So this being a 'chestnut' is off limits ? It's a terrorist act all the same, for the women and children and innocent men that were shot and killed.
Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment, however only served 3 1/2 years of HOUSE ARREST. NOT behind bars, NOT in a 8x12 cell, NOT with other hardened criminals, NOT bread and water etc, etc, etc.
He'd said in his trial, corroborated by ~20 of his men, that his superior Capt. Medina, gave the orders to shoot everyone in the village as they were all Vietcong.
Nixon was easy on the guy. Secretary of Defense, Melvin Laird protested Nixon's leniency. At least some of this misjustice should've befallen President Nixon.
On April 1, 1971, only a day after Calley was sentenced, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered him transferred from Leavenworth prison to house arrest at Fort Benning, pending appeal. This leniency was protested by Melvin Laird, the Secretary of Defense. The prosecutor, Aubrey Daniel wrote, "The greatest tragedy of all will be if political expedience dictates the compromise of such a fundamental moral principle as the inherent unlawfulness of the murder of innocent persons."[12] On August 20, 1971, the convening authority — the Commanding General of Fort Benning — reduced Calley's sentence to 20 years. The Army Court of Military Review affirmed both the conviction and sentence (46 C.M.R. 1131 (1973)). The Secretary of the Army reviewed the sentence and findings and approved both, but in a separate clemency action commuted confinement to ten years. On May 3, 1974, President Nixon notified the Secretary that he had reviewed the case and determined he would take no further action in the matter.
[12] Perlstein, Rick (2008). Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.