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
"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:"
Hackworth:
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.
Hackworth's autobiography is a very telling big blur when it comes to describing his last year in Vietnam. He knows he screwed up, but he's not man enought to admit it.