Colonel David Haskell Hackworth (November 11, 1930 – May 4, 2005) was a United States Army officer and journalist, who was highly decorated in both the Korean War and Vietnam War. Hackworth is known for his role in the formation and command of Tiger Force, a military unit from the 101st Airborne Division that used guerrilla warfare tactics against Viet Cong in South Vietnam.
He was the youngest US colonel in Vietnam at the time of his promotion. He was described by General Creighton Abrams, who commanded all US military operations from 1968 to 1972 in Vietnam, as "the best battalion commander I ever saw in the United States Army."
Hackworth was born in Ocean Park, California, now part of Santa Monica, on November 11, 1930, the son of Leroy E. Hackworth and Lorette (Kensly) Hackworth. His parents both died before he was a year old, so he and his brother and sister were raised by Ida Stedman, their paternal grandmother.
The family had to rely on government aid during the Great Depression, and his grandmother, who had been married to a Colorado gold miner, brought them up on tales of her Old West experiences and her Revolutionary War ancestors. While attending school in Santa Monica, Hackworth and a friend earned money by shining the shoes of soldiers stationed at bases in the area.
Imbued with a sense of adventure, at age 14, Hackworth lied about his age and paid a transient to pose as his father so he could claim to be old enough to join the United States Merchant Marine with parental consent.
In 1945 he served aboard a Merchant Marine ship in the South Pacific Ocean during the final months of World War II. After he returned home to California he decided to join the United States Army.
In 1946, he used his Merchant Marine documents to enlist for three years. After completing his initial training, he was assigned to post-war occupation duty as a rifleman in the 351st Infantry Regiment, 88th Infantry Division. Based in Trieste, his unit was part of Trieste United States Troops. While serving in Trieste, Hackworth earned his General Educational Development high-school equivalency diploma.
Hackworth fought with the 25th Reconnaissance Company and the 27th Infantry (Wolfhound) Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division during the Korean War. In 1951, he earned a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant and was awarded three Silver Stars for heroism and three Purple Hearts. After a successful raid on Hill 1062 and battlefield promotion to first lieutenant, the commander of the 27th Infantry Regiment offered Hackworth command of a new volunteer raider unit. Hackworth created the 27th Wolfhound Raiders and led them from August to November 1951. He volunteered for a second tour in Korea, this time with the 40th Infantry Division. Hackworth was promoted to the rank of captain.
Hackworth was demobilized after the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1954. But he quickly became bored with civilian life, so after two years of college he re-joined the U.S. Army as a captain in 1956.
When Hackworth returned to active duty, the Cold War substantially changed the structure of the army from what he had known. Initially posted to 77th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion in Manhattan Beach, California, Hackworth was eventually assigned to Germany, initially in staff roles, but returning to infantry in the early 1960s as a company commander under Colonel Glover S. Johns. He was involved in a number of fire drills around the Berlin Crisis of 1961. He recounted his experiences with the Soviet guard and his views on military history in his book About Face.
After completing an associate of arts degree at Los Angeles Harbor College, and completing additional courses at several other colleges, in 1964, Hackworth graduated from Austin Peay State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in history, after which he attended the Command and General Staff College.
When President John F. Kennedy announced that a large advisory team was being sent to South Vietnam, Hackworth immediately volunteered for service. His request was denied, on the grounds that he had too much frontline experience, and that others who had seen less fighting (or none) should have an opportunity to acquire experience in combat.
In 1965, he deployed to Vietnam at the rank of Major, serving as an operations officer and battalion commander in the 101st Airborne Division. In November 1965, Hackworth founded a platoon-sized unit designated as Tiger Force to "out guerrilla the guerrillas". The unit carried out long-range reconnaissance patrol duties, suffering heavy casualties; it was eventually awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. However, after Hackworth was reassigned out of Vietnam, the unit committed a series of war crimes, with U.S. Army investigative records estimating that Tiger Force soldiers killed hundreds of noncombatants. Hackworth later stated in an interview with the Toledo Blade that he was unaware of the war crimes the unit carried out and refused to speculate on why they occurred.
Hackworth quickly developed a reputation as an eccentric but effective soldier, becoming a public figure in several books authored by General S. L. A. "Slam" Marshall. Following a stateside tour at the Pentagon and promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, Hackworth co-wrote The Vietnam Primer with Marshall after returning to Vietnam in the winter of 1966–67 on an Army-sponsored tour with the famous historian and commentator. The book advised counter-insurgency fighters to adopt some of the guerrilla tactics used by Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, and Ho Chi Minh. Hackworth described the strategy as "out-G-ing the G." His personal and professional relationship with Marshall soured as Hackworth became suspicious of his methods and motivation.
Both his assignment with "Slam" Marshall and his time on staff duty at the Pentagon soured Hackworth on the Vietnam War. One aspect of the latter required him to publicly defend the U.S. position on the war in a speaking tour. Even with his reservations concerning the conflict, he refused to resign, feeling it was his duty as a field grade officer to wage the campaign as best he could.
Hackworth was assigned to a training battalion at Fort Lewis, Washington, and then returned to Vietnam to lead elements of the 9th Infantry Division, turning his theories about guerrilla warfare and how to counter it into practice with the 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment (4-39 Infantry) in the Mekong Delta, an underperforming unit made up largely of conscripts which Hackworth transformed into the counter-insurgent "Hardcore" Battalion (Recondo) from January to late May 1969.
Hackworth next served as a senior military adviser to the ARVN, the South Vietnamese army. His view that the U.S. Army was not learning from its mistakes, and that ARVN officers were essentially corrupt and ineffective, created friction with Army leadership.
In early 1971, Hackworth was promoted to the rank of Colonel and received orders to attend the Army War College, an indication that he was being groomed for the general officer ranks. He had declined a previous opportunity to go to the War College, and turned down this one as well, indicating his lack of interest in becoming a general and demonstrating his discontent with the war and the Army's leaders.