What role did Ron Ridenhour play in exposing the My Lai Massacre?”
AP Online 05-11-1998 NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ Ron Ridenhour, a soldier turned journalist who exposed the atrocities in the 1968 My Lai massacre and went on to become an award-winning investigative reporter, died Sunday. He was 52. Ridenhour died of an apparent heart attack while playing handball, said friend Mary Howell. Although Ridenhour spent decades as an investigative reporter after leaving Vietnam, he was known for his work in exposing events surrounding the My Lai massacre, when an Army company led by Lt. William Calley killed about 500 Vietnamese civilians. “The world would be a better place if there were more people in it like Ron,” Ms. Howell said. Thirty years ago, …
The carnage at My Lai might have gone unknown to history if not for another soldier, Ron Ridenhour, a former member of Charlie Company, who, independently of Glen, sent a letter detailing the events at My Lai to President Richard M. Nixon, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and numerous members of Congress.[27] The copies of this letter were sent in March 1969, a full year after the event. Most recipients of Ridenhour’s letter ignored it, with the notable exception of Congressman Morris Udall[28] (D-Arizona). Ridenhour learned about the events at My Lai secondhand, by talking to members of Charlie Company while he was still enlisted.
Ridenhour was the man who exposed the Myi Lai massacre. At the time of the massacre he was a helicopter gunner serving in Vietnam. “While still on active duty, he gathered eyewitness and participant accounts from other soldiers. On his return to the United States, he sent letters to 30 members of Congress and to Pentagon officials, spurring a probe that led to several indictments against those involved, and the conviction of William Calley.
