Bobby Garwood

Robert Russell Garwood (born 1 April 1946 in Greensburg, Indiana) was a U.S. Marine Corps Private First Class captured on September 28, 1965 in the Quang Nam province during the Vietnam War. Often cited as the last American POW from the Vietnam War, he was reportedly released in 1973 along with all other American POWs, but did not return to the United States until 1979 - having either volunteered or been forced into a work group to help repair a generator located at an unnamed "Island fortress" in North Vietnam. Garwood is considered by the Department of Defense to have acted as a collaborator with the enemy after he was taken prisoner. Controversy arose over whether Garwood was an American POW abandoned by the military or a collaborator with the enemy North Vietnamese, if not an out-and-out traitor against the United States. In 1998, the Department of Defense officially changed his status from RETURNEE to AWOL/Deserter/Collaborator. [ [http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/g/g047.htm Bio, Garwood, Robert R ] ] Some accused the Department of Defense of trying to rewrite history to make Garwood seem like a liar and downplay his claims both (1) that he had seen other POWs "left behind" since 1973 and (2) that he had been a prisoner for 14 years. [ [http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/g/g047.htm Bio, Garwood, Robert R ] ] This suspicion gained strength when during his 1993 return to Vietnam in the company of Congressman Bill Hendon and Senator Bob Smith Garwood was able to substantiate many of the claims he had made by taking the legislators to the exact sites he'd described, sites that opponents such as Senator John McCain had loudly proclaimed simply did not exist, but were fabrications posed by "a traitor and a liar." Since these revelations many in the US military have voiced regret that Garwood's extensive and quite specific testimony regarding US POW's remaining in Vietnam was never followed up on by the US Government.

Assassination attempt

US Marine Lt. Colonel Tom McKenney later claimed that he had been tasked to lead an assassination mission, for the American government, to kill Garwood as a traitor, though he later believed that he had been sent to kill the POWs to hide evidence that the US Government had "left behind" captured soldiers in Vietnam. [ [http://www.strike-the-root.com/3/renne/renne1.html In the Crosshairs of the Government ] ] McKenney was a dedicated career Marine officer with a "the tougher-it-gets, it's-just-right-for-me-and-my guys" attitude who believed in the Corps and the leadership above him. When he heard about this "traitor" Garwood, he took personal responsibility for hunting him down and killing him. Garwood, according to official decree, was an enemy collaborator and had to be eliminated. McKenney never questioned the word from the top, and from day one he went after Garwood with a vengeance, but never could find him.

Finally, McKenney learned the truth. "I realized that my government had done the unthinkable, not only in betraying Garwood but in using me and others like me as murder weapons. How many other innocent and brave men were made to look like traitors?"

BBC Interview

In a 1981 Garwood was interviewed by the BBC. A summary of that interview is available [http://www.3rdmarines.net/Garwood_Summary.htm here] .

The D.I.A

After the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reported they could locate no masonry structures in the area where Garwood had said he saw live American POWs at a motel-shaped masonry structure, Senator Bob Smith asked them to search again. After a second search produced the same results, Smith, ABC News, Garwood, and Hendon traveled to Vietnam and, by following Garwood's directions, found a masonry structure just as Garwood had described. The Vietnamese government and a former head of the DIA POW/MIA office [ [http://www.miafacts.org/islefort.htm Smith & Garwood, 1993 ] ] have heatedly disputed the finding, maintaining that the structure did not even exist during the years when Garwood was first in Vietnam.

The Last P.O.W.? The Bobby Garwood Story (1992) (TV)

A made-for-TV film starring Ralph Macchio and Martin Sheen was released in 1992. The real Garwood, whose role Macchio acted in the production, was a consultant to the producers of the made-for-TV film, according to which Garwood had been ordered to survive by one of his superiors, who was also a captive of the North Vietnamese.

Books about Bobby Garwood

Kiss the Boys Goodbye: ... - 1990 by Monika Jensen-Stevenson a producer for CBS's "60 Minutes" in 1985. The book begins with a segment she produced on Garwood. In 1997 Ms.Stevenson wrote another book about the incident. "Spite House", gives a detailed account of one Lt.Colonel Mckenny commando team's attempt to kill Mr. Garwood in a North Vietnamese jungle camp and of McKenney's conversion from a would-be assassin of Mr. Garwood into a believer in his innocence.

References

*Groom, Winston, with Duncan Spencer, "Conversations with the Enemy", Putnam, 1