Hugh Thompson

HARDtalk celebrates its twentieth anniversary with a repeat of an interview first broadcast in 2004. The My Lai Massacre in Vietnam saw American soldiers kill defenceless women and children in a shameful episode in American military history. Hugh Thompson was a helicopter pilot who went to the rescue of the trapped villagers, ordering his gun crew to train their guns on their fellow soldiers in an effort to halt the slaughter. Tim Sebastian asks why professional troops from democratic countries commit barbarous acts and what lessons can be learned from Thompson's experience.