On 16th March, 1968 Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jnr was flying helicopter reconnaissance for an attack on an alleged North Vietnamese-controlled village at My Lai.
As the ground attack developed below, Thompson realised he was in fact witnessing something something else:
A massacre.
He decided to act. /1 🧵 #history #histodons
@perigee @ailbhe That is absolutely not the intention here, and I do feel a misreading.
If anything it's the opposite. To highlight just how entrenched that idea was, how incorrect and the disastrous consequences of that.
In terms of 'white saviour'. The documented proof is that Thompson's actions were the ones that brought what was happening to an end. That this was true, and the enormous cost to him of doing so, shows again how horrific US imperialism had become.
@perigee @ailbhe ultimately, the implicit assumption that the US presence in Vietnam was just is precisely the excuse everyone else present was using for themselves, and continue to use to this day.
Indeed it's notable that Thompson remains a figure the US Army teaches about internally, but largely fails to in any way acknowledge publicly. Because doing so would require highlighting their complicity and that of individuals who are now senior there or in politics.
@annietime When the Army reluctantly agreed to investigate My Lai, Powell was one of the investigators.
The report - unsurprisingly - was largely a whitewash, which went with the classic 'a few bad apples' narrative.
In Powell's words:
“although there may be isolated cases of mistreatment of civilians and POWs, this by no means reflects the general attitude throughout the division.”
@annietime Powell would later testify to congress and minimise the events there and elsewhere, and push the narrative that if things HAD got out of control at My Lai it was an unfortunate one off etc. etc.
As you can probably imagine, his efforts in this area were both noted and appreciated by the Army and those within the political establishment.
@annietime as I remember something saying at the time, when it was suggested Powell wouldn't lie about WMDs given the risk to his reputation/conscience/honour etc:
"Well he's lied about atrocities before."
"the general attitude throughout the *division*" is a particularly clever way of using averages to obscure reality. Because, I'm sure he's right that the general attitude of the DIVISION (of which Charlie Company was a small part) weren't bent toward massacre. But, where it is dishonest, IMHO, is he is using a unit of 10,000 soldiers as a lens to analyze the actions of a specific and tiny portion of that division on a specific day. It uses the general to rationalize the specifically terrible.
If that makes sense? You're totally right about Powell's report sounding like a white wash. And his use of a blind like that makes me think he was also given a speech about how he could help his career if he just slow pitched his findings. So, kudos on the reporting and background. I've never seen the whole story like this before, thanks!
You are correct, I guess that use of scale as an intentional obfuscation stood out to me as egregious. And It took typing that all out to figure my thoughts out, sorry, lol.
@perigee @ailbhe I don't disagree with you at all.
And I agree it's important to find and celebrate Asian heroes from the same conflict.
But those aren't my areas of historical study. This is, so it is something I can write reasonably authoritatively about, so that's what I've done and tried to frame it in context that ensures it's not seen as if a "few bad apples" were responsible that day.
Thompson's role, and post-event experience, shows the opposite is true. And that's worth highlighting.
@perigee @ailbhe it's something i'd LOVE to learn, but - realistically - there are too many barriers in the way. From work, to family, but most critically to language and availability of sources here in London.
This is, ultimately, one of the pragmatic problems with studying history. You're always going to be viewing things through a window of both culture and access. All you can do (as a historian) is try and be aware of that, and not see only history through that window as valid.
@perigee @ailbhe also finances comes into it.
There are some INCREDIBLE photo collections from photographers embedded within North Vietnam, which present a very interesting contrast with the type of imagery that was encouraged/pushed as part of the American narrative.
But to share them here I'd need copyright permission. And the cost on that is prohibitive.
@perigee @ailbhe tbh one of the things I do try and avoid when doing information threads like this on here or twitter is falling into the trap of covering figures that have been covered extensively by others. Where I CAN highlight someone doing something else.
At some point I'll have enough info to cover Abdol Hossein Sardari, for example, who was critical to saving the Juguti (Central Asian Jews) community in France during the Holocaust. But unpicking the info is slow work. Eventually though!
I, for one, would just like to thank you for all the research and writing work, which you've provided to us all for free, today.
It was a very long thread, and I'm sure the numerous books and the doc link you provided, supply additional perspectives that you did not have room for.
I would encourage my fellow beneficiaries of your gift, to turn there, rather than hinting that you should have done even more for us today.
Myself, I greatly benefited from Nick Turse's "Kill Anything that Moves" has a lot on My Lai, and did provide much wider perspective, how common many smaller massacres were, how many were just done with artillery, leaving nothing. And Turse was able to travel to Vietnam and gather many stories from the survivors.
Googling the several My Lai books, I noted a tourist story, that when Colbourn died in 2016, Hanoi held a day of mourning.
@perigee tbh i wasn't sure the best way to approach it. I've tried to deliberately avoid describing the massacre in detail, leaving that for people to follow up on if they wish.
I've also deliberately made sure all the subsequent tweets are "unlisted" so shouldn't appear unexpectedly in people's feeds.
I'm absolutely happy to take on board feedback though if the consensus is a warning is useful as well.
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