operations Center. Here, behind closed doors, the Piers Commission awaits. But despite all the excitement outside, testimony is short. Callie refuses to answer any of the panel's questions except one. When asked about whether there was an internal investigation of Meelai, he tells the room that Colonel Oren Henderson and Lieutenant Colonel Frank Barker never asked him about the events of that day.

7:19Then with that, Callie stands, nods to no one in particular, and walks out. Callie may have stonewalled most of the questions, but he has provided general peers with one interesting piece of information. If Henderson and Barker did investigate the massacre as they claimed, there would be no excuse for them to not speak with Callie. He may be lying, but if not, it's yet another sign that the internal investigations supposedly conducted were perfunctory at best. Other witnesses called by the Piers inquiry don't get as much media attention as William Calley, but many of them are far more useful. Day after day, the testimonies mount.

7:56Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson recounts what he saw from the air and what he did to try to stop the unfolding massacre. Soldiers, crewmen, and officers from all areas are summoned to explain what they know or what they did. Some are reluctant to talk at first, but most of them break under the commanding gaze of General Piers. And the picture that begins to emerge is more horrifying than even Piers himself anticipated. What happened in My Lai was clearly part of a far larger crime. During the operation that morning, soldiers in other units in other villages also committed atrocities. And it points to a systemic issue that went beyond just the men in Charlie Company who were on the ground in My Lai.

8:37General Peers is determined to get to the bottom of it. He hopes to complete his investigation into these other potential war crimes out of the public gaze. But in mid-February 1970, the story breaks in the press. General Peers is sitting at his desk, working late through a stack of classified briefings in his dimly lit office. A small television plays in the background, although he pays little attention. It's just white noise. But then something flickers on the screen that catches his eye. Just a few words. He reaches for the remote and turns up the volume. On NBC's evening news, two Vietnamese civilians appear on camera, seated beside a translator.

9:15Their faces are drawn and their voices low. Through halting translation, they begin to describe what happened in their village of Mi Khe. It's a familiar-sounding story of American soldiers storming in without warning and shooting civilians indiscriminately. They talk about neighbors dragged from their homes and executed, about children gunned down as they ran. Nearly 100 people were killed in this village during the same operation that leveled My Lai. General Pierce leans forward, staring at the screen. This is just further evidence for what he and his investigators have already pieced together behind the scenes.

9:50But now it's public knowledge. And with anger over the scandal likely to grow after these revelations, Piers knows he has to say something soon. So only a few days later, on February 21, 1970, Piers makes his move. After months of exhaustive work, General Piers informs his superiors that the inquiry has identified more than two dozen men who should face court-martial. Most are still on active duty. Fourteen are officers, some of them senior men with distinguished careers and powerful connections. But time is short. The military has a two-year statute of limitations on certain charges, such as dereliction of duty or failure to report a crime.

10:29And that deadline is only 23 days away. If charges are not filed by the second anniversary of the massacre, many of the accused could walk free on a technicality. But before peers can officially submit his report and get criminal proceedings underway, the Army insists on doing a review of his work. They want to be careful about what becomes public record. So in the days that follow, army lawyers and senior officers begin combing through Pierce's findings. His report runs more than 250 pages, with appendices, sworn statements, and detailed maps. But by the time the lawyers and top brass have finished with it, only 50 pages are cleared for declassification.

11:10Those pages offer only a sanitized account of the massacre. There's background information on Kwong-Nai province, some organizational charts, and official rules of engagement. But the sections on the operation itself and the cover-up that followed are all removed. Officially, the Army cites the need to protect the legal rights of the accused, but critics are quick to ask whether that's really the case, whether it's more about the Army trying to shield itself from deeper embarrassment. If Piers had the time, he might push for more information to be released to the public. But once the Army finally signs off on his report, there's only one day left on the charge's deadline.

11:48So he goes ahead and officially submits his findings to the Department of the Army. Indictments begin to follow immediately. And then, on the morning of March 17, 1970, General Peers calls a press conference at the Pentagon.

12:05Flanked by two civilian attorneys from his inquiry team, General Peers sits behind a table in his full-dress uniform. His expression is grave as he looks around the room. It's packed with reporters, photographers, and television crews. After an introduction from Secretary of the Army Stanley Reeser, General Peers thanks his team, and then he gets to the main reason they're all here. Our inquiry has clearly established that a tragedy of major proportions occurred in the vicinity of the village known as My Lai on the 16th of March 1968. Today, I can announce that charges have been filed against 14 U.S.

12:40Army officers in connection with those events. The room stiffens, and a few reporters exchange glances. Piers continues, Included among those charged are Major General Samuel Coster, Brigadier General George Young, Colonel Oren Henderson, and Captain Ernest Medina. The charges range from false swearing to dereliction of duty to murder. However, in order not to prejudice the rights of individuals concerned, I am not able to further discuss the events which transpired. All around the room, hands shoot into the air. Pierce picks out one reporter in the second row. Yes, you go ahead. General Pierce, as a career professional in the Army, are you disturbed at all by the fact that 14 officers, some quite high-ranking and senior, were engaged in the suppression of information and false swearing, and by implication in condoning this great tragedy as you describe it?

13:30I'm certainly greatly concerned. It does make a difference whether it's a general, but I think the same criterion must be in effect throughout our entire officer corps. We all have obligations as officers, and as a consequence, we must have extremely high standards. And we must make sure our officers stand up to those requirements. After all of this, would you say there was a cover-up in the field investigation following the My Lai incident? I would respond to your question by saying that there was testimony and evidence to indicate that certain individuals, either wittingly or unwittingly, by their actions, suppressed information from the incident from being passed up the chain of command.

14:05How far up the chain of command did personal knowledge of what happened that day go? We have no indication that this got beyond the AmeriCall division itself. So was this an isolated incident, or was it happening elsewhere too? Are there more My Lies out there that we're yet to hear about? If there are any other such incidents, I have no precise knowledge of them. Well, what about in nearby villages that day? Looking at this list, your charge is placed against a member of Bravo Company, but he wouldn't have been in My Lies at all, would he? He would have been in Mi Khe, where, as I understand it, another 100 civilians were killed.

14:37Piers pauses, choosing his words carefully. If you read our prepared documents, you'll see that we refer to the whole area as Son Mi. When we went to South Vietnam, we found that the Vietnamese did not know what we were talking about when we said Mi Line. That's the name we associated with the hamlet where Charlie Company was deployed, but that area is really considered part of Son Mi. So that's what we're talking about here, a collection of sub-hamlets in a general area of which My Lai and Mi K are just two. But yes, there were incidents across the other hamlets on that same day. They all fell within the area of operations for Task Force Barker.

15:12So why call it the My Lai Massacre? Doesn't that understate what really happened? Pierce looks out over the crowd of reporters, his jaw tightening slightly. My Lai has become shorthand for what occurred, but our investigation makes it clear this was not just one village. It was a breakdown in command across an entire region in an entire day. So we're looking at it as one cohesive event. We're not seeking to minimize the scope or mislead anyone. After this series of tough questions, the rest of the press conference proceeds smoothly. General Peers believes that his inquiry has now done what it's set out to do, exposed the truth of what happened in March 1968.

15:53Now, it's up to the courts to decide what to do next. 30 years ago, an island off Manhattan almost brought down New York City. Who will you trust? Your friends and neighbors? Or will you trust the people five miles overseas? This is a story about neighbors turning on each other. And what happens when a forgotten place decides it's had enough. But we're not stopping, are we?

16:22Listen to Revisionist History, The Staten Island Problem, wherever you get your podcasts.

16:49Yes, and they didn't bring a radio because real sailors don't use radios. Right? This is the story of Marilyn and Maurice Bailey. And the 117 days they spent lost at sea. Follow British Scandal wherever you get your podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Audible.

17:21In the hours following General William Peer's press conference at the Pentagon, reporters across the country raced to be the first to publish the story. The Army has done what was once unthinkable. It has recommended charges against some of its own top brass. Fourteen senior commanders with distinguished careers are all now facing court-martial for their parts in the My Lai Massacre. News anchors lead with the story on nightly broadcasts. Pundits call it the Army's biggest scandal in decades. And there are calls for accountability for everyone involved, from the men who pulled the triggers to the officers who gave the orders and those who helped cover it up.

17:58But inside the armed forces, reactions are mixed. Some officials express quiet pride in General Peer's document, believing that this report sends a clear message that no one is above the law, not even generals. Others feel more concerned about what unintended consequences the report may have. Their worry is that if Army officers start fearing prosecution for command decisions they make in combat zones, then they may second-guess themselves on the battlefield and hesitate at the worst possible moments. Nowhere, however, is the reaction more fraught than inside Richard Nixon's White House. The administration's attempts to undermine witnesses and kill the story have failed.

18:39Now the Peers report has been released, and to President Nixon, it is more than just an embarrassment, it's a threat. Nixon is up for re-election in 1972, and anything that undermines public faith in the war or the military could become a political nightmare for him. So one evening in the spring of 1970, Nixon is pacing in his private study at the White House.

19:03He pours himself a drink and stares at the amber swirl in his glass for a moment. before reaching for the phone and getting his national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, on the line. Yes, Mr. President? Henry, you've seen the papers? Every outlet in the country is parroting that damn Piers report like it's the Ten Commandments. Yes, sir. It's quite extensive. They're crucifying our commanders. Coster runs West Point, for God's sake, and now he's being dragged through the mud like some two-bit war criminal. My first instinct was the same, Mr. President, but some of the stories are awful. Piers is just trying to make himself look good while he kicks his colleagues around.

19:38It's a pretty cheap shot if you ask me. These are not bad men. You know, there are women over there with hand grenades, kids wielding rifles. You think the press gives a damn? No, sir. Where are the stories about all of that? They just want martyrs and monsters, and Piers has given them both. Nixon paces getting swept up in his own thoughts. You know the real irony. It was covered up because it was in the interest of the country. These commanders were doing the patriotic thing, and now, what, we're going to punish them for refusing to hand the communists a propaganda victory? That's not what matters anymore, sir.

20:11The cover-up is the story now. Nixon slams his drink down on the desk. Well, then we need to smother it. If I may, sir. What? Silence may be the strategic move here. Attacking peers directly might only make things worse. Nixon grimaces and takes a large swig of his drink. This thing's poison, Henry. The more we pretend it's not there, the more it'll fester. But if we engage, Mr. President, we elevate it. If we ignore it, we might just contain it. I don't like it. I understand that. Nixon takes a deep breath, collecting himself. Fine, we'll try it your way. No press briefings, no comments, nothing.

20:48I think that's wise. The less oxygen we give it, the faster it'll die away. God help us if it doesn't. If this thing runs into 72, we could be finished. President Nixon hopes that Henry Kissinger is right about staying silent. and that by refusing to engage, the White House can ride out the storm. But deep down, Nixon knows better. This isn't a matter of a few bad headlines. If he's not careful, this story might define his entire term in office.

21:19In the months after General William Peer's bombshell press conference, the Army's internal legal machinery grinds slowly forward. Military prosecutors and investigators work to transform the scathing language of the Peer's report into formal charges, building cases that will stand up in a court-martial. Meanwhile, at the White House, silence remains the strategy. Administration officials stonewalled the press and declined to comment. The goal is to wait it out and let the public's attention drift, but the My Lai story refuses to fade. If anything, it only grows. The constant drumbeat of revelations fuels new anti-war demonstrations on college campuses and in major cities, continuing to dominate headlines and further divide Americans.

22:04It all comes to a head on the morning of November 17, 1970. It's been two years, eight months, and ten days since the massacre at My Lai. And now the court-martial of Charlie Company's Lieutenant William Calley is about to begin. The setting is a modest and somber military courtroom at Fort Benning, Georgia. It only seats 59 people. Half in the room are journalists, the rest are military officers from the base or nearby areas. Callie sits at the defense table in full-dress uniform. With his slight frame and a clean shave, he looks even younger than his 27 years. But despite his innocent looks, he's facing serious charges, and if he's found guilty, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.