Even before the Watergate scandal of 1972-74 that brought down his Presidency, Richard Nixon was deeply involved in another illegal action that could have been grounds for impeachment.
It is now clear, after extensive research, that Nixon initiated a campaign to sabotage the My Lai trials so no American soldier would be convicted of a war crime. His motive was to try to control the damage being done to the reputation of the U.S. military in the wake of the revelation of the My Lai massacre.
Among the illegal acts Nixon authorized were obstruction of justice and tampering with the Army’s star prosecution witness, Hugh Thompson – the helicopter pilot who interceded in the massacre in an effort to stop the killing of unarmed Vietnamese civilians.
This previously unknown White House scandal – a new piece of American history – is revealed in the newly published Revised Edition of The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story. (Acadian House, $22.95) The author is veteran journalist Trent Angers of Lafayette, La., who was nominated in 2000 and 2001 for the Nobel Prize in Literature for his writings about Thompson’s heroic actions during the Vietnam War.
Working with President Nixon in the campaign to undermine the trials were his chief of staff, H.R. “Bob” Haldeman; one of his top propagandists, congressional liaison Franklyn “Lyn” Nofziger; and two of the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee, Congressmen L. Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.) and F. Edward Hebert (D -La.).
Primary sources for the new Nixon revelations include the handwritten notes of Bob Haldeman,
The Haldeman Diaries, the autobiography of Lyn Nofziger, interviews with an Army prosecutor in the My Lai trials, and letters from a former Secretary of the Army and more than a dozen former congressmen.
Haldeman’s notes, taken in a meeting with Nixon on Dec. 1, 1969, reveal the President’s orders to stem the worsening public relations nightmare in which the U.S. government found itself beginning in the fall of 1969 after the massacre was brought to light by the news media. The notes include:
“Dirty tricks – not too high of a level… Discredit one witness… May have to use a Senator or two…”
Congressmen Rivers and Hebert worked diligently with Nixon to achieve a goal they shared – protecting the image of the U.S. armed forces at all costs.
One Army prosecutor who saw through their scheme was Col. William Eckhardt.
“Hebert and Rivers decided that these trials were detrimental to the interests of the United States of America and they tried, calculatingly and technically using the Jencks Act, to sabotage them,” Eckhardt charged.
Moreover, Eckhardt added, besides trying to get Lt. William Calley and the other defendants off the hook, they tried to turn the tables on Hugh Thompson and set him up to be court-martialed for threatening the lives of fellow soldiers in his attempt to rescue unarmed civilians at My Lai.
“Another key to sabotaging the prosecution was to get Hugh Thompson,” Eckhardt observed, explaining that if Thompson were to be successfully discredited and intimidated then one of the pillars of the prosecution’s cases would collapse.
The book also provides the answer to a question asked by people all over the world: Where did Thompson get the moral courage to do what he did at My Lai? And it reveals the heavy psychological burden – PTSD – he endured as a result of the awful things he saw at My Lai and the punishment he took in his quest for justice.
It is now clear, after extensive research, that Nixon initiated a campaign to sabotage the My Lai trials so no American soldier would be convicted of a war crime. His motive was to try to control the damage being done to the reputation of the U.S. military in the wake of the revelation of the My Lai massacre.
Among the illegal acts Nixon authorized were obstruction of justice and tampering with the Army’s star prosecution witness, Hugh Thompson – the helicopter pilot who interceded in the massacre in an effort to stop the killing of unarmed Vietnamese civilians.
This previously unknown White House scandal – a new piece of American history – is revealed in the newly published Revised Edition of The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story. (Acadian House, $22.95) The author is veteran journalist Trent Angers of Lafayette, La., who was nominated in 2000 and 2001 for the Nobel Prize in Literature for his writings about Thompson’s heroic actions during the Vietnam War.
Working with President Nixon in the campaign to undermine the trials were his chief of staff, H.R. “Bob” Haldeman; one of his top propagandists, congressional liaison Franklyn “Lyn” Nofziger; and two of the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee, Congressmen L. Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.) and F. Edward Hebert (D -La.).
Primary sources for the new Nixon revelations include the handwritten notes of Bob Haldeman,
The Haldeman Diaries, the autobiography of Lyn Nofziger, interviews with an Army prosecutor in the My Lai trials, and letters from a former Secretary of the Army and more than a dozen former congressmen.
Haldeman’s notes, taken in a meeting with Nixon on Dec. 1, 1969, reveal the President’s orders to stem the worsening public relations nightmare in which the U.S. government found itself beginning in the fall of 1969 after the massacre was brought to light by the news media. The notes include:
“Dirty tricks – not too high of a level… Discredit one witness… May have to use a Senator or two…”
Congressmen Rivers and Hebert worked diligently with Nixon to achieve a goal they shared – protecting the image of the U.S. armed forces at all costs.
One Army prosecutor who saw through their scheme was Col. William Eckhardt.
“Hebert and Rivers decided that these trials were detrimental to the interests of the United States of America and they tried, calculatingly and technically using the Jencks Act, to sabotage them,” Eckhardt charged.
Moreover, Eckhardt added, besides trying to get Lt. William Calley and the other defendants off the hook, they tried to turn the tables on Hugh Thompson and set him up to be court-martialed for threatening the lives of fellow soldiers in his attempt to rescue unarmed civilians at My Lai.
“Another key to sabotaging the prosecution was to get Hugh Thompson,” Eckhardt observed, explaining that if Thompson were to be successfully discredited and intimidated then one of the pillars of the prosecution’s cases would collapse.
The book also provides the answer to a question asked by people all over the world: Where did Thompson get the moral courage to do what he did at My Lai? And it reveals the heavy psychological burden – PTSD – he endured as a result of the awful things he saw at My Lai and the punishment he took in his quest for justice.
