Rating: 
Summary: a great yet unsettling book.
Review: Burkett and whitley have done a good job. their research shows that we must look at our pre-conceptions of the vietnam vet and be prepared to throw them out. I was alternately enraged at the fakers for lying and at the authors for issueing a blanket indictment of all disabled vets. i was interested in the role the media played in coddling the fakers in order to advance journalistic ambition, it almost seemed like the old "don't ask, don't tell". Many Vietnam vets i know felt betrayed that i read the book. i have had to re-assess my unquestioning belief in every war story I hear. i am a navy vet currently in a VA facility so i hear a LOT of stories. I found myself cheering at every expose', but still i know that ptsd exists, and the authors did a disservice to a lot of vets who are lost and out of control and are earnestly seeking help. with all my mis-givings, i still highly recommend the book. it is well written, highly researched and extensively foot-noted and most importantly, it makes you think.
Rating: 
Summary: Thorough debunking of dysfuntional stereotype of the NamVet
Review: Exhaustively supported research shatters the myth-cum-common wisdom of the maladjusted sociopathic Vietnam combat veteran. Debunks the myth of minority/underclass overrepresentation in combat units and casualties as well as the oft cited but erroneous statistic about the average American KIA being 19 years old. An expose that takes to task not only the mainstream media and Hollywood, but also an ideologically driven phsychiatric elite, a pork-barrelling VA and legion of faux combat veterans who collude to propagate for individual or institutional gain the myth of widespread and debilitating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD, the reader learns, is so broadly defined and liberally diagnosed as to entitle to full benefits people who never served in Vietnam much less in combat. Burkett exposes the pervasiveness and high visibility of these malingering VA welfare cases as well as other fraudulent claimants on the war's honor and shows how this fraud has served to excuse those who selfishly avoided service while robbing this country of knowing the selfless patriotism and heroism of a generation of young men who did their duty and did so in a fashion that, in many cases, statistically surpasses those who served in more popular wars. A must read for anyone interested in getting past anectdotal knowledge of the Vietnam War and those who fought. A great gift for any well adjusted Vietnam Vet who may himself believe the myths about who served, how they served and how they returned.
Rating: 
Summary: A Remfs dream
Review: Burkett's hard hitting evidence is Reagonian in theme and borders on unethical. Every outrageous anecdote he could fit into his six hundred and fifty page screed. He uses these anecdotes to support his "statistics" to reveal the existence of the hidden nest of parasitic, gold-bricking Viet Vets. He fertilizes the idea that many Viet Vets live in style freeloading off the taxpayers. Dazed guilty liberals keep bottle feeding sniveling "welfare" Vets on the dole...the tone sounds familiar. His tattletale in the Gainsville VA could sniff out a disingenuous combat fraud like a blood hound sniffing out a wily fox. What is that all about? Veterans housed together welcome questions from other vets. It would be almost impossible to makeup a bogus Vietnam experience. The tattletales wards sounds like something out of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest " The right wing media has heaped accolade to this Philippic attack on emotionally disturbed Viet Vets. I'm certain that this disdainful, masquerading as "scholarly" inquiry, will be used as important facts against the strong armed, rabble of wretched Veteran nobodies. Maybe a do nothing Congress will "Just Say No" to the needs of Viet Vets sometime in the future.
Rating:
Summary: This author is no fake
Review: Since I returned from Viet Nam in 1965, I found that it was simpler just to push the experience out of my life. After reading this book I can honestly say that someone is writing about the Viet Nam experience that I had, and now I am much more willing to discuss the time preiod involved. There is no need to question the Bronze Star award. This writer received the Bronze Star for meritorious service. Those who received it for combat actions got a 'V' device attached to indicate it is an award for valor. I am certainly glad he is setting the record straight.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended for young people interested in the war
Review: "STOLEN VALOR"made possible for me to understand what a monstrous fabrication our pop culture vision of Vietnam is: How come that the number of veterans that had comitted suicide could be greater than the TOTAL of suicides in America during the same period?Its mathematically impossible.However, the Vietnam veteran as a suicidal time bomb is an accepted fact. I remember how Peter Arnett's story in CNN about the use of nerve gas in Vietnam was regarded by many as godspell.No further thinking,no logic applied!.As a generation X'r I dont have the psychological/emotional impediments the 60's generation have in re-evaluating history.Facts are facts and Burkett presents them for all to see.I found "Telltale Hearts"by Adam Garfinkle a necesary companion book to study that time period.The "dark legend" of the Vietnam War needs to be re-evaluated and questioned,Baby boomers could grow up some more by reading "STOLEN VALOR".
Rating:
Summary: Author accepts Bronze Star for what?
Review: This book opens one's eyes to the many Vietnam Vet pretenders,fraudulent PTSD cases and fabricated awards of valor. But how does a soldier in the rear like the author receive a Bronze Star for meritorious service in Vietnam? Is that stolen valor?or just stolen merit?Do all combat soldiers receive one too?What's that all about? I believe if the author was a combat veteran he wouldn't be so qiuck to virtually condemn all soldiers with PTSD. The author's experience in Vietnam was completely different than a combatsoldiers'[infantrymen etc.]but i don't think the author quite understands that and the book sometimes reads that way.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling and thought provoking
Review: A compelling read to say the least. As a colleague of mine said, Burkett taps into a subset of a much larger problem that seems to have gripped the nation: promotion of the false is driving out the true. The ample documentation of the lies and falsehoods of the "phonies" is truly a troubling metaphor for the baby-boom generation.
Rating:
Summary: Is this the full story?
Review: I too am offended by phonies and the authors have apparently exposed a lot of them. I am about one-half through the book and while the examples are dramatic, I am wondering if we are getting the full picture. Burkett has a view of the war not shared by everyone, and I think this overall perspective is clouded by his view of the war as a just cause. To many Vietnam was an unwarranted venture. I have this uneasy feeling that Burkett may not be telling the whole story even in some of the horror stories he tells of the frauds. I have no doubt there are veterans who suffer from PTSD and other problems from the Vietnam experience, who were in combat and who did what they say they did. But so far I have not seen any account of that. As a attorney who represents injured workers, I have occasion to talk to many people who are fighting the VA over service connected disability issues, including PTSD. I will finish this book. It is well written and makes a point, but may not tell the whole story.
Rating:
Summary: a superb book, easy to read and well-researched,facts not bs
Review: I am a real Vietnam veteran who served four easily documented years there as a U.S. Marine on the ground with the Ist and 3d Marine Division. This is the best ever book to come out of Vietnam. The chapters on the agent orange hoax and the phony post Vietnam stress disorder claims are worth the price of the book. Professional veterans, leaches and bums won't like this book. Liberals won't like it either. Why? It doesn't tell them what they want to hear and the book replaces myths with facts. Every Vietnam veteran and every Vietnam veteran's family should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: The most informative book I have read about Vietnam Vet's
Review: This book is very well written and helps deflate some of media perception of the average Vietnam Veteran being screwed up, by his service to his country. As a Vietnam vet myself I have found most movies, books and media reports long on tales and short on facts. This book goes a long way toward correcting this image. Thanks for a very good book
| 
