This is beyond belief. You don’t swap 5 high level enemy commanders for 1 lone deserter when hostilities have not ended. What a pantload.
“This is beyond belief. You don’t swap 5 high level enemy commanders for 1 lone deserter when hostilities have not ended.”
You do, if you were planning on letting them go anyway.
I’m willing to bet that these three National Journal journalists don’t know shit about Vietnam (I was there as a journalist).
We were told that there were at least two American soldiers who were seen fighting with the VC/NVA, one a blond; the other a black man. No documents known to openly exist on this very secret issue.
The blond was a sniper. People thought he might be a Russian soldier because there was one enemy sniper who was deadly against our troops and he was described as a blond, tall white man, possibly using a Soviet sniper rifle whose name I have forgotten).
There were 10 members of the “Peace Committee” in the Hanoi Hilton, i.e. collaborators to various degrees (i.e sympathizers with the No. Vietnamese).
One was a Lt. Col. named Miller. Adm Jim Stockdale wanted him courtmartialed and almost got it. Other POWS talked him out of it.
Another was Bob Chenoweth, who joined Jane Fonda/Tom Hayden in their anti-US tours.
One, named Kavanaugh, committed suicide out of disgust with his actions.
Don’t remember the other 7. However, there was an early POW, George Smith, Special Forces, who did join the communists in the “peace movement” as a speaker and writer. I have photos of him with Fr. James Groppi, an avowed VC supporter (1971 demonstration in DC).
There were some deserters in S. Vietnam but no real stories about them.
Bergdahl gives all the indications of a weak-minded soldier (probably influenced by his wacked out leftist father), who got disillusioned with his mission and left his post, i.e. deserted, thus endangering his fellow soldiers.
Make all the excuses you can about his behavior, but in the end, he still is a deserter or worse.