The self-described patriots would want you to believe that those of us who opposed the Viet Nam War were traitors and did not support our troops. I have known many Viet Vets and respect the sacrifices they made, at the direction of their superiors, without their consent. You can't give your consent to something of which you don't know the truth. The U.S. government deceived and lied to the U.S. people during the Viet Nam War just as they have been in the Iraq War. I support whole heartedly the actions of this hero as I think any human being with at least an ounce of compassion would.
The following is from today's broadcast on Democracy Now.
We turn now to another American figure of the Vietnam War - Hugh Thompson. As a helicopter pilot, he helped rescue Vietnamese civilians from fellow U.S. troops during the infamous My Lai massacre. Hugh Thompson died last week of cancer. He was 62 years old.
On March 16, 1968, Thompson and two other crewmembers landed their helicopter in front of U.S. troops firing on Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai. They pointed their guns at their fellow service members to prevent more killings, and helped evacuate the villagers.
Thompson and Lawrence Colburn later testified at the court martial hearings for the massacre of over 300 civilians at My Lai. Only one U.S. soldier, platoon commander Lieutenant William Calley, was convicted. He was court-martialed and sentenced to life in prison for his role in the massacre. Many around the country viewed Calley as a scapegoat. "Rallies for Calley" were held all over the country and Jimmy Carter, then governor of Georgia, urged citizens to leave car headlights on to show support for Calley. President Richard Nixon later commuted Calley's sentence to three years of house arrest.
Thompson, on the other hand, was shunned for years by fellow soldiers. He received death threats and was once told by a congressman that he was the only American who should be punished over My Lai. Although the My Lai massacre became one of the most infamous atrocities of the Vietnam War, little was known about Hugh Thompson's actions for decades.
In 1998, Thompson and his two crewmembers, Lawrence Colburn and Glenn Andreotta, were awarded the Soldier's Medal, the highest US military award for bravery not involving conflict with an enemy. Andreotta's award was posthumous. He was killed in Vietnam less than a month after My Lai.
Thompson passed away last week after a prolonged battle with cancer.
Here is an excerpt from Amy Goodman's interview with Lawrence Colburn, the one remaining fellow crewmwmber describing that days events:
LAWRENCE COLBURN: Well, early in the morning we were one of the first American units on station ahead of the Americans that would be inserted on the ground. And it started out as a routine air support and reconnaissance mission, but as the day progressed, we noticed obviously that we weren't receiving any fire. Our job was to fly low level and try to entice people into giving up their positions by firing on us. And that wasn't happening.
We saw people leaving the village. It was a Saturday morning, so it wasn't uncommon for the people to go to market on Saturday morning. So we thought it was good that these women and children and elderly people were leaving the area. And as we progressed around the perimeter of the area that the troops were being inserted into, we found nothing, as far as resistance. At some point we had to go refuel. And it was so quiet that morning that we didn't even call a backup team to cover us while we were refueling.
And then when we came back from refueling, we started finding the same people that were leaving the area on the road out of the village were now dead on the road and in the ditches. And Mr. Thompson tried to piece together different scenarios. He knew it wasn't artillery because that had happened earlier in the morning. There were other gunships on station. But they weren't firing on the villagers. Finally, after marking a few bodies with smoke for medical assistance, we witnessed a captain approach a wounded woman and walked up to her and kicked her with his foot, stepped back and blew her away. Then we realized what was going on and exactly who was doing the killing.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, what did you do?
LAWRENCE COLBURN: Mr. Thompson landed by the ditch, where there were probably 150, 200 people dead or dying. There was an American soldier standing there. We actually landed the aircraft, because the communication was so bad. He physically got out of the aircraft, went over and spoke to the soldier and explained to him these were obviously civilians. There were no weapons captured. There were no draft age males. These were civilians. We need to help them out. And the soldier agreed and said he'd help them out, and as we lifted off again, we heard automatic weapons fire, and he was firing into the ditch again.
So at that point, Glenn Andreotta spotted an earthen-type bunker with some faces peering out of it. And there was an approaching squad of Americans. And we -- Mr. Thompson decided, and we all decided that if we didn't do something within the next 30 seconds, these people would die. So he landed the aircraft in between the advancing American troops and the people in the bunker, went over and spoke to a lieutenant and told him -- or asked him how we could get these people out of the bunker. They were obviously civilians. And the lieutenant replied he'd get them out with hand grenades.
Mr. Thompson, who was outranked by this lieutenant, actually gave the lieutenant an order, told him to keep his people in place. He had a better idea, and I think he told him, "If you fire on these people when I'm getting them out of the bunker, my people will fire on you." So he went over to the bunker himself and coaxed the villagers out. And we thought there were two or three. There were nine or ten, and we were in a small three-place helicopter, and all three seats were occupied. So we had to call down a gunship and use it as a medevac to remove these people from the area, take them down the road and then the gunship came back on station.
After that, we went back to the ditch. Glenn Andreotta spotted movement in the ditch. Mr. Thompson landed again. Glenn and I got out of the aircraft, went to the ditch. By the time I got there, Glenn was already in the ditch. He retrieved a small child and handed the child up to me, and we carried the child to a hospital orphanage a few miles away. And Mr. Thompson left the child with a nun and let her know that his family was probably all gone, so take care of him.
AMY GOODMAN: You were with Hugh Thompson at his bedside when he died?
LAWRENCE COLBURN: Yes, ma'am.
AMY GOODMAN: And you're the last of the three of you surviving. Glenn Andreotta died in Vietnam right after My Lai. Your thoughts today about the action you took, just in introducing you, talking about the Congress member saying to Hugh Thompson, "You're the only one that should be prosecuted for My Lai."
LAWRENCE COLBURN: I believe that was Mendel Rivers. Well, it had a toll on Hugh. He was tormented by not only My Lai, but the way he was treated when he just told the truth and did what was morally right. People came after him and tried to discredit him. He was ostracized in the military, but he never turned his back on them. He stayed in the military. His message would be how important it is to maintain integrity and honor and honesty within the ranks of the military.
AMY GOODMAN: You returned with Hugh Thompson, you returned to Vietnam. You returned to My Lai and the whole area, and you met with the survivors, the people that you saved.
LAWRENCE COLBURN: Yes, and their offspring. Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what that was like?
LAWRENCE COLBURN: If there was any gratification, it would have been that, to see that people actually did survive, and they carried on and continued their families. We were also reunited with the boy from the ditch in 2001, which was incredible that they were able to find this boy. I prayed over the years that he was too young to remember or too traumatized to remember what had happened. But I misjudged his age. He was so small. He was eight years old. I thought he was four or five. And he remembered everything. We quizzed him a little bit, and only he could remember what happened, so we know it was the same boy.
Peace, Alan
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