A U.S. Army helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson Jr. may be the greatest American hero youāve probably never heard of. On March 16, 1968, Thompsonāa warrant officer serving in Vietnamāand his crew were dispatched to support a āsearch and destroyā mission supposedly targeting the Viet Cong in a tiny hamlet called My Lai.
Instead, the Georgia-born soldier came up upon arguably the most notorious war crime in U.S. historyāwith thatch hutches ablaze and countless villagers, including women and children, laying dead or dying in an irrigation ditch.
A generation after Thompsonās death, the kind of bold action he took that day in 1968 ā disobeying what he correctly understood as an illegal orderāis yet again on Americaās front burner. This time, the debate is fueled by a video from six veterans who now serve as Democrats in Congressāreminding todayās soldiers about their sworn duty to disobey unlawful commands.
That every expert in military law agrees with this principle hasnāt stopped President Donald Trump or his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, from going ballisticācalling the Democrats ātraitorsā or even reposting calls for their death by hanging.
Itās the removal of responsibility and it was a feature of the Nuremberg Trials of Nazis after the Second World War
Officers and high ranking people argued that they only gave orders ā¦ anyone could have disobeyed or refused their orders so it wasnāt their fault
Low ranking officials and soldiers argued that they were following orders ā¦ they were ordered to do things under threat of punishment so it wasnāt their fault
