KATZ, Menasha.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Collection of letters and photographs related to Lt. William Calley and the My Lai Massacre. A significant collection of letters written to President Nixon, General Westmoreland, Judge Robert Elliott, and others by Retired Captain Menasha Katz who - while he had no official standing in the matter- came to the defence of Lt. William Calley for his role in the My Lai massacre.Katz paints a sympathetic portrait of Calley's motivations and actions, claiming he has become the scapegoat for his higher-ups who were also involved in the massacre: "Here is a boy who got drafted, taught to kill, leads a platoon into enemy position by orders, had grenades thrown at him and small arms fire... Should he have run away? Some 20 generals, colonels, majors and captains were tried on this matter and all got off scott free. But this poor boy is cruxified".The graphic photographs accompanying this file belonged to Katz. At one point, he mailed them to Calley. The file includes a brief initialled response from Calley thanking Katz for his support and returning the photographs. This collection provides a lesser- known point of view of the actions of Calley, who was almost universally vilified as the face of the massacre, which provoked widespread outrage and drastically reduced U.S support for the war at home.

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