Fate of Lt. William Calley
1971 · Stars and Stripes U.S.A. 001 · Arnold, Missouri
- Artist
- Glenn Reifsteck
- Title
- Fate of Lt. William Calley
- Release
- The Fate of Lt. William Calley / Spiders Web
- Year
- 1971
- Label
- Stars and Stripes # U.S.A. 001
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- Arnold, Missouri, USA
- Songwriter
- Reef-Stek
- Genre
- Country · Country
- Primary theme
- US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Annotation
The country music song "The Fate of Lt. William Calley" (Stars and Stripes U.S.A. # 001) took an overall patriotic position, presenting the conflict in Vietnam as a fight to "keep you and me free" - in line with government rhetoric. Yet the narrator, unlike the US government and military, viewed the My Lai massacre as a case of self-defense, either "to kill or to be killed", thus relieving Calley of responsibility for the incident. Released in 1971, in Arnold, Missouri.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Themes
My Lai · Patriotic · Pro-Calley · Calley-Danger · Calley-Order · Calley-Chaos · Anti-War
In collections
My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs