William Calley: The Legacy of My Lai's Controversial Figure

William Calley, the former U.S. Army officer responsible for leading the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War, has died at 80. He served a brief sentence for his crimes and later lived a quiet life as a businessman. Calley issued a public apology in 2009.

William Calley, who during the Vietnam War led his U.S. Army platoon into the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai and carried out one of the worst war crimes in American military history, has died, according to media reports. He was 80 years old. The Washington Post on Monday first reported Calley's death, which occurred in April, citing a death certificate. The New York Times, referring to Social Security Administration death records, also confirmed his passing.

Neither publication reported a cause of death. Attempts to reach Calley's son, William L. Calley III, were unsuccessful. On March 16, 1968, American soldiers under Calley's command killed 504 people in Son My, a collection of hamlets known in the West as the My Lai Massacre. The incident shocked the U.S. and fueled the anti-war movement.

Calley was initially charged in an Army court martial for 102 deaths and sentenced to life in prison in 1971 for the killing of 22 civilians. However, he spent only three days behind bars before then-President Richard Nixon ordered his release under house arrest. Calley spent three years in home detention and was later paroled and discharged from the Army. He maintained that he was following orders and considered himself a scapegoat for a deeply divided country.