4.6 • 18.7K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Lieutenant William Calley stands trial for the murder of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai, becoming both the face of the massacre and a lightning rod for a deeply divided nation. As the courtroom drama unfolds, the U.S. military, the media, and the American public are forced to confront the true cost of the war in Vietnam – and come to a decision about who’s ultimately responsible.
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| 0:00.0 | Want to get more from American Scandal? Subscribe to Wondery Plus for early access to new episodes, |
| 0:06.4 | add free listening, and exclusive content you can't find anywhere else. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry |
| 0:11.5 | app or on Apple Podcasts. American Scandal uses dramatizations that are based on true events. |
| 0:18.1 | Some elements, including dialogue, might be invented, but everything is based on |
| 0:22.5 | historical research. A listener note, this episode contains descriptions of violence and may not be |
| 0:28.3 | suitable for all audiences. |
| 0:51.1 | Thank you. It's November 27, 1969, in Key Biscayne, Florida, an island just off the coast of Miami. |
| 0:55.6 | President Richard Nixon has retreated to his private estate here to discuss strategy with his team. It's been two weeks since news of the Melye massacre hit the front pages. Since then, |
| 1:02.8 | the press coverage has been relentless. Journalist Seymour Hirsch was once only known in certain |
| 1:07.8 | circles, but now he seems like a household name, and every one of his |
| 1:11.7 | stories seems more damning than the last. Then there are soldiers like Paul Medlow and Michael |
| 1:17.1 | Bernhardt, who have gone public giving interviews on national television about what they saw |
| 1:21.8 | and did at Mili. Nixon has had enough of it. Hold up with one of his most trusted aides, |
| 1:28.2 | he jabs his finger at a yellow legal pad filled with notes and ideas. |
| 1:35.9 | Now, all the talk about this massacre business is going to destroy my Vietnam policy, |
| 1:40.4 | just as we're getting traction, just as I'm about to turn the damn time. |
| 1:43.5 | We've got to bury this story. Get it out of the papers. |
| 1:42.8 | Well, I understand, sir, but people seem to want accountability. They see this as a moral crisis. It's not a moral crisis. It's a political one. And we're getting boxed in by the press. These guys, they're not on our side. They don't care about the truth. Nixon looks through his pages of notes. |
| 2:02.0 | This riding hour kid, he's a liberal punk, a washout. Why was he the one who started kicking up the dust? |
| 2:07.0 | He wasn't even there. And Seymour Hirsch? Some nobody freelancer just trying to make a name for himself. |
| 2:12.5 | Now we've got Mike Wallace giving them a platform on 60 minutes. The Army photographer, who sold his pictures. How much did he get? His parents are Cleveland Peacniks, you know? And if you ask me, Meadlow is a little too smooth for a farmer. I don't trust any one of them. So, sir, what do you want me to do? I want to smear them so hard that their next interview ends up on the cunning room floor. The Pentagon's too scared to touch them, so it'll have to be us. |
| 2:37.2 | I want to make sure no one believes another word out of their mouths. |
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