Ronald Lee Ridenhour a young GI who served in the 11th Infantry Brigade

11th Infantry Brigade (United States)

The 11th Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the United States Army. It was first formed as part of the United States Army's 6th Division during World War I, however it is best known for its service as a separate Brigade in the Vietnam War...

 during the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, played a central role in spurring the investigation of the My Lai Massacre

My Lai Massacre

The My Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of 347–504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, by United States Army soldiers of "Charlie" Company of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal Division. Most of the victims were women, children , and...

.

Life

Ridenhour was born in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

, and was raised in Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

.

A helicopter gunner, Ridenhour heard of the massacre from friends while serving in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. While still on active duty, he gathered eyewitness and participant accounts from other soldiers. On his return to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, he sent letters to 30 members of Congress and to Pentagon

The Pentagon

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...

 officials, spurring a probe that led to several indictments against those involved, and the conviction of William Calley

William Calley

William Laws Calley is a convicted American war criminal and a former U.S. Army officer found guilty of murder for his role in the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War.-Early life:...

. His own account of learning about the massacre can be found in the article, "Jesus Was a Gook," published in Nobody Gets Off the Bus: The Viet Nam Generation Big Book.

Ridenhour, a 1972 graduate of Claremont Men's College

Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...

, went on to become an investigative journalist, winning a George Polk Award in 1987 for his expose of a tax scandal in New Orleans, based on a year-long investigation.

He died of a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 in 1998, aged 52, in Metairie, Louisiana

Metairie, Louisiana

Metairie is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States and is a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish. It is an unincorporated area that would be larger than most of the state's cities if it were...

. The Ridenhour Prizes

The Ridenhour Prizes

The Ridenhour Prizes comprise awards in three categories given annually in recognition of those "who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society." The awards are presented by The Nation Institute and The...

, which "recognize those who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society," are named for him.

According to Jonathan Glover

Jonathan Glover

Jonathan Glover is a British philosopher known for his studies on ethics. He was educated at Tonbridge School, later going on to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a fellow and tutor in philosophy at New College, Oxford. He currently teaches ethics at King's College London...

's book Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century, Ridenhour took part in the Princeton

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 version of the Milgram experiment

Milgram experiment

The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that...

. Ridenhour was part of the minority who refused to administer electric shocks that would result in death. He was the only participant who refused to administer any shocks whatsoever. This notion is also mentioned in the novel I, Lucifer

I, Lucifer

I, Lucifer is the title of an action-adventure novel by Peter O'Donnell which was first published in 1967, featuring the character Modesty Blaise which O'Donnell had created for a comic strip several years earlier. It was the third novel to feature the character.I, Lucifer introduces...

by Glen Duncan

Glen Duncan

Glen Duncan is a British author born in 1965 in Bolton, Lancashire, England to an Anglo-Indian family. He studied philosophy and literature at the universities of Lancaster and Exeter....

. Recent investigations, however, suggest that the Ron Ridenhour who took part in the Milgram experiment and the Ron Ridenhour who helped break the story of the My Lai Massacre are two different individuals. Glover's source for treating the two individuals as identical came from Gordon Bear, a social psychologist, who on April 5, 2008 posted a correction to the listserv of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.http://groups.google.com/d/topic/spsp-discuss/Va0vB1laP8E/discussion

Quote

--Ron Ridenhour in the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

, March 16, 1993

External links

• A first-person account of Ridenhour's investigation and exposure of the My Lai Massacre, transcribed from a talk he gave at Tulane University
  Tulane University
  Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
  
  in 1994
• Ridenhour's 1969 letter to Congress and Pentagon officials
• The Ridenhour Prizes