Informative Speeches

Find the Informative Speeches you want on this page or please view the following pages for more Informative Speeches.

Tant: Recalling a My Lai hero's speech in Athens

More than 40 years after the infamous massacre of civilians by American soldiers at a Vietnamese village called My Lai, the man whose name forever is linked to the carnage finally apologized for the war crimes committed by him and the troops he commanded on a deadly day in 1968.

Former Army Lt. William Calley was the only military man convicted for his role in the massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese men, women and children who were herded into a ditch and murdered by Calley and some of his men. Calley received a life sentence for his crimes, but President Richard Nixon interceded. The sentence was reduced to house arrest, then commuted entirely, by the president who later resigned in disgrace and was pardoned himself for his role in the Watergate scandal.

Speaking at a Kiwanis Club meeting in Columbus last month, Calley said: "There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry."

Calley's My Lai culpa was a case of too little, too late. A survivor of the massacre who saw his mother and brothers killed by Calley's men was stoic in his acceptance of Calley's apology. Pham Thranh Cong, who now operates a museum in My Lai, said, "It's a question of the past and we accept his apologies, although they come too late."

The My Lai massacre was one of the worst chapters in American military history, but three American fighting men emerged as true heroes on that dark day. Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson and his crewmen, Larry Colburn and Glenn Andreotta, landed their aircraft between the marauding soldiers and the Asians they were killing. Their brave and compassionate act kept the body count from rising even higher.

In 1998, 30 years after the war crimes at My Lai, the three men were awarded the Soldier's Medal in an Army ceremony that gave belated recognition of their valor. Thompson and Colburn rece

Rate This Article: - Excellent Good Average Poor Terrible

Comment on "Tant: Recalling a My Lai hero's speech in Athens"

Your Name

Your Comments

Verification Code: MUAILJ
Enter Code: