Four decades ago a man did something he came to regret, started running from himself, and has been running ever since. In August 2009, he finally stopped running. He apologized.
William Calley, the former Army lieutenant who ordered the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, apologized for his actions:
There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.
Forty years after the events in Vietnam, speaking in a soft, pained voice, the only U.S. Army officer convicted in the 1968 slayings of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai made an extraordinary public apology while speaking to a Kiwanis Club near the military base where he was court-martialed.
Calley, now 66, was a young Army lieutenant when a court-martial at nearby Fort Benning convicted him of murder in 1971 for killing 22 civilians during the infamous massacre of 500 men, women and children in Vietnam. Though sentenced to life in prison, Calley ended up serving three years under house arrest after President Richard Nixon later reduced his sentence. Over the years, Calley repeatedly declined invitations to talk about the issue. He finally broke his silence to speak at a meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus, Georgia.
Speaking to about 50 people, Calley's apology came at the beginning of some brief remarks before he began taking questions. "You could've heard a pin drop," said Al Fleming, who befriended Calley about 25 years ago and invited him to speak. "The members were just slack-jawed that they were hearing this from him for the first time in nearly 40 years." At the conclusion of his address, Calley received a sustained standing ovation.
Such is the power of apology both for the offender and the greater community. I hope this step brings Calley some peace. I know it will add an important milestone in this country's continuing efforts to heal the ongoing wounds left by the war in Vietnam.
I appreciate Calley's apology just as I appreciate his service to the United States. Both the apology and the service respond to fundamental and admirable qualities of citizens. Both are conditioned by moral principles that are community-based. The apology that Calley offered may have been for the benefit of 50 or so citizens of Columbus, Georgia, but his words will resonate across the globe, for apology, like murder, isn't confined by a statute of limitations.
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