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In 1977 I went through basic training for the army. One day we had a half-day class on our personal responsibilities as a soldier under the UCMJ and the Geneva Convention, as related to wartime deployment. The instructor told us that the course was a direct result of Lt. Calley’s actions at My Lai, which was still relatively fresh in the nation’s memory.
After detailing the prohibitions and thou-musts of armed conflict, he said to us: “If you are given an order that is obviously illegal, you have two choices before you. First choice, you refuse to follow the order. You will then be subject to court martial and imprisoned and – if you are convicted of treason – you will possibly spend the rest of your life in prison. If you instead obey what is clearly an illegal order, you and you alone will be held accountable should it ever come to light. And your signature on the form you sign at the end of this class is the army’s proof that you understand the consequences of obeying an illegal order. I hope to god you poor bastards are never placed in this position. But if you are ever sent to war, you will be.”
I imagine that this was merely a formal acknowledgement of the way things had been all along, same as it ever was.
