University Communications 'FORGOTTEN HERO OF MY LAI' TO DO BOOK-SIGNING AT EMORY Hugh Thompson, the former U.S. Army helicopter pilot who put a stop to the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, will give a public talk at Emory University at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 28 in Cannon Chapel. Afterwards he will sign copies of the recently published biography, "The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story" beginning at 5:30 p.m. For information call 404-727-4449. Earlier in the day Thompson will speak to religion professor David Blumenthal's class titled "The Problem of Evil." Blumenthal, who has been teaching the course for about six years, is the author of a new book, "The Banality of Good and Evil," which explores the "everyday-ness" of both unspeakable evil and heroically good acts. He said he invited Thompson to campus because he now realizes there are important questions he needs to ask Thompson to understand the underlying causes of his heroism. "I need to ask him about discipline in his home when he was growing up and who was his role model for good," says Blumenthal. "Also, he is a person trained by the military who defied military authority. What higher authority did he appeal to to do that? Was it the ideal of the military as it should be? Was it God?" Blumenthal believes that answers to these questions hold important keys to human behavior, both good and evil. Thompson, a native Atlantan who now lives in Louisiana, was in a helicopter
over the hamlet of My Lai when American forces began slaughtering unarmed
civilians. Deciding he had to act, Thompson, a chief warrant officer,
set his helicopter on the ground, jumped out with his men, trained his
guns on fellow Americans Lt. William Calley and his men, and ordered them
to stop the killing or he would fire. The killing ceased and Thompson
and his men evacuated dozens of civilians to hospitals. Although he was
liable to be prosecuted for mutiny, Thompson played a key role as a government
witness in the My Lai massacre trials. He was finally decorated for heroism,
along with some of his men, by the U.S. Army in 1998, some 30 years after
the massacre. "The Forgotten Hero of My Lai" was written by journalist
Trent Angers of Lafayette, La. The introduction was written by Mike Wallace
of CBS News, a former war correspondent in Vietnam. Return to Archived Public Events Releases |
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