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Conversations With the Enemy: The Story of PFC Robert Garwood

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Converations With the Enemy is the well documented saga of the 14 year captivity of U.S. Marine PFC Robert Garwood in Vietnam. In September of 1965, while serving in Da Nang as a staff driver, Garwood was tasked to pick up a military member some distance from his base when he was accosted by the Viet Cong and placed into the enemy prison camp system.

Beginning his ordeal in Southern Vietnam, the book portrays a story of dreadful conditions suffered by American POW's in the worst types of conditions. The compelling narrative will illustrate how a U.S. serviceman can suffer and cope and adjust to his situation to make it survivable so that he may one day return home. But, it goes quite deeper than that.

We find that Garwood, while stationed at a number of prison camps in the south, was eventually joined by other captured American prisoners. Already in the camp system for many months on his own before seeing new Americans, he had to adjust his means of survivability in the way he interacted with the North Vietnamese enemy that held him.

Some of the measures he adopted were learning to speak the Vietnamese language fluently, interpreting for the camp hierarchy, assisting camp cadre with duties, and succumbing to propaganda viewpoints (after being tortured) to name just a view.

It is no great leap of logic that when new American prisoners were brought to the camp and witnessed Garwood's activities and unusual behaviors, he appeared to be colloborating with the enemy in certain ways and his actions could certainly appear to be traitorous. When described in detail by the authors, the activities of Garwood do appear to be detrimental to the U.S. soldiers code of conduct but you must also ask yourself this: In his position, what would you do to survive and to make ends meet in a very harrowing situation?

I agree that some of Garwood's actions are very suspect and quite possibly out of line and readers will cast their own judgement's about the controversial happenings in this book.

After years of confinement in Southern Vietnamese camps, the story shows how Garwood was eventually moved to North Vietnam to another camp and was "employed" in a matter of speaking by the North Vietnamese as a mechanic for their military vehicles. The methods by which he lived in that camp might also be seen as controversial depending on the views of the reader. There is no doubt though, like his life in the Southern Vietnamese camps it was far from pleasant. Using clandestine methods, Garwood was eventually able to get a note to a foreigner in Hanoi to alert the United States of his captivity in Vietnam.

Upon being repatriated back to the Unites States in 1979, his return is problematic and controversial to our government and to the Vietnamese government being that after the release of POW's in 1973, both governments claimed there were no more POW's in Vietnam. To compound the problem, Garwood is accused of committing several military crimes while he was in captivity and is faced with a court martial. Many of the POW's he was interned with at the different camps testify against him at his court martial adding further questions to the whole situation. This book will detail the elements of his trial and court martial proceedings and in the end, the reader will be left to form their own assumptions of what really is or is not true justice.

Being a military member, I had many conflicting emotions throughout this book and tried to be as objective as I could in my decisions of guilt or innocence. Readers will be put to the test also in this regard and it is not easy. Overall, the story is a very poignant testament to a sad, difficult and tragic time in Garwood's life and where it has left him to this day.

This book is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in Vietnam POW's and accounts of their captivity. The authors did a very good job in the detail and scope of the book keeping their views honest and non-judgemental.

This was a good book. Garwood is no criminal, even if he did rally to the NVA forces. Frank Anton only barely knew Garwood for a very narrow period of time, and he was a vegetable anyways: this book is Garwood's personal recollection of the entire 14 years he was missing. It is highly fictionalized in many places but is still more accurate than "Spite House" or "Kiss the Boys Goodbye." The 60s & 70s in Vietnam were extremely brutal and anyone who lived there during those days is a lot stronger than you think. Only Robert Garwood and the S.R. of Vietnam know what really happened and that's how it should be.

This book is the closest thing i've come accross that amounts to a balanced account about Garwood. He isn't portrayed as an unsung hero like he often is among some activists. Nor was he defamed as a criminal like Joe Shlatter does on his website.

To anyone with interest in Bobby Garwood, start with this book!

I read both this book and Why Didn't You Get Me Out. I must say after reading both these books, I can see two sides to ONE story. They were both very accurate with details, however, obviously, each had a side. I can see how Anton would come away saying Garwood was a traitor.
I believe ALL those men committed some crime in some small way while they were there. After all the Vietnam reading I have done on the different situtations and torture, I can't help but think that. I don't know how any of them would have remained completely without fault.
These men, all of them, are my heroes. I love every Vietnam Vet out there. I know there are men left over there and I wish someday before it's too late one of our President's would go get them back! I mean these are live men! This is the most horrific crime in our history and I am ashamed at the way our goverement has handled this situation....
Godspeed to all our military, cause in the goverment's eyes, they are ALL expendable!

OMG regardless of what anyone thinks every war that has happened in history has always had prisoners of war and garwood was there doing whatever he could to help the other prisoners and also doing whatever it took to stay alive. How dare the US government even think about prosecuting him the guy was just trying to stay alive and they treated him as a criminal. Why dont some of the US government and US army generals go through the same thing as what Garwood did and lets see if they have same opinion of Garwood i guarentee them they will come back scared out of there minds. And yet they expected Garwood to keep resisting and give the North Vietnamese nothing. US ARMY WHAT A JOKE

this is a great book i had read many years ago.i jumped at the chance to buy it as i collect books that interest me.thanks for the deal. vale torres

Before you read this 'rewrite of history', why don't you read "Why Didn't You Get Me Out" by Frank Anton. Frank was actually IN the camps with Garwood. You can then read about what Garwood actually did from a man who was there rather than a heavily fictionalized book by an author who was not.