ABSTRACT
William Calley show of remorse for his role in the events was expected and accepted. Applying his vision to the analysis above, we can still argue that the quest for remorse and the testing of its credibility is a boundary-defining moment for the multiple moral communities that inhabit the same geography and are subject to the same regimes of power. It has been equally central to this analysis to observe how this involvement by court and community affects the moral performances through which remorse or its absence is communicated. Yet, there is more to this potential for discreditation than simply the gnawing suspicion of dissimulation. So resonant and richly connotative is the imputation of remorsefulness that it imposes obligations on the community that confers it. It is at this awkward juncture that one can situate the necessary but always provisional ritual of showing remorse.
