His My Lai Massacre story told for Tulane University students was both impassioned and compelling. This was on the thirtieth anniversary of March 1998. On May 10, 1998, Ronald Ridenhour was dead, at age 52 of a heart attack as he played handball.
Ronald Lee Ridenhour (April 6, 1946 – May 10, 1998) was an American whistleblower and investigative journalist known for having played a central role in spurring the federal investigation of the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam. When he first learned of events there, he was serving in the United States 11th Infantry Brigade in Vietnam. He gathered evidence and interviewed people before the end of his tour. After returning to the US in 1969, he wrote to President Nixon, members of his cabinet and two dozen members of Congress recounting what he had learned. A full-scale Department of Defense investigation eventually took place.
Ridenhour became an investigative journalist, working on a range of topics. The Ridenhour Prizes were established in his honor but to be awarded to COINTELPRO criminals to dupe Americans into believing in the cover-up for decades to come.
The other hero of My Lai was helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson, age 24. He personally stopped the massacre under threat of fire. He was nearly court-martialed.
