Charge of a General

For all the scalding publicity and agonized soul searching that the U.S. Army had to endure in the case of Lieut. William Galley Jr., his trial and subsequent conviction did not penetrate the military's innermost defenses. After all, Galley was hardly one of the elite of the officer corps. He was one of those thousands of peripheral soldiers of ordinary background and average intelligence who slog their way through O.C.S., enjoy a career of tedious assignments in grubby outposts and never, never rise beyond the rank of colonel.

John W. Donaldson, 47, is something else: the very model of a modern brigadier general. He boasts an impeccable military heritage. His father and grandfather were West Pointers and high-ranking officers. Donaldson graduated from the Point in 1944, and his duty assignments have been exceptional. He studied French civilization at the Sorbonne and German at Middlebury College in Vermont, and received a master's degree in foreign affairs from George Washington University in 1963. From 1956 to 1960 he served as senior aide-decamp in Paris to General Lauris Norstad, then Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, Europe. Donaldson holds a Silver Star, Bronze Star, Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart.

"Evasive Action." Although there had been earlier reports that the Army might soon accuse a general officer of murder (TIME, May 10), the Pentagon was understandably shaken last week when Donaldson was charged with killing six Vietnamese civilians and assaulting two others. According to the Army Donaldson, while a colonel commanding the llth Infantry Brigade of the Americal Division, on numerous occasions took potshots at Vietnamese with an M-16 rifle from his helicopter. The helicopter pilot who blew the whistle on Donaldson said that the shootings occurred between October 1968 and March 1969.

Before his attorneys shut him up, Donaldson did not deny the shootings, but said he had made a point of firing only at men who "took evasive action" during battle and must hence have been the enemy. Other than that, he has been silent except to issue a stock statement: "These charges are based upon an investigation and a report prepared by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division which has been a one-sided report. Certain parts of this report and investigation have just now been made available to me and to my counsel. I would like to say that I have full faith in the U.S. Army. The Army has been my life and I have full confidence in the U.S. military judicial system." Said his Army lawyer, Lieut. Colonel Robert Poydasheff: "We haven't had a chance yet to come forward with all our evidence. When all the evidence is in, I feel General Donaldson will be vindicated."*

Calley Mold. Also charged with two separate killings was Donaldson's operations officer at the time, Lieut. Colonel William McCloskey, 39. Although he is a dedicated officer with ten Purple Hearts to his credit, McCloskey is more in the Calley mold, a onetime enlisted man who served two hitches before going to O.C.S. in 1954.

What happens now depends upon Lieut. General Claire E. Hutchin Jr., commanding general of the First Army, to which both officers are now assigned (Donaldson was transferred from a sensitive Pentagon post when news of the forthcoming charges began to seep out). If Hutchin decides to proceed, the next step is a formal investigation under Article 32, the approximate Army equivalent of a grand jury hearing. Then, on advice from the Judge Advocate General's attorneys, Hutchin may or may not order a court-martial.

No Retreat. He almost certainly will. The Army is still stinging from charges that it made a scapegoat of Calley. It would leave itself open to a charge of whitewashing if it dropped the Donaldson affair without a trial. Besides, the man behind the investigation is General William Westmoreland; the flinty Chief of Staff has announced that "the system is on trial." Brigadier General Samuel Koster, Americal Division commander at the time of My Lai, has already been reduced to his present rank on Westmoreland's recommendation. Many ranking officers are up in arms over Westmoreland's inquisition. Says a friend and brother officer of Donaldson: "He is the least likely man to have knowingly shot a civilian. They have picked the wrong man here, and those charges are preposterous." Another general was more blunt: "What is Westmoreland doing to the Army? He's ruining it. Why? To save himself?"

The Donaldson case, set against the background of the nation's most enervating war, seems likely to set lifelong comrades-in-arms against one another in the Pentagon. In all the legal and moral morass, Donaldson may never be able to provide his fellow Army officers with a satisfactory answer to one nagging question: What was a brigade commander doing charging about the countryside in a helicopter during battle, pumping at fleeing figures with an M16?

:* The last U.S. general to be accused of war crimes was Brigadier General Jacob H. Smith in 1901. He was court-martialed for ordering a Philippine village turned into a "howling wilderness" and "all persons over the age of ten" slaughtered. He was convicted and later admonished and ordered to retire by President Theodore Roosevelt.

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