Obedience To Authority Essay

The Vietnam controversy made m both wad feel at distress. It was never considered a war, although that is exactly what it was. The My Lai Massacre in Vietnam was one of the many atrocities of that war. There is an unquestionable connection between Milgrams Obedience to Authority and the My Lai Massacre.According to Kelman & Hamilton, Unquestioning devotion has been the cause of such disasters as the My Lai massacre and the Holocaust. volume need to resist the dangerous web of influence from strong soulalities in fields such as politics, religion and the mass media who become the objects of their idolatry. To become less susceptible to the irrational persuasive power of such in the flesh(predicate)ities, individuals should develop a sense of self-respect and practice critical thinking (Kelman & Hamilton). In teddys such as the My Lai Massacre, the soldiers were not just following the thoughts of a politician or religious figure. They followed their military leader, the same per son they counted on for leadership and survival.Soldiers are trained to always follow orders, never question orders (When I set up jump, u you say how high). But that belief is somewhat erroneous, the charge to the soldier is to obey any observant order given (Schwalbe). Absolute obedience, although not wholeheartedly embraced in official military pronounce workforcets, is nevertheless unanimously praised in combat context (Peppers). Some military scholars call the modern version of military field of honor enlightened obedience.Enlightened obediencesprings from a belief on the part of the subordinate that his superiors orders are authoritative and valid (Peppers).A classic example of the power of authoritative factors is provided by Stanley Milgrams study on obedience to authority. College students from Yale University were asked to participate in an try to test the effects of punishment on learning. They were willing to continue administering what they thought were increasingl y higher levels of shocks toan other(a) subject (actually an actor) simply because the experimenter (Milgram) said to do so. The results, in fact, were so unbelieveable that they made Milgram one of the well-nigh famous social psychologist. About 65 share of the subjects continued to obey the experimenter to the end of the experiment even when they thought the victim was getting dangerous levels of electric car shock, and even when he asked them to stopSo what exactly does the My Lai Massacre wear to do with Milgrams experiment? The My Lai Massacre of 1968, in which a company of American soldiers poured automatic rifle fire into groups of unarmed villagers, cleaning perhaps 500 people, many of them women and children (Hammer). Those soldiers were obeying orders from a superior officer.It passed without notice when it occurred in mid-March 1968. Yet the brief stock certificate bath at My Lai, a hamlet in Viet Cong-infested territory 335 miles northeast of Saigon, may yet suppo rt an impact on the war. According to accounts that suddenly appeared on TV and in the world press farthermost week, a company of 60 or 70 U.S.Infantrymen hadentered My Lai early one morning and demeaned houses, parentage and all the inhabitants that they could find in a brutal operation that took less than 20 minutes. When it was over, the Vietnamese breathless totaled at least 100 men, women and children, and perhaps many more, only 25 or so escaped, because they lay hidden under the fallen bodies of others. (Schawlbe) Military men said that stories of what happened at My Lai are correct. If so, the contingency ranks as the most serious atrocity yet attributed to American troops (Hammer).Isard said, I see men who obeyed the leaders of their country, then lost themselves. The My Lai Massacre was planned. Planned, how could it reach been planned? A recon patrol, perhaps, was planned, maybe even a search and destroy mission Burn the villages interrogate the villagers, and all th at. But a massacre? Strategies are planned. Brutalities just happen (Isard).Obedience to Authority Stanley Milgram described the agentic shift inwhich an individual attributes responsibility for his or her actions to a person in the position of authority. In the My Lai Massacre the men felt it was their duty to contribute fire on the village. They were given orders to do just that. There was no questioning of orders from Cally, their superiour. The soldiers must have done as they were told, or incur sever consequences. Soldiers are taught from their first moments in Boot clique that orders must be obeyed.The way in which the My Lai Massacre was particularly a case of over obedience to the military, is that the men that committed the massacre were ordered to do so.They did not decide on their own to destroy a bunch of people. They were following orders from military authoritative figures to destroy My Lai. What does this mean? Its clearly a case of over obedience to military author ity. The men had two choices. They could obey a command and kill hundreds of unreserved people, or they could disobey a command and face a possible consequences from the courts. In actuality they didnt have a choice. many of the soldiers in Vietnam were there because of the draft, they however in their eyes, served their country to their best of their knowledge.They went bravely into affair and they did what had to be done. In the case of the My Lai Massacre, they were following orders just as they had done in many other times in the war. Only this time, the orders were to kill hundreds of villagers, not the Viet Cong, not the enemy. There were women and children in that village. They were gunned down mercilessly. For what primer? They were ordered to do so.The soldiers had an obligation, a duty to obey their superiors. That is what makes the military so successful. Soldiers not ask questions they only obey orders. In thisinstance the orders went too far. Hundreds of innocent pe ople were killed in the name of following orders. Is this any less an atrocious because the men were ordered to fire on the village of My Lai? No. Were the men doing this for personal gain? No. Were they doing it out of hatred or in defense? No.Many of the people in the village were women and children. The soldiers had nothing against those people In this instance the village of My Lai was a case of finis by over obedience of the American army. Was what they did right or wrong? In the eyes of most people, including the participants, the action was wrong, but they could not be faulted because they were simply following orders.Works CitedHammer, Richard One Morning in the War The tragedy at Son My. Coward-McCann NY 1970Isard, Walter., ed. Vietnam Issues and Alternatives. Schenkman . Cambridge MA 1969Kelman, Herbert C. Hamilton, Lee V. Crimes of Obedience. New Haven Yale University Press. 1989Milgram, Stanley. The Perils of Obedience. Writing and teaching Across theCurriculum. 7th ed . By Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York Longman, 2000. 343-355Miller, Heather. Stanley Milgramhttp//muskingum.edu/psychology/psycweb/history/milgram.htmPeppers, Donald A. War Crimes and Induction A racing shell for Selective NonconscientiousObjection. Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 2. (Winter, 1974),pp.129-166. JSTOR Middlesex County College Library, Edison. 29 Nov. 2000 http//www.jstor.orgSchwalbe, David. The My Lai Massacre. American History. 1998 http//americanhistory.about.com/homework/americanhistory/library/weekly/aa031798.htm