Stanley Milgram's The My Lai Massacre: The Perils Of Obedience

Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, in the “Perils of Obedience,” writes about his experiment on obedience to authority. He explains how the subjects he used were asked, by a mock scientist, to administer shocks to the learner when they answered a question incorrectly. Milgram was shocked to find that a majority of the subjects administered the highest voltage, simply because they were told to by what they assumed was an authority figure. Writing also on the perils of obedience, specifically in the military, Herbert C. Kelman, professor at Harvard University, and V. Lee Hamilton, a Yale professor, write the article “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience,”. They write about one of the worst atrocities committed by the United

Milgram would argue that the two men are innocent simply because they were following the orders of someone above them. Comparing Dawson and Downey to the teacher in his obedience experiments, he would say that even though they knew what they were doing would bring harm to the subject they did it anyways because they were told by an authority figure. Milgram states in his article that “the experimenter’s physical presence has a marked impact on his authority” (Milgram 88). This is a huge factor as to why Dawson and Downey obeyed the dishonorable order. Milgram would state that because of the physical presence of their commander, and also being marines, they were more prone to obey the order. He effectively states that in his experiment a majority of the subjects obeyed the experimenter whose authority was fragile in many respects (Milgram 89). Chris White, a former marine, writes an article “A Former Marine on the Marine Motto” on the desensitization that occurs in the marine training camps (White). This is an important factor as to why Dawson and Downey obeyed the order. Desensitization and the authority of a marine general have much greater influence than just that of an experimenter in a lab coat. Milgram believes the “experimenter’s authority to be much less than that of a general, since the experimenter has no power to enforce his imperatives, and since participation in a psychological experiment scarcely evokes the sense of urgency and dedication found in warfare” (Milgram 88). The subjects in his experiment obeyed the orders of the experimenter who does not have half of the authority a general in a war has. The Marine Corps website says it simply as Semper Fidelis, Latin for always faithful, which guides Marines to be faithful to the mission, to each other, to the Corps and to the country, no matter what (“Semper Fidelis”). The