Hack Speaks

About the Vietnam War

     "I was very gung-ho to win the war. I was convinced we could win it if we didn’t fight World War II over again...There was the stupidity of the generals—the top was out of touch with the bottom. They were using the body count like it was World War II, but the Vietnam War was not a war of terrain.

     "We just misjudged everything because we had conventional generals. We began with two batallions of Marines to protect Da Nang up north. The marines were there to protect the base and push the Viet Cong out, then farther out. Then it built up and we had 600,000 people there and 1,000 casualties a week.

     "And everyone was lying, saying we were winning. Really, there was no light at the end of the tunnel...."

Kosovo, Serbia, ethnic cleansing and the nature of war

     "Peace is blowing in the wind," Hackworth said on May 11 as he predicted a negotiated settlement in "the next few weeks."

     "Milosevich has accomplished every one of his objectives—his mission was the destruction of the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army)."

     Hackworth says the KLA has been termed a terrorist group while Yugoslavia is a sovereign nation.

     "Let’s say it’s 1861 and France came to the United States and said, ‘Leave the South alone, or we will bomb you.’ President Lincoln says, ‘No, these are my states.’"

     But what about the charge of ethnic cleansing?

     "Tell me what Sherman did in Georgia. He cut a 60-mile swath, burned, looted, raped and killed everything in his path. The whole thing about a war criminal is the guy who wins determines who the war criminal is..."

We may not be seen as the ‘good guys’ on the world scene

     "We are perceived overseas as arrogant cowboys. In Serbia, we’re not well-thought of at all.

     "Ethnic cleansing—we supply the Turks and they kill Kurds. We just look the other way...What we’ve been doing is jumping into every dog fight in the world. Our forces are in every direction—humanitarian, serving as meals on wheels, peacekeeping. They are doing everything except defending America."

Future hot spots

     Hackworth says he sees North Korea as a potential trouble-spot due to the famine it is undergoing, and, not surprisingly, the Gulf.

     "The Gulf is very strategic because that’s where we get that good stuff we pump into our cars. It is vital to America and its interests to have a pipeline."

     That’s why the varied use of American military worries him: He believes Saddam Hussein could retake Kuwait before our forces could react.

China and our future

     "I see very clearly, say around 2020, when China has a high-tech military with missiles and satellites...we probably will have to go at it with them. I won’t be concerned, though, because I probably won’t be around then."

On politicians

     "I don’t think we have any good politicians. I belong to neither party. I think America needs a new party, not like Ross Perot’s, but a Patriot Party. Politicians have totally lost touch with how we think and feel."

     To read more about Col. Hackworth, check out his Web site at www.hackworth.com.