Part 2: Why Hackworth Left the Army

On May 16, 1996, Adm. Jeremy Michael Boorda, the chief of naval operations, committed suicide. Newsweek had planned to confront Boorda that day with evidence that he had worn two valor medals that he had not earned. Hackworth had tipped Newsweek off to the story; Hackworth had been tipped off by Roger Charles, an old friend who writes for the National Security News Service. On the surface, Hackworth seemed the perfect person to expose Boorda's lie. Hackworth is, after all, "America's most decorated living soldier." Who better to judge Boorda's false claims of valor?

And judge Hackworth did. Before Boorda's body was cold, Hackworth was thundering about military honor and the soldier's code. In Newsweek, he declared that "[t]here is no greater disgrace" than wearing unearned valor medals. In his newspaper column, he announced that Boorda's deception threatened the bedrock integrity of the armed forces:

Midshipmen at Annapolis, cadets at West Point, the Air Force Academy, all the ROTCs and other officer-producing schools of this land are taught the code, "I will not lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate anyone who does."

These sacred rules don't apply only to cadets, NCOs or junior grade officers, but to every leader who wears the uniform, from cadet to general, midshipm[a]n to admiral.

In recent years, there's been an epidemic of violations of these rules, many by senior officers. These offenses range from lying under oath to stealing to misusing government property.

But Hackworth was not always so righteous about the sacred rules. Here is his history.

In 1971, Hackworth commanded Advisory Team 50, a unit that advised Vietnamese forces in the Mekong delta. He had been fighting in Vietnam more or less constantly since 1965, and he was a legend. But the war disgusted him. He blamed American generals for underestimating the North Vietnamese, and for using archaic, suicidal tactics. Hackworth decided to retire early and torch his bridges. He gave a long interview to ABC, in which he savaged the idiotic commanders and declared that America could not win the war.

This--understandably--infuriated the Army, which set investigators on Hackworth. They didn't have to dig hard. In an August 1971 report, an Army deputy inspector general alleged that:

• Hackworth sanctioned the operation of a brothel--the "Steam and Cream"--in the Team 50 compound.
• Hackworth gambled with enlisted men.
• Hackworth smoked marijuana with subordinates.
• Hackworth lived in the compound with a woman who was not his wife.
• Hackworth broke currency regulations by exchanging U.S. dollars for military payment certificates on the black market.

All these activities violated military regulations, not to mention traditional standards of ethical conduct. The report concluded: "Col. Hackworth lacked the character, integrity and moral attributes required of an officer and a gentleman, acted without honor in dealings with his subordinates and superiors alike, and was derelict in the performance of his duties as Senior Advisor of Advisory Team 50." Gen. Creighton Abrams, the Army commander in Vietnam, and Lt. Gen. William J. McCaffrey, his deputy (and father of Clinton drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey), wanted to court-martial Hackworth. But Hackworth retained Washington superlawyer Joseph Califano to represent him, and, in September 1971, the secretary of the Army stopped the investigation and allowed Hackworth to retire. "Gen. Abrams and I were astonished and chagrined when [the secretary] let him go," says McCaffrey today.

And how does Hackworth answer the charges? In About Face, he says the Army retaliated against him because he blew the whistle. This is undoubtedly true. Yet, Hackworth concedes most of the Army's allegations, all the while offering self-righteous excuses that don't fit with his haughty denunciation of Boorda. He established the brothel, he says, so that his troops would sleep with disease-free women. He may have smoked marijuana once, but only when he was very drunk. He lived with a woman who was not his wife because his marriage was falling apart (and besides, the troops liked having her around). He gambled and violated currency regulations to build himself a nest egg for his retirement. (Incidentally, he also admitted to stealing jeeps from other Army units, faking drug tests for his soldiers, and fraternizing with enlisted men, all Army no-nos.) Hackworth writes: "It was the regulations that were wrong. ... The real question was, did discipline on Team 50 break down as a result of these command irregularities? No. ... Did morale improve with the implementation of these irregularities? No one could deny it."

The title of the chapter in which he describes the "irregularities" is "A Law Unto Himself." He does not mention the Army's sacred, universal rules. He calls his behavior "Hackworth-honorable."

"Hackworth-honorable" or "sacred rules"--which will it be? You can say (self-righteously), "I'm a Boy Scout who is outraged by any violations of the sacred military code," as Hackworth does about Boorda. Or, you can say (self-righteously), "I'm a macho guy who plays by his own rules and is too big to be hemmed in by petty bureaucrats," as Hackworth does about himself. But you can't have it both ways.

Click here to go to Part 3: Hackworth's Medals: "The Most Decorated Living Soldier"?