Friendly Fire (48 page)

A few minutes later when we were discussing his conversation with the Mullens, how emotional it had been for the Mullens, as well as himself, I asked if the mood had seemed tense all the way through.

“No, not at all,” he answered. “The interview started off rather hostile but became more and more cordial as time went on. Frankly it became so cordial that along about three-quarters of the way through Knap got up and indicated he felt there was no need whatsoever for a witness to remain since everybody seemed to be getting along so well. So he left.”

We spoke about the sequence of questions during their conversation and under what circumstances Colonel Kuprin's name had arisen and whether or not Rocamora had been asleep. “Gene Mullen,” I said, “felt you had had a change of attitude toward the military because of two things: first, and I'm quoting Gene Mullen here, ‘his straightforward words telling us what had happened because we could either correct him, and his wanting to get the blame off himself when it actually wasn't him.'”

“I don't think I've had any great changes in my attitude toward the military one way or the other,” Schwarzkopf said, “but when he mentions those two things that have given him that opinion, my ‘straightforward words' and so on, that's ludicrous!” He shook his head in dismay. “Is it … is it so
difficult
for the Mullens to believe that I sincerely wanted them to come out to see me so that I could honestly tell them what had happened to their son?”

Colonel Schwarzkopf pushed his chair back and stood up. “Is it impossible for them to believe I was really
concerned
for them?” he asked, “Or do they believe my only concern was for myself? I accomplished nothing for myself by talking to the Mullens other than from the standpoint of trying to clear the air for them. I felt sorry for them. Compassion for them.… I still frankly feel very sorry for them, but his line about my ‘wanting to get the blame off' myself.… Blame for what? For Michael's death? I never felt I was to blame. The only letter I got from Mrs. Mullen in no way accused
me
of being responsible. It was a blanket condemnation of everything military, yes, but it did not specifically accuse me of Michael's death. So I never felt I was to blame.… Look, one of the important things I want to clear up here is this.” He began to pace back and forth across the room. “Where Gene Mullen says my ‘straightforward words'—how did that go?”

I read Gene's comment back to the colonel, who stood listening with his hands on his hips. “All right,” Schwarzkopf said, “he's alluded to this a couple of times. He seems to feel the reason I was honest with him was because he had so many facts. This,” he said, beginning to pace again, “this is ridiculous! The Mullens have information, yes,” he said, then shrugged. “I don't know what they have, frankly. But they have some information from a few individuals in the company, each of whom saw a specific incident from his specific viewpoint. None of these people were privy to the investigation that went on afterward. None of these people knew the complete facts of what went on. None of these people were, in fact, familiar with the big picture.… Frankly, I found the Mullens about one-quarter armed with facts. With one-fourth of the big picture. A great deal of what they feel is based, I believe, on conclusions they wanted to reach rather than what they could have reached had they learned the facts. They didn't have any straightforward, down-to-earth picture of what went on, and frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if it is possible for them to. If they ever will.”

Schwarzkopf moved back to our table and stood leaning over his chair. “You know, this is one of the reasons I constantly referred them to Captain Tom Cameron, who was Michael's company commander. Cameron was there! He could probably tell you right away who called in the artillery, why the company was set up where it was. He knew everything that went on from all sides. But evidently,” Schwarzkopf said, slapping the chairback, “the Mullens don't want to know. Don't want to talk to Cameron.… I don't know why, I really don't. As I said before, I wanted the Mullens to have a true and honest picture. I was in no way intimidated by them, and I certainly, I certainly wasn't intimidated by the information they had.… I find it extremely difficult to believe that the Mullens were not willing to accept that people just wanted to talk to them, to be
honest
with them. Evidently they feel anyone who wants to talk to them must have an ulterior motive. And frankly I resent the implication!” He pulled his chair out and sat down. “I'm afraid I'm getting a little emotional about this, but it's disturbing.”

We spoke for a while about the peace movement; Lieutenant Colonel Schwarzkopf was convinced that the war would have ended a long time before had it not been for the peace demonstrations but added that one of his sisters was a peace marcher. “I know the intentions behind her doing it,” he said, “and I don't resent her for it in the least. Based upon what the peace marchers read and what they have been exposed to, if I were them I would probably be marching in the streets, too.” And then we began to talk about the court-martial of Private Willard Polk.

“According to Peg Mullen,” I told him, “you had signed all the papers that had sealed his court-martial and you didn't know him at all.”

“Again,” Schwarzkopf said wearily, “this is a complete misstatement of fact. The minute she brought up the Polk case and told me who he was I recalled the case. The part I wasn't exactly aware of were the details. When she told me that Polk had been asleep next to Michael, that he went temporarily insane et cetera and asked why this wasn't brought out at his trial, I told her I was not familiar with that information, that as the battalion commander I was not there when Polk went berserk or whatever. I was on Hill Four Ten with the artillery. I received a report of the incident in which Private Polk shot at some civilians—that incident took place several days after Michael was killed—I then received the preferred charges from the company commander and statements from the witnesses, each of whom backed up the fact that charges should, in fact, be prepared against Polk. From the facts it was apparent that some investigation should be pursued. I therefore signed and forwarded the charges. General court-martials are not handled at the battalion or even brigade level. They're handled at division level or higher. The term ‘general' implies that. The minute charges were forwarded, Polk's case was out of my hands. The court-martial took place after I had departed Vietnam.”

Several questions later I said, “You know, one of the things that keeps bothering me about the Mullens' version of their conversation with you is that according to Gene, he said he had accused you of killing his son. And you, of course, have told me he accused you only of covering up the details of the investigation.” I was leafing through the transcript of the Mullens' conversation with me in my house and found the place I wanted. “But here Gene has you saying, and this is his version of your quote, ‘I want you to know I was not the investigating committee.' And Gene replies, ‘No, we know that.' It doesn't make sense. If he knew that, then why would he accuse you of covering up the details?”

“All right, this is either another deliberate misrepresentation or there's been some confusion,” the colonel said. “At the time the Mullens came to see me they thought I was the person who had suppressed the facts of the investigation into their son's death. This was his allegation over the telephone, and this was his statement when he first got out to Walter Reed. This discussion where he says, ‘No, we know that,' never transpired. Perhaps after they had discussed it with me, with Kuprin later on, they realized I'd had nothing to do with the investigation and they—no.” He paused. “I really don't understand. The point I'm trying to make is that this conversation didn't occur because when they came to see me they were still under the impression I'd covered up the investigation, and I think this is kind of curious and worth commenting on.”

Schwarzkopf picked up our coffee mugs and carried them into the kitchen. He continued to talk while he poured us fresh coffee. “For eighteen months, evidently, the Mullens thought I was guilty of killing their son. How they thought I was guilty, I'm not sure. The only conceivable reason was either, one, I had ordered the artillery to be fired without anyone's knowledge. Or, two, I had specifically covered up the investigation because of my own negligence or something of this sort. Now they are suddenly saying I had nothing to do with the investigation, and so I don't understand why they felt I was responsible for killing Michael. I don't believe they still think I'm responsible, do you? Because, as I said, our conversation became so cordial that three-quarters of the way through Knap flat got up and left. By that time we had finished the specific discussion of the artillery incident and the facts surrounding it, and the Mullens were just asking me a kind of specific shotgun question here and there. And I was answering them.…”

He carried our coffee back and sat down again. “I vividly recall, as a matter of fact, that at the end Gene Mullen said—and I think these are his exact words—‘For a year and a half I have carried hate for you in my heart. I want you to know I no longer feel that way anymore.' And then he added to that, ‘Frankly, Michael liked you. In one of his letters he called you the Old Man.' … Now that's an exact quote! And when the Mullens left the hospital, about a week later I got a note from them saying—Mrs. Mullen knew the initial determination was going to be made the following Wednesday, they were going to cut off my cast and take X rays, then put me back in another cast—Mrs. Mullen wrote me and said, ‘I hope the X rays prove that you are recovering sufficiently and that everything's going well. I hope that you'll be up and around and on your feet again soon. We had a pleasant journey and arrived home safely,' that sort of thing. There was no return address, and therefore, I couldn't answer it. But it was on this note of cordiality that everything terminated.”

“Well.…”

“Well, what?”

I shook my head. “It didn't sound all that cordial when they talked to me.” I stood up and began gathering together my notes and papers. It was time for me to catch my plane. “What I'd like to do, Colonel, is type up a transcript for you of our conversation so you can check over what you said. There may be things I misunderstood or placed the wrong emphasis on, and if you'll just pencil in your corrections or comments, I won't bother you by coming down to Washington again.”

“It wasn't a bother,” he said. “Look, it was nice just being able to talk to someone about all this.”

A couple of weeks later I telephoned Lieutenant Colonel Schwarzkopf and said I was sending him the transcript of our conversation. I also told him I would be enclosing a transcript of the Mullens' talk with me, adding that I wasn't doing him any favor by doing so. I explained, however, with his help I hoped somehow to reconstruct the conversation he had had with them at Walter Reed and write it as it had occurred.

About a week later—this would have been around the beginning of November—Lieutenant Colonel Schwarzkopf mailed me two cassette tapes. On them he explained it was difficult for him to write because of the cast and, if I didn't mind, he would rather speak into the tape as though we were together again. The first long section answered specific questions I had added to the margin of our transcript or enlarged upon areas he felt needed clarification or qualified statements which, in print, he felt might have carried too strong an emphasis. Wherever applicable, I simply inserted these comments in the text. He next turned his attention to the Mullen transcript, saying, “You were absolutely right when you said you weren't doing me any favors by sending me this interview.

“Frankly, my immediate reaction was one of anger and shock—even after many days of reading and rereading it, of trying to assume a dispassionate viewpoint on this entire thing, I still find myself somewhat disturbed when I see their comments here. I am going to try to approach this as best I can from an unemotional standpoint, but this sheds an entirely different light on the Mullens from what I had before.

“They have quoted liberally out of context, extracted certain words I said and ignored the meaning of everything else I've said in my discussions with them. They've made assumptions that I felt or thought a certain way when I said something. Then somehow turned this into words I supposedly stated.

“Obviously they have taken my interview and twisted it to substantiate or justify whatever strange idea it is that they have—and, frankly, what their idea is I really don't know—but it upsets me that I did not accomplish what I set out to do by talking to them in the first place. I wanted to tell them the straight story of what happened to their son, to somehow set their minds at ease. Instead, all I've evidently accomplished is added fuel to their fire.”

Schwarzkopf, as best he could, discussed the sequence of topics raised during their conversation. He apologized for occasional vagueness but explained he had had no idea at the time he met with the Mullens that he would be later asked to reconstruct the conversation in detail. “It was particularly difficult,” he added, “because it was an emotional moment for me, and like I said, it was obviously an emotional moment for the Mullens.” Then, directly referring to the transcript, he said, “All right, where Gene Mullen said, ‘Now he never told us who Major Knap was or what his business was there, but from the way he had positioned his chair at the opposite side of the bed, it was obvious it had been prearranged,' well, this is absolutely ridiculous! I explained to you before who Knap was and what he was doing there. I guess what I'm trying to point out is … is … the intent. That attitude with which the Mullens approached this interview is what has upset me more than anything else. The obvious looking for trouble, for something not the truth but which would substantiate their feelings. That statement, ‘it was obvious it had been prearranged,' is typical of their evident approach to the whole thing.”