"In yesterday's newspaper I read an account of the action you took at My Lai, protecting the Vietnamese villagers from American troops. I cried. I'm near tears again, writing this. I'm not a Vietnam veteran. I've never served in the Armed Forces, I've never been to Vietnam. But I am an American Jew who grew up in the wake of the Holocaust, studying history as an endless parade of massacres of the innocent... Usually the daily paper proves to me, over and over, that human beings would literally rather hurt each other than eat. I don't like feeling like this, but I think I always have. But every now and then. Every now and then. I collect these now-and-thens inside myself whenever and wherever I come across them. They may make me cry by day, but I cling to them at night, to keep myself warm remembering that- for all the horrors of history- human beings are capable of kindness, courage, love, self-sacrifice and passionate sympathy. It's terribly easy to forget that, and I usually do. You have reminded me."
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Peter S. Beagle, resident of Davis, California, in a letter sent to Thompson following the awarding of the Soldier's Medal to Thompson, Glenn Andreotta, and Lawrence Colburn in 1998 for their actions at My Lai in 1968. As quoted by Trent Angers, The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story (1999), Lafayette: Acadian House Publishing, p. 201
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson%2C_Jr.
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Hugh Thompson, Jr.
Hugh C. Thompson, Jr. (April 15, 1943 – January 6, 2006) was a US Army helicopter pilot who rescued Vietnamese civilians during the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam war and campaigned to bring those responsible to justice. After receiving the prestigious Soldier's Medal he became a popular speaker on military ethics.
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