Useful Information: Hugh Thompson Jr.

A couple of months back I wrote a piece on the most well known of America’s Vietnam War atrocities, the My Lai massacre. I had become curious about the fate of Lt. William Calley, the soldier court-martialed for his part in the infamous slaughter. I discovered that Calley was sentenced to life in prison, a sentence later reduced by Nixon to what basically amounted to being sent to his room for three years.

I had suspected that many of you had never even heard of Calley, or the My Lai massacre, and were simply assuming that our current on-going atrocities are unique in our history. It turns out that a big piece of the My Lai story was missing from my knowledge of the incident, and I’d like to pass it along tonight to help you, too, complete the picture.

The headline read “My Lai massacre hero dies at 62.” My first thought was that Calley had died. My second thought was why on Earth was he being referred to as a hero? It turns out the story was referring to another Vietnam veteran by the name of Hugh Thompson Jr., and he is considered a hero not because of the number of people he killed, but rather the number of people he saved.

I had never heard of Thompson until I read his obituary today. Part of this is due to my own ignorance, and part is because his story was largely unpublicized in the U.S. for many years. In fact, I still might never have heard of him if I had limited my headline reading to Reuters, AP or Drudge. No, the only reason that I learned about the death, and life, of Hugh Thompson Jr. is because I also post the BBC News headlines on my home page.

On March 16, 1968 American troops were in the middle of slaughtering civilians near the village of My Lai when military pilot Thompson set his helicopter down between the villagers and the soldiers. He then ordered his men to shoot their fellow Americans if they continued to attack the villagers. Let me repeat that. HE ORDERED HIS MEN TO SHOOT THEIR FELLOW AMERICANS IF THEY CONTINUED TO ATTACK THE VILLAGERS.

Richard Pryor used tell a story about some of his friends who would brag, “If those Nazis had tried anything with me I would have told them where to go.” Pryor would respond, “You wouldn’t have told them Nazis shit.” Sadly, under these extreme circumstances silence would likely be the course of action taken by many, or even most, of us. There were three choices for an American soldier who found himself caught up in the nightmare of the My Lai massacre. He could take the easiest, though hardly easy, path by shooting the civilians and claiming to be just following orders. Or an uncommonly brave soldier could refuse to kill the innocent people, orders or no orders. And then there was Hugh Thompson, who stopped it.

For his trouble Thompson was shunned by his fellow soldiers, received several death threats and was once told by a congressman that he was the only one who should be punished over the My Lai massacre. For decades little was known about Thompson’s action until the story came out in an interview. Always quick to right a wrong, our government awarded Thompson the Soldier’s Medal for bravery in 1998, a mere three decades after his heroic action.

Hugh Thompson Jr. died of cancer today at the age of 62. William Calley, also 62, today works as a jeweler in Columbus, Georgia.