He was the last POW home from Vietnam. I was in high school at the time and my memory is really foggy on this one, so I took to Google to refresh the memory banks.
Garwood is the last American POW to come home from the war—and by far the most controversial. Previously released prisoners depicted him as a traitor who worked with his Vietnamese captors as an interpreter, guard and even the leader of a Vietcong cadre. "Bobby was definitely a defector," says ex-POW David Harker, who was with Garwood at the Khe Sanh Valley jungle prison camp and will testify against him at his trial. Harker claims that Garwood was his guard for five and a half years, and Army Sgt. Richard Williams, another POW, was allegedly taunted by Garwood in prison. "I spit on you," the private reportedly snarled. "All people like you disgust me."
The Marines court martialed Garwoodfor desertion, collaboration and assault of a POW. The judge threw out most of the charges, but collaboration and assault charges stuck and he was dishonorably discharged from the Marines.
Most Marines shunned Robert Garwood. One Marine, however, had a decidedly different take. That Marine was James Webb. Yes, former Virginia Senator, James Webb.
Was Robert “Bobby” Garwood a collaborator? I believe the right answer is “No.” He was a survivor caught up in a political game.
While in captivity, Garwood picked up some Vietnamese from a fellow POW. Webb believes this added to his difficulties.
Having learned Vietnamese became a double-edged sword for Bobby. First of all, other Americans who do not understand Vietnamese will always question an interpreter’s truthfulness and read more into what is being said than actually exists. The Vietnamese are excellent at interrogation, torture, and prisoner manipulation. You do what they want and do not even know that you’re doing it.
Furthermore, the North Vietnamese were well trained.
Vietnamese interrogators were highly trained by the Soviet KGB and by the Chinese. They were also highly educated: Most spoke English and had traveled the world, or had even been educated abroad. They were not bound by the dictates of the Geneva Convention; their use of torture was routine, their brainwashing extreme. After Ike died they separated Bobby from the other American prisoners and singled him out. In The Art of War Sun Tzu states that the best techniques for victory are to divide and conquer, and to know your enemy.
One of the reasons why Webb is so sympathetic to Garwood's plight was that when he was researching claims that POWs were still being held in Vietnam--a claim Garwood makes to this day--he never developed any trust and confidence in the Vietnamese officials with whom he was dealing. He finds it completely plausible that the U.S. Government turned Garwood into a scapegoat to cover up their lack of thoroughness in addressing the POW issue.
While this may not be the perfect parallel case to the situation that Bowe Bergdahl is in, James Webb comes to a very astute conclusion that completely applies.
On 19 January 1977, President Ford, in an effort to put the war behind us, ordered honorable discharges for approximately 700 deserters who had served in Vietnam. Then on 21 January 1977, a newly inaugurated President Carter ordered a “full, complete and unconditional” blanket pardon for Vietnam draft dodgers. To me it seems these deserters and draft dodgers should have been prosecuted and held accountable for their actions. At least Bobby went into the service, went to Vietnam, and tried to do his duty. He then suffered as a POW of the Vietnamese; even today the Vietnamese are guilty of human rights abuses, sometimes against their own people.
At least Bowe Bergdahl went into the service and tried to do his duty, which is more than can be said for the vast majority of his "armchair warrior" critics.