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a while back i did a paper on the subject.
well, on lt william caley to be exact and presidential pardons.
i remember using this incident/man as one example as well as elliot abhrams and the iran contra affair for another.
i guess when i think about the various reasons as to why i study military history and genocide,
one of the reasons is because it shows how extremely evil/cruel/machine-like/insane/etc people can be when put into situations.
but then it also shows how warfare can also bring out complete opposite reactions in others.
Hugh Thompson Jr., 62; 'One of the Good Guys' Saved Civilians at My Lai
From Associated Press
Hugh Thompson Jr., a former Army helicopter pilot honored for rescuing Vietnamese civilians from his fellow GIs during the My Lai massacre, died Friday. He was 62.
Thompson, whose role in the 1968 massacre did not become widely known until decades later, died at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Alexandria, La., said hospital spokesman Jay DeWorth.
Trent Angers, Thompson's biographer and family friend, said Thompson died of cancer.
"These people were looking at me for help, and there was no way I could turn my back on them," Thompson recalled in a 1998 Associated Press interview.
Early on the morning of March 16, 1968, Thompson, door-gunner Lawrence Colburn and crew chief Glenn Andreotta came upon U.S. ground troops killing Vietnamese civilians in and around the village of My Lai.
They landed the helicopter in the line of fire between American troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pointed their guns at U.S. soldiers.
Colburn and Andreotta provided cover for Thompson as he confronted the leader of the U.S. forces. Thompson later coaxed civilians out of a bunker so they could be evacuated, then landed his helicopter again to pick up a wounded child. Their efforts led to the cease-fire order at My Lai.
the rest. la times.
well, on lt william caley to be exact and presidential pardons.
i remember using this incident/man as one example as well as elliot abhrams and the iran contra affair for another.
i guess when i think about the various reasons as to why i study military history and genocide,
one of the reasons is because it shows how extremely evil/cruel/machine-like/insane/etc people can be when put into situations.
but then it also shows how warfare can also bring out complete opposite reactions in others.
Hugh Thompson Jr., 62; 'One of the Good Guys' Saved Civilians at My Lai
From Associated Press
Hugh Thompson Jr., a former Army helicopter pilot honored for rescuing Vietnamese civilians from his fellow GIs during the My Lai massacre, died Friday. He was 62.
Thompson, whose role in the 1968 massacre did not become widely known until decades later, died at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Alexandria, La., said hospital spokesman Jay DeWorth.
Trent Angers, Thompson's biographer and family friend, said Thompson died of cancer.
"These people were looking at me for help, and there was no way I could turn my back on them," Thompson recalled in a 1998 Associated Press interview.
Early on the morning of March 16, 1968, Thompson, door-gunner Lawrence Colburn and crew chief Glenn Andreotta came upon U.S. ground troops killing Vietnamese civilians in and around the village of My Lai.
They landed the helicopter in the line of fire between American troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pointed their guns at U.S. soldiers.
Colburn and Andreotta provided cover for Thompson as he confronted the leader of the U.S. forces. Thompson later coaxed civilians out of a bunker so they could be evacuated, then landed his helicopter again to pick up a wounded child. Their efforts led to the cease-fire order at My Lai.
the rest. la times.
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