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Conference presentation
He was just following orders: Mississippians’ reactions to the My Lai Massacre
Annual Gulf South History & Humanities Conference, 28th (10/14/2010–10/16/2010)
2010
Abstract
Americans’ understanding of the Vietnam War relies on images of soldiers slogging through the jungle trying to fight an enemy they cannot see, skeletal prisoners of war, and endemic atrocities against civilians and form the basis of our understanding of the Vietnam War. The reactions of Americans on the home front to reports of atrocities range from a collective shrug, to James Olson and Randy Roberts’ contention that reports of the My Lai were the last nail in the coffin of public support for the war. The great disparity in reactions to reports of atrocities during the war raises the question not only of how the American public perceived reports of events such as My Lai, but also of geographical differences in response to reported war crimes reporting.
This paper argues that the dominant culture in the South treated military service during war as the highest obligation demanded of young men. The definition of honor that Southerners had adopted since the 1850s called men to serve with honor to signal their masculinity and respect for their families and communities. This culture led to southerners’ high level of support for the war, and coincided with higher support for American soldiers accused of war crimes than Americans in other regions. Mississippi provides the clearest example of this due to its Congressional delegates’ involvement in the political debate over My Lai. Their papers show the vast majority of Mississippians vehemently disagreed with Lt. William Calley’s court-martial for murdering civilians at My Lai. Unlike other Americans, Mississippians did not voice the opinion that American soldiers were victims of the military machine in the war itself, but of “Doves,” American Communists, or a military hierarchy desperate to mollify anti-war protesters.
Mississippians reacted to the Calley verdict more stridently than those from the other former Confederate states. Mississippi’s status as a particularly difficult battleground in the Civil Rights movement, its close relationships with the military, its low population, and rural outlook meant that it experienced the trial and its outcome in the context of a greater battle for southern culture and against communism. Calley’s trial brought these differences into stark relief, providing additional insight into how Mississippians experienced the turmoil of the 1960s.
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Details
- Title
- He was just following orders: Mississippians’ reactions to the My Lai Massacre
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation
- Conference
- Annual Gulf South History & Humanities Conference, 28th (10/14/2010–10/16/2010)
- Copyright
- Permission granted to the University of West Florida Libraries by the author to digitize and/or display this information for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires the permission of the copyright holder.
- Identifiers
- 99380099992306600
- Academic Unit
- Education Research Library; University of West Florida Libraries
- Language
- English