A Word on the Calley Case

Every age has its public drama, a scene jarred loose of context which illuminates that longer, impassive flow of events that leaves most people happily unconcerned. From the first it should have been apparent that the My Lai massacre would become just such a drama for all of us. And yet the public reaction to Hersh’s story was deceptively placid. Straight off, the moral problem was complicated by the fixing of blame, arbitrarily, half-way down the chain of command. But at the time nobody much bothered about it. So the change of mood could not be gradual; it was sudden and absolute. Now that the verdict has been delivered and shock waves have been sent reverberating through the nation, we can begin to see the significance of the ca...