Life story of hero of My Lai
revealed in new book

LAFAYETTE, La. - A new book reveals that the My Lai massacre - in which 504 civilians were killed in the Vietnam War in 1968 - could have taken many more lives had it not been for the heroic actions of Hugh Thompson and his helicopter crew.

The book also reveals that the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee at the time attempted to sabotage the My Lai trials so that no U.S. soldier would be convicted of war crimes in connection with the massacre.

The book is titled The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story. The publisher is Acadian House Publishing of Lafayette, La.

Thompson is the U.S. Army helicopter pilot whose complaint of the slaughter of civilians brought about the cease-fire that put a stop to the massacre. He and his crew are credited with directly saving the lives of nine unarmed civilians who were about to be killed by fellow U.S. soldiers. They also rescued a five-year-old girl from an irrigation ditch filled with the bodies of some 170 dead or dying Vietnamese women, children and old men.

Thompson and Larry Colburn, the gunner on his aircraft, were finally decorated for heroism by the U.S. Army in March of 1998, some 30 years after the massacre. They received the Soldier's Medal at the Vietnam Wall in Washington in a ceremony that was publicized throughout the United States and internationally.

The book was authored by veteran journalist Trent Angers of Lafayette, La. The introduction was written by Mike Wallace of CBS News, who was a war correspondent in Vietnam some 30 years ago.

In supporting his conclusion that many more would have died in the massacre had it not been for Thompson's decisive action, the author cites a number of sources, including the book by Gen. W.R. Peers titled The My Lai Inquiry, as well as trial testimony by Lt. William Calley, the only soldier convicted in the massacre.

"The game plan of Task Force Barker was to permanently get rid of the Viet Cong from a large area of Quang Ngai Province. My Lai-4 was only the starting point. It was but one subhamlet of one hamlet in one village in the target area," Angers writes, explaining that the target area was made up of six villages with a total population of some 10,000 people.

On the subject of the attempt to sabotage the My Lai trials, the author quotes several sources, including William Eckhardt, a prosecutor in the trials, and Stanley Resor, who was Secretary of the Army at the time. Eckhardt says the late Congressmen F. Edward Hebert (D-La.) and L. Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.), through the use of their investigating subcommittee, tried to sabotage the prosecution of those responsible for the massacre.

"Hebert and Rivers decided that these trials were detrimental to the interests of the United States of America and they tried, calculatingly and technically using the Jencks Act, to sabotage them," Eckhardt charges.

Moreover, Eckhardt adds, besides trying to get Calley and the others off the hook, they tried to turn the table on Thompson and set him up to be court-martialed for threatening the lives of fellow soldiers in his attempt to stop the killing of the unarmed civilians.

The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story is an authorized biography that traces Thompson's life from his birth in Atlanta in 1943, through his adolescence in Stone Mountain, Ga., and his 20 years in the U.S. military. It provides a detailed account of his heroic rescue of civilians at My Lai, as well as the stress-filled role he played as a key government witness in the My Lai massacre trials.

Because of his bravery and ethical conduct on the battlefield, the book notes, Thompson received the Courage of Conscience Award from the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Mass., which is affiliated with Harvard Divinity School and Wellesley College. Previous recipients include Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Mahatma Gandhi.

The 248-page hardcover book is available in bookstores nationwide. It can be obtained via the internet (www.acadianhouse.com) or by mail order from Acadian House Publishing, P.O. Box 52247, Lafayette, LA 70505, (800) 850-8851. It retails for $22.95, plus $3 for shipping.

The book is dedicated to the memory of the 504 Vietnamese killed in the massacre. The names of the victims, along with the age and sex of each, are published as an appendix.

Research for the book uncovered the fact that the story of Thompson's heroic rescue of the civilians is being used in U.S. and European military training manuals to teach battlefield ethics.