Lieut. Calley (Contd.)
Sir: The trial was fair; the verdict was just. Nixon's response [April 12] was an outrage. When else in the history of American jurisprudence has a man convicted of premeditated murder been set free pending appeal?
PAUL J. GILLETTE
Carbondale, Pa.
Sir: It does not matter whether Lieut. Calley was guilty or not. When we send our boys to fight and die for us, we should stand behind them come hell or high water. If someone must be tried for a My Lai, then it should be the entire American public and our Government, not the poor devils who thought enough of their country to fight for it and us.
GEORGE F. DARNELL III
Burlington, N.C.
Sir: If Lieut. Calley is freed by a presidential pardon, it will be the first sign of compassion that Richard Nixon has shown in his 26 months as President. Predictably, it will be for a convicted murderer.
GREG FELDMETH Los Angeles
Sir: When the initial reaction to the Calley verdict burst out, I thought for a moment that I was one of a few sane individuals in a vast mental hospital. Surely this man was responsible for his actions toward the enemy, no matter how vile the system that spawned him.
CHRISTIAN Y. WYSER-PRATTE
Palo Alto, Calif.
Sir: I wrote Lieut. Calley a letter telling him that I am praying that he will soon be free. He fought for me and for all of us in beautiful America. He did what he thought best on the battlefield. He did not burn his draft card or say he was a conscientious objector.
(MRS.) ANNICE I. MASON
Corpus Christi, Texas
Sir: Your cover titled "Who Shares the Guilt" is the latest of a series of insinuations that really bugs me. I am not about to accept any blame for any of this fiasco. I was against the war to begin with, had no opportunity within the System to halt it, was taxed without a vote to support it and am about to be forced to send two sons to murder and be murdered in it. Let Calley share the guilt with the people who sent him!
LOUISE TEMPLE Ann Arbor, Mich.
Sir: You state that there is a "moral trap" in the position that Calley's guilt applies to all. For, as you reason, "if everyone is guilty, no one is guilty or responsible, and the very meaning of morality disintegrates." Christianity teaches that Christ came to forgive our sins. Would you argue that he need not have come, since at that time the whole world was in sin? Since God, not man, secures the meaning of morality, it is possible that we are all morally in the wrong.
WILLIAM CURLEY Northfield, Vt.
Sir: We Canadians sometimes find you Americans hard to understand, although we regard you as our best friends.
You write hundreds of letters protesting a seal hunt, but when your Lieut. Calley goes about shooting women and children, the same Americans try to make a national hero of him.
G.M. MACLACHLAN
Toronto
Sir: The Calley trial and its aftermath of recriminations, soul searching, protests, etc., must be a good joke to Hanoi leaders, who, without any qualms, have pursued the policy of annihilation of anybody who does not agree with them.
GEORGE MIHAILOFF
San Francisco
A Long Tradition