Accounts Made by the Witnesses:
Among the many who testified, Hugh Thompson's account of the event at My Lai was the most important. Hugh Thompson was a helicopter pilot who was at the scene of the My Lai Massacre. Thompson and his gunner Lawrence Colburn landed the craft in between the U.S soldiers and threatened to fire on them if they continued to violently chase after the Vietnamese civilians. Thompson rescued many civilians that day from the hands of his fellow countrymen. He was absolutely terrified that U.S soldiers could do such crimes. In his letter that he wrote to Ron Ridehour he quotes" It was probably one of the saddest days of my life. I just could not believe that people could totally lose control and I've heard people say this happened all the time. I don't believe it. I'm not naive to understand that innocent civilians did get killed in Vietnam. I truly pray to God that My Lai was not an everyday occurrence."
See his full letter at:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/vietnam/ridenhour_letter.cfm
See his full letter at:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/vietnam/ridenhour_letter.cfm
Soldiers of C Company involved in the killings later tell sources about what truly happened. A U.S soldier later testifys, "I cut their throats, cut off their hands, cut out their tongues, scalped them. I did it. A lot of people were doing it and I just followed. I lost all sense of direction." Other soldiers such as Robert Maples refused to kill Vietnamese civilians even after his commanding officer gave him a direct order and turned his weapon on him.
One account made was by a Vietnamese survivor of the massacre, named Truong Thi Le almost 30 years later. Truong Thi Le is one of three members still alive that were victims of the My Lai Massacre. She says that the picture of that day is still fresh in her mind, but she is still is frightened to tell her story of the events that took place. In her interview by Paul Alexander she says "I feel pain in my heart when I look at this," her voice choking. "I have to struggle not to cry. I still can't account for what happened." She also describes how she survived she quotes "The dead bodies piled over me. That's why I survived. I was just lucky," she says. "I managed to pull myself out of the bodies and walked home. It was burned and all the cows and pigs were killed. We had nothing left." Her interview is breathtaking and Its hard to believe that the U.S military would disregard their responsibilities toward civilians in war and even be capable of such an atrocity.
See her full interview at: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/vietnam/mylai_survivor.cfm
See her full interview at: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/vietnam/mylai_survivor.cfm