How should we recognize the My Lai massacre and Hugh Thompson’s actions?

[lightbulb27]

On this day a sad event costing hundreds of innocent farmers.

One man had the guts, courage... to intervene and saved many, not enough. Taking risk to his own crews life against his own men he was there to protect and fighting political battles after, he confronted the US soldiers executing people.

Hugh Thompson: For this, I'm presenting him the 🏅GAG Medal of Honor 🏅 for demonstrating highest standards Americans can be proud of.

This post also in remembrance of the 347-504 Vietnamese people whom were killed... murdered... so long ago and their surviving family members.

If I get to the chance to visit Vietnam, I will do my best to represent American in a positive way, recognizing what some of them went through. The Vietnamese are to be commended for their ability to survive and their exceptional level of forgiveness given how awful this was. GAG Human Decency medal to them all 🥇.

In hopes we can all remember, learn, and hold each other to the highest of standards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr.

And all of this for what? That's the problem with war... it is about security but is it really necessary?

Yes we should recognize our frailties and make amends

Other

Updates

4 mo

A helpful video on the subject: www.democracynow.org/.../50_years_after_my_lai_massacre

[Lliam]

Hear hear, sir. Thompson and his crew, Glenn Andreotta and
Lawrence Colburn were heroes. They represent the best of American ideals and human values. I salute them.

The My Lai Massacre, which occurred on March 16, 1968, was first reported to the American public in November 1969 by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, following efforts by Vietnam veteran Ron Ridenhour to expose the atrocity after learning of it from soldiers involved.

I had just entered high school the fall of 1969 and remember the reports. Kids at school were also talking about it and it helped to fuel anti-war sentiments.

Exactly thirty years after the massacre, Thompson, Andreotta, and Colburn were awarded the Soldier's Medal (Andreotta posthumously), the United States Army's highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy.

"It was the ability to do the right thing even at the risk of their personal safety that guided these soldiers to do what they did," then-Major General Michael Ackerman said at the 1998 ceremony. The three "set the standard for all soldiers to follow."
Additionally on March 10, 1998, Senator Max Cleland (D-Ga.) entered a tribute to Thompson, Colburn and Andreotta into the record of the U. S. Senate. Cleland said the three men were, "true examples of American patriotism at its finest."

In 1998, Thompson and Colburn returned to the village of My Lai, where they met some of the villagers they had rescued, including Thi Nhung and Pham Thi Nhanh, two women who had been part of the group that was about to be killed by Brooks' 2nd Platoon. They also dedicated a new elementary school for the children of the village.

In 1999, Thompson and Colburn received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award. Later that year, both men served as co-chairs of STONEWALK, a group who pulled a one-ton rock engraved "Unknown Civilians Killed in War" from Boston to Arlington National Cemetery.

In a 2004 interview with 60 Minutes, Thompson was quoted referring to C Company's men involved in the massacre: "I mean, I wish I was a big enough man to say I forgive them, but I swear to God, I can't."

At the age of 62, after extensive treatment for cancer, Thompson was removed from life support and died on January 6, 2006, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Pineville, Louisiana. Colburn came from Atlanta to be at his bedside. Thompson was buried in Lafayette, Louisiana, with full military honors, including a three-volley salute and a helicopter flyover. On February 8, 2006, Congressman Charles Boustany (R-La.) made a statement in Congress honoring him, stating that the "United States has lost a true hero, and the State of Louisiana has lost a devoted leader and dear friend."

In 2010, the Hugh Thompson Foundation was chartered, in memory of Thompson's courage in halting the massacre.

[Lliam]

Thanks for the MHO, lightbulb.

[Dargil]

I think that was agit prop for the ignorant. Which means Democrats.

[lightbulb27]

@Lliam welcome, appreciate the added detail and personal experience.

@Dargil Please enjoy a Cappuccino and clarify.

[beefcakebradybatson]

@Dargil So moral heroes who try to end massacres are ignorant? Says all I want to know about REPIGLIKSWINE, boy-o !!!

[Dargil]

@beefcakebradybatson More insipid name calling. Don't you realize when you create inventive insults and name calling, that you have already lost the narrative. And you did.

[Dargil]

You may think it's clever and mocking. But what it really is is ignorant.

[WindAtMyBack]

There is a lot more to it than that. The way things are today, it might hard to believe there was actually real debate about this. People understood that it's not nearly as straightforward as it appears on the surface. Obviously it should not have happened. That is not what the debate was about.

1) Should solders who have it drilled into their heads to follows orders without question ever disobey an order? What will happen to them if they do disobey an order?

2) The reality of that war was that older men, women and children WERE the enemy or helping the enemy. That was one of the biggest problems with that war, not knowing who the enemy was. They could be almost anyone.

3) The military actively fighting in war turns people into animals. They are broken down, so they can do things that is totally abnormal for a person to do. The things they were doing at My Lai, do you think there is any chance they'd do something like that in any other environment? Do you think they'd do it if not for being drafted into the army and thrown into a hell like Vietnam? No, they would not. They were MADE that way.

4) OK, so there is no way you can justify killing young children. But what if it turned out that the elderly men, women, and older children really WERE the enemy? What if it turned out that attacking that village saved us from being attacked ourselves? We know for a fact that this sort of thing happened over there, and quite often.

5) Arm chair quarterbacks sitting in the comfort of their homes expect soldiers who have seen a lot of hard combat to act like they did before the war. That is never going to happen. They would not be able to do their job if the person they were before still existed. That person has to be broken down. Then when the whole thing is over, you have to reintegrate them, after totally changing who they are and turning them into a killing machine.

Nothing justifies what happened, but the questions are real, and there was honest public debate about it.

[lightbulb27]

Agree with you, that was guerilla war and doesn't take many wounded /murdered soldiers to change ones mind into animal. I'm not down on the guys that "broke" under that stress, that could have been me. Not the rape part, but might lose ones mind easily. This happened in WWII as well, and always happens onto those whom are weak, unarmed. That is bitter emotions coming out, something we have to all be aware of inside ourselves.

But moreso, the courage of one to stand up for what was clearly wrong in this case... to have that clarity. As well, the forgiveness of the people, I've seen and read on that. Be easy to hold a grudge forever, but some forgave and moved on.
That's something we should respect.

Point of the post is to be reflective and learn, so we don't repeeat. I appreciate your clear balanced view.

[WindAtMyBack]

Consider the contrast between the killers at My Lai and Thomson. The killers had been in that environment and seen heavy action. Thompson was still fairly fresh in country. He was a pilot who maybe had not killed at all, and almost certainly not done it up close and personal. He hadn't been turned into an animal - yet. As you said, it could have been you. It could have been Thompson also.

Thompson was also more highly trained and experienced. I think he outranked anyone on the ground and was more likely to be listened to by the upper brass.

One thing I find telling is the kind of debate back then compared to now. For the most part, people were not opposing other people just to be opposing them. Most people actually understood there were real questions with no easy answers.

My Lai was one of the first sensationalized media frenzies at a time when television was still relatively new. Color television with largely uncensored footage of war was brand new. Never in the history of humans had the average person had that kind of view of war. The "60s" would probably not have been the 60s without that new thing called television.

[lightbulb27]

Your points are valid. Some of it is training and some where he came from and some his experience. I don't know his spiritual aspects/training if it had influence. Some of the soldiers refused orders to shoot, that I didn't call out but is a loud statement how bad it was.

Lets be honest, the military foot soldiers they recruit aren't always top notch trained humans, they are males with a gun. Had a simliar problem in Iraq where a "nut" raped and murdered a woman and her family.
It happens because people are put into hell, already maybe a party to hell, and it makes sense to them at the time.
I know Russian soldiers did same in WWII, as did many others.

It's awful what humans will do to each other. The better we train them... spiritually, emotionally, the better off we are.

[lightbulb27]

Doesn't put the risk at zero...

[Anonymous]

You hear often about how all the marines and soldiers in the Vietnam war were doing drugs like marajuana and lsd but what they dont mention is that the US military was issuing them speed, steroids and painkillers like candy. The nazis gave their soldiers the amphetamines to which removed all empathy and increased violent leading to huge amounts of mass killings in WW2. Now some of the amphetamines used in the Vietnam war by the military are actually used today to threat ADHD, depression and other mental health conditions and what is slowly coming out though rarely acknowledged and usually ignored is that the majority of mass shooters have been on these drugs like dextroamphetamine that were developed in the Vietnam war.

So the culprit here is the US military.

[lightbulb27]

Wow, that's a great point. Did they know the effects then... probably and how could they use that crap on society knowing the results?
We are a drug culture to a large extent, pathetic.

[Opinion Owner]

In the 50s, 60s and 70s (80s too maybe) you werent doing drugs if the doctor prescribed them. Elvis, JFK, Jackie Kennedy and most of Hollywood werent junkies because they had a prescription.
All through these decades doctors in the US were prescribing amphetamine based diet pills to women who had just given birth, even if they hadn't asked for them. They just went a long with it because the doctor prescribed them. So you had all these housewives high as kites and addicted to weight loss pills for decades.
They knew the side effects, they knew about the nazis giving their soldiers similar stuff, these were the people that after WW2 were running all sorts of human experiments on US unsuspecting citizens studying biological warfare, chemical warfare, psychological warfare, nuclear warfare etc ( Bill Clinton apologised and acknowledged this in the 90s and no one saw a jail cell).

[Cyfris]

This is something that has never been a part of my history lessons and honestly know nothing about it and therefor wouldn't wager an opinion. I'm guessing this is something from the veitnam war?

[lightbulb27]

Correct USA/Vietnam

[Cyfris]

I think that will be my next point of study after desert storm. From what I know that was one of the most costly to life wars of our recent history. We were not ready for the jungle or the weed.

[lightbulb27]

no we weren't. Don't always win with firepower and never jump into a civil war.

[DonaldDarko]

Let's just all thank boomers for their service.

[beefcakebradybatson]

Hugh Thompson is a genuine American hero. Wish I could meet him if he's alive.

[Dargil]

Does anyone really care other than you?