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Summary: Shatters the Biggest False Myth of the Vietnam War
Review: Franklin has done a great service for contemporaty America, and the collective memory of the Vietnam War in U.S. history. His book illustrates that maxim that truth is not only the first casualty of war, but often suffers long after a war has concluded. His extensive research reveals that the post-Vietnam War POW/MIA "myth" (i.e. a misrepresentation of the truth) has been a cruel hoax propagated by right-wing politicians (Nixon, Kissinger, Robert Dornan, Ronald Reagan, Ross Perot, and a host of others) in an attempt to create a pseudo-history of the Vietnam War where the U.S. military become the "real" victims of this war, not the millions of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians whose country was destroyed. As Franklin notes, "every responsible investigation conducted since the end of the war has reached the same conclusion: there is no credible evidence that live Americans [were] held against their will in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, or China" after the war." (p. 14) Franklin knowledgeably concludes his book by noting that "the last chapter of the Vietnam War cannot be written so long as millions of Americans remain possessed by the POW/MIA myth." The lesson is clear. Beware of false politicians who manufacture bogus history while cruelly exploiting other peoples' tragedies to further their own warped and self-serving political agenda. H. Bruce Franklin's book more than lives up to John Lennon's Vietanm-era plea - "gimme some truth, just gimme some truth." You'll find it in this book.
Rating:
Summary: This book is great
Review: This book is really great, it's about a very important but little understood issue. It's full of factual documentation of all aspects of the MIA issue -- from how the counting was done, to the various political angles the issue took at various times throughout the war -- and is a great read, as well. It brought back a lot of memories of the bizarre things that went on then, and still do today.
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