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More than 34 years after one of the most controversial incidents in U.S. military history, two men who were on the scene visited the UD campus to share their thoughts on what became known as the My Lai Massacre.
Speaking at an afternoon press conference on Thursday, May 1, in the Trabant University Center Theatre before an evening talk in Clayton Hall, Vietnam veterans Hugh Thompson and Larry Colburn recalled the events of March 16, 1968, that took place in the village of My Lai, in the Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam.
Joining Thompson and Colburn at the press conference was CBS News and 60 Minutes II producer Thomas Anderson.
Colburn and the late Glenn Andreotta were with Thompson when the 24-year old Army pilot landed his helicopter in the line of fire between fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pursing American ground forces.
By breaking radio silence, Thomson reported the massacre to his superiors and gained a cease-fire, an action that probably saved the lives of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians.
As it was, 504 civilians were killed, including 123 children under the age of 5.
Thompson said that several contributing factors were involved in the actions of United States military forces that day, including lack of leadership, revenge, prejudice and reaction to negative peer pressure.
“I think you can add the fear factor,” said Colburn, who was 18 at the time and had been in the Army just over four months at the time of the massacre.
While Colburn and Thomson said that it is easy to see how this combination of negative factors could produce such a situation, it does not justify the slaughter of unarmed adults and children.
“If we can go into someplace like Argentina and look for war criminals, I don’t think we as Americans should be exempt from such investigations ourselves,” Colburn said.
For Thompson, who afterward endured hostility including death threats, there are some lessons to be learned from My Lai and the attempted cover-up that followed the massacre.
“I like students to walk away from our talks with the understanding that what they do can make a difference,” Thompson said. “If they can hear what we have to say tonight, maybe a year from now, when they are in a tough situation, they will be able to make the right decision.”
Despite the negative reaction of fellow soldiers and higher-ups in the military at the time, Thompson and Colburn said they believe that perhaps something good came out of the tragedy.
“It could be a good thing if you remember that the military has changed some of its laws in this area,” Thompson said. “It is now illegal to obey an unlawful order.”
Although they remained relatively forgotten once the furor surrounding the nearly three-year long court martial of Lt. William Calley subsided, Thompson, Colburn and Andreotta (posthumously) were awarded the Soldiers Medal for Heroism from the Army in 1998.
In addition to the lessons that learned from the events at My Lai, the Vietnam veterans said they want to make sure that the efforts of Andreotta, who was killed in combat a month later, are never forgotten.
“Glenn’s mother, Ruth, is still surviving,” Thompson said. “If there was a hero that day, it was Glenn.”
Article by Jerry Rhodes
May 2, 2002
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