Reactions to the Calley Trial: Class and Political Authority

At the time the American public seemed to take the Mylai massacre itself in stried Lieutenant William Calley's conviction produced a massive response, with many signs of anger, bitterness and indignation. The pattern should not surprise any student of history or social science. It is consistent with what we have learned from Nazi Germany and elsewhere about the banality of evil, the dividing line between in-group and out-group, the unquestioning nature of obedience to legitimate authority. Yet the intensity of the public outcry against the conviction and the seemingly complex pattern of reactions called for some explanation. We looked for part of the explanation in a national survey we conducted about a month after Calley s conviction was announced.