“The Killings at Song My. Accused: Lt. William L. Calley Jr.”

Lieutenant William L. Calley’s symbolic place in media representations of the My Lai Massacre ranged from the heroic soldier who, in the line of patriotic duty, was only obeying orders to the brutalised agent of a mendacious military machine that legitimated indiscriminate murder. To individualise responsibility disavowed the US “military machine” of a country constantly in readiness for war.