Rating: 
Summary: Cleverly written but better read between the lines
Review: This imposing tome covers so many issues, that it is hard to know where to begin. I'm not so sure the author knew where to begin, or when to stop, either. He certainly has a chip on his shoulder and a lot of steam to blow off. This book is all over the map trying to make points on different issues.If Burkett is to be believed, PTSD is a myth, invented by liberals who wanted to start another welfare program. The PTSD "myth" continues today because a lot of Vietnam vets, and a lot of people who are not Vietnam vets but falsely claim to be, have learned to milk the system and fake PTSD to get handouts from the VA. Agent Orange is also a myth, invented by environmentalists, and it was in fact harmless. Burkett, for all his alleged "mythbusting" here, repeats many myths himself in order to support his positions. He repeats the absurd anecdotes about Ranch Hand pilots drinking cups of Agent Orange as initiation rites, and suffering no ill effects. There's more. POW-MIAs were also a myth, perpetrated by "hucksters" trying to bilk families of MIAs out of their money. Homeless vets are also a myth; most of them were never in Vietnam, but have learned that they can bilk the system and get handouts if they dress in jungle fatigues and boonie hats. Burkett spends a lot of time attacking Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Vietnam Veterans of America, apparently because their politics do not match his ultra-rightist views. If Burkett is to be believed, almost all Vietnam vets are ultra-conservatives who supported the war effort, and anyone who didn't probably was never in Vietnam to begin with. To Burkett, it is not even enough to be a Vietnam vet - one must have gotten an "honorable" discharge to really be a Vietnam vet. I suppose this means that somebody who spent 2 years in Vietnam, stayed in the military afterward, had an exemplary service record, and 12 years later was court martialed for some dubious charge like adultery and "dishonorably" discharged, is not really a Vietnam vet. That is apparently the mindset in which Burkett is operating. He doesn't stop there, either. To Burkett, it is not enough to even have been in Vietnam and to have an "honorable" discharge. In at least one case, he attacks an honorably discharged Vietnam vet who is now an anti-war activist, because he had an AWOL on his record. In another case, he attacks a Vietnam vet who is now a U.S. Senator, for having been in Vietnam Veterans Against the War and having participated in the VVAW protest in which vets threw their medals back at the U.S. Capitol building. If Burkett is to be believed, every single eyewitness account of the Vietnam War that came out in the early 1980s, is fraudulent. So I guess we are supposed to believe that every one of these books is untrue, but Burkett's is true. Really, now. He is especially adamant about discrediting eyewitness accounts of atrocities committed by U.S. troops. To Burkett, things like that could never have happened, because that is "not how things are done by the book". Only a naive lieutenant like Burkett, who came from a career military family and whose entire tour in Vietnam was spent at an air-conditioned base in Long Binh where he spent his spare time playing golf, would think that things are done "by the book" in the military, especially during combat. So with all this in mind, why is this tome getting such rave reviews? The problem is that this book is cleverly written to be convincing. Burkett uses a sneaky trick to do so. First, he establishes his credibility by exposing some phony Vietnam vets, who were never in Vietnam, by checking their military records. This impresses the reader with Burkett's fact-checking ability. His credibility thus established, he can then say anything else he wants, most of which is his slanted opinion, and it will be believed because he has already established his credibility with the reader. If he wants to discredit a book about Vietnam, as he tries to do with Mark Lane's "Conversations With Americans" and Al Santori's "Everything We Had", among many others, he pulls out one or two vets whose testimony was later proven fabricated. This is, you see, supposed to discredit the entire book. For example, "Everything We Had" has the testimonies of 33 vets; 1 of them was later proven to have made his story up. That still leaves 32 true stories in that book, but if Burkett is to be believed, that leaves 0 true stories because it discredits the entire book. Trouble is, Burkett relies on this clever writing technique, dubious logic, and conspiracy theories throughout this book. This just may be the worst book ever written about the Vietnam War; it is certainly the most arrogant. Burkett owes every Vietnam vet who suffered PTSD or Agent Orange, every Vietnam vet whose credible account he attacked, every Vietnam vet whose experience led them into peace activism, and every Vietnam vet whose service he denigrated because they were not lucky enough to get out with an "honorable" discharge, an apology for writing this piece of garbage.
Rating: 
Summary: Clarifying the Vietnam Vet
Review: As a Vietnam veteran myself, I am often felt offended by the sterotypical portrayal we have received in all forms of media. This book explores the politcal and social basis of these misconceptions using many case studies. This "vet" image that has been indoctrinated to the genernal public is based in self serving falsehoods of both individuals and offices. B.G. Burkett in his book, clarifies and corrects these misconceptions, with extreme in depth detail. B.G. Burketts' book should be required reading for all, especially those that have bought into the misconceptions about Vietnam veterans.
Rating:
Summary: PTSD Lobby
Review: One of the legacies of the abuse and fraud exposed in "Stolen Valor" is the persistence of a lobby of therapists and patients who have spent many years working the Vietnam post-trauma angle, who claim for themselves a significant portion of the Veterans Administration's current medical-care spending on veterans. As some of these negative reviews of "Stolen Valor" indicate, this network of the self-interested can be easily rallied to loudly denounce any challenge to the mostly phony claims of the Vietnam post-traumatic-stress industry, which, as "Stolen Valor" plainly shows, is largely composed of people making money from it or otherwise shaking down the system. Meanwhile, at the same time, genuinely disabled Vietnam veterans, real heroes who were REALLY physically or emotionally crippled in Vietnam, are cheated by the false claimants and by a rapacious trauma industry that constantly recruits new candidates to siphon off so much of the money.
Rating:
Summary: Stolen Valor
Review: This outstanding investigative book provides an enlightening and shocking view of the truth concerning so many Vietnam vets that claim they were traumatized by their experiences during this war. The book provides carefully substaniated evaluations of hundreds of bogus individual claims of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the unrelenting efforts of the media to bias stories concerning these vets for their own purposes, and the outragious involvement of the VA and VVA in perpetuating these myths through the PTSD diagnosis and lifetime disability payments costing taxpayers millions of dollars annually. This book is a fascinating and interesting read and will forever change your view of this issue. A must read for every American.
Rating:
Summary: Revenge of the Pogues (REMFs)
Review: It is no accident that the negative reviews herein are all from grunts and others who actually fought the war--most former pogues (REMF in the army, rear area commando, etc..) think that this is a wonderful book. Let me offer the view of one Marine Corps infantryman who served in both the Vietnam and Gulf Wars and knows when his "valor" is being "stolen" and by whom. The most useful sections of this book, and the issues that most readers have gotten caught up with, is the coverage of individuals masquerading as Vietnam veterans, almost all of this material we have seen before in the newspapers and on TV. Had the author stayed with that topic he would have had a coherent and logical book study. Alas the coverage of pseudo veterans is simply a warm-up for longwinded attacks on victims of agent orange, PSPD, bad dreams, or even more inexplicably, Gulf War victims of Gulf illness, individuals who sue big companies, etc. Stolen Valor does a grave disservice to those who endured as grunts. After decrying the stereotyping of Vietnam veterans, the authors engaged in a more vicious stereotyping than returning grunts ever had to endure from the most fervent anti-war type. No matter how you cut it the overall impact of this book is to bring under suspicion all Vietnam veterans, especially those who are having difficulties and who need help the most. The benefits of "outing" a number of misguided frauds who think they were in Vietnam, is far outweighed by the damage done to those suffering from a variety of maladies which the author believes do not exist, particularly PSPD and illnesses from exposure to agent orange. The two biggest enemies of the grunt in Vietnam, after the VC and the NVN, was the pogue and the administrative system. Pogues of all ranks grabbed R&R's especially to favored locations like Australia, made decisions that many grunts never recovered from in supply etc.... and wrote each other up for medals. (It is no accident that the primary author of this book got his bronze star with combat V deep in the rear with the gear) The admin system repeatedly lost a grunt's SRB (service record book), lost his pay record, lost his medical record, often provided him with an erroneous DD 214 as he left the service,--some died before their records were straightened out, others went home without medical records or without pay for months, many got out of the service with invalid DD 214's. At times throughout 1967 and 1968 the Marine Corps Morgue at DaNang had to call in an FBI team from the states to assist in identifying a backlog of unidentified bodies, lacking dog tags and/or their records, that took up so much space they prevented "normal" operations. For the writers of Stolen Valor however the wasted bodies in the Da Nang Marine Corps Morgue never died because their records did not show it. Most tragic is the range of errors or omissions in this book. There is valid and reliable evidence to show the impact of Agent Orange, which is on the same level of reliability as the evidence that smoking causes lung cancer. (Lost in the coverage is the fact that any Veterans Administration association between agent orange and a narrow range of diseases have all been verified by the National Academy of Sciences which probably explains why only 8,500 veterans out of 2.6 million Vietnam veterans have so far successfully pursued VA benefits for Agent Orange). There is such a thing as PSPD, which is particularly widespread among former grunts. Colin Powell never served as a company commander or any other combat command. Indeed, like the author of Stolen Valor, General Powell assiduously avoided combat duty over his time in Vietnam, quite an achievement for a ground officer. After 1966 the military had a very active program, dictated by politics and the Pentagon, to keep down the number of black and minority casualties and it worked. The claim that no Marine ever went into North Vietnam ignores the significant number of Marines who served with Z patrols in the Gulf of Tonkin beginning in 1964, those who served in air rescue, those who served in elite recon and patrolling units often under CIA guidance. Much of this misinformation is used to besmirch the reputation of a number of veterans who have written books, including One Tough Marine, who had the misfortune of not having their records in order to the satisfaction of these authors. In sum, this book is characterized by scattered organization, poor writing, fuzzy thinking and unreliable use of sources. Nowhere do we find any coverage of the validity of relying on a DD 214 as the sole source of evidence. Even more troubling is the complete avoidance of any examination of the relationship between the DD 214, reality and memory. Any infantryman knows that if you get ten men who served in the same firefight to describe their experiences you will get ten different wars. And none of those ten accounts will ever appear on a DD 214, or in any "official history" for that matter. That is the infantryman's war. Such realities have never troubled the pogue who compiled this book. What infantryman thought as he left Vietnam and the military that he would be pursued in later life by a pogue waving a DD 214 that he regarded as the word of God!
Rating:
Summary: Revenge of the Pogues(REMF's)
Review: Stolen Valor is mis-titled, it should have been called, Revenge of the Pogues: An attack on Grunts based exclusively on the DD-214 and other partial military records. It is no accident that the negative reviews herein are all from grunts and others who actually fought the war--most former pogues (REMF in the army, rear area commando, etc..) think that this is a wonderful book. Let me offer the view of one Marine Corps infantryman who served in both the Vietnam and Gulf Wars and knows when his contribution and experiences are being "stolen." The most useful sections of this screed, and the issues that most readers have gotten caught up with, is the coverage of individuals masquerading as Vietnam veterans, almost all of this material we have seen before in the newspapers and on TV. Had the author stayed with that topic he would have had a coherent and logical book study. Alas the coverage of pseudo veterans is simply a warm-up for scattered attacks on victims of agent orange, PSPD, bad dreams, or even more inexplicably, Gulf War veterans, individuals who sue big companies, etc... about the only theme missing from the current list of right wing concerns in Texas, his home state, is capital punishment. One can readily understand why the authors had difficulty finding a publisher. Despite the wishful thinking of the authors and the collection of misguided individuals who provided a puff for the back of the dust cover, who could not possibly have read this book, it does a grave disservice to those who endured as grunts. After decrying the stereotyping of Vietnam veterans, the authors engaged in a more vicious stereotyping than returning grunts ever had to endure from the most fervent anti-war type. No matter how you cut it the overall impact of this book is to bring under suspicion all Vietnam veterans, especially those who are having difficulties and who need help the most--that is the field infantryman. Stolen Valor is written (or more accurately compiled) by a pogue and is based narrowly on the administrative record--nothing else matters to the author in his frenzied search to support his version of the truth except the record, especially the DD 214. The author is described as holding the record for requesting records under the freedom of information (FOI) act. If that is so, and it is possibly true, it is indeed troubling that the FOI act can be misused in such a way. Indeed, such misuse of the FOI may threaten the entire future of the act for researchers who use it responsibly. The two biggest enemies of the grunt in Vietnam, after the VC and the NVN, was the pogue and the administrative system. Pogues of all ranks grabbed R&R's especially to favored locations like Australia, made decisions that many grunts never recovered from, and wrote each other up for medals. (It is no accident that the primary author of this book got his bronze star with combat V deep in the rear with the gear) The admin system repeatedly lost a grunt's SRB (service record book), lost his pay record, lost his medical record, often provided him with an erroneous DD 214 as he left the service,--some died before their records were straightened out, others went home without medical records or without pay for months, many got out of the service with invalid DD 214's. At times throughout 1967 and 1968 the Marine Corps Morgue at DaNang had to call in an FBI team from the states to assist in identifying a backlog of unidentified bodies, lacking dog tags and/or their records, that took up so much space they prevented "normal" operations. For the writers of Stolen Valor however the wasted bodies in the Da Nang Marine Corps Morgue never died because their records did not show it. Most tragic is the range of errors or omissions in this book. There is valid and reliable evidence to show the impact of Agent Orange, which is on the same level of reliability as the evidence that smoking causes lung cancer. (Lost in the coverage is the fact that any Veterans Administration association between agent orange and a narrow range of diseases have all been verified by the National Academy of Sciences which probably explains why only 8,500 veterans out of 2.6 million Vietnam veterans have so far successfully pursued VA benefits for Agent Orange). There is such a thing as PSPD, which is particularly widespread among former grunts. Colin Powell never served as a company commander or any other combat command. Indeed, like the author of Stolen Valor, General Powell assiduously avoided combat duty over his time in Vietnam, quite an achievement for a ground officer. After 1966 the military had a very active program, dictated by politics and the Pentagon, to keep down the number of black and minority casualties and it worked. The claim that no Marine ever went into North Vietnam ignores the significant number of Marines who served with Z patrols in the Gulf of Tonkin beginning in 1964, those who served in air rescue, those who served in elite recon and patrolling units often under CIA guidance. Much of this misinformation is used to besmirch the reputation of a number of veterans who have written books, including One Tough Marine, who had the misfortune of not having their records in order to the satisfaction of these authors. In sum, this book is characterized by scattered organization, poor writing, fuzzy thinking and unreliable use of sources in a great many cases. Nowhere do we find any coverage of the validity of relying on a DD 214 as sole source of evidence or the relationship between the DD 214 and memory. Any infantryman knows that if you get ten men who served in the same firefight to describe their experiences you will get ten different wars. Such realities have never troubled the pogue who complied this book. What infantryman thought as he left Vietnam and the military that he would be pursued in later life by a pogue waving a DD 214 that he regarded as the word of God!
Rating:
Summary: Opening My Eyes
Review: Stolen Valor by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley You've seen them, Vietnam Vets wearing their combat fatigues with medals reflecting their bravery, walking the streets asking for money, and going berserk due to their service. Are they real? Chances are they aren't. Stolen Valor will introduce you to over 400 individuals that claimed combat in Vietnam negatively affected their lives, when most never saw combat and some never even served in the military. Stolen Valor discusses individuals receiving Veterans Administration care via your taxpayer dollars for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder fraudulently and how it is done. Stolen Valor explains how we've come to believe "facts" about the Vietnam War and those that served in our armed forces. "Facts" that will leave you questioning the media. Stolen Valor does introduce you to true heroes like Timothy Honsinger, Bobby Stryker, and Jimmy Cruse. Stolen Valor explains why we tend not to see are the millions of Vietnam Veterans that served honorably and are now highly productive citizens. If you are a veteran or know any Vietnam Veterans, read Stolen Valor. ...
Rating:
Summary: Great, great research; Average writing; Must read
Review: I gave this book 5 stars for the great research done by Burkett. This book is a must read for anyone interested in Vietnam, veterans' affairs or politics, accuracy of reporting or the antics of con artists. I had no idea there were so many war hero frauds out there and Burkett does a remarkable job of exposing many categories of them and many individuals. It is also amazing to learn about how many news organizations and political or veterans' groups have been tricked by con men who either inflate their war records or create them out of whole cloth. I previously thought network news and newspapers did a better job of fact checking, but, based on specific instances in this book, I know better. It's also amazing to learn that Burkett's research methods (mostly Freedom of Information Act requests) could have easily been employed by the people who were duped. I was tempted to lower the book's rating based on the quality of writing. It's not bad, it's just not that good. At times I felt bludgeoned by the information rather than enjoying the great story that was unfolding. In the end though I could not downgrade the remarkable research. I just wish the writing had been more inviting. In any event, this book should be read by anyone who's interested in reading any other book about Vietnam.
Rating:
Summary: the "wannabe" dynamic explained
Review: Stolen Valor gives the best review of the "wannabe" dynamic I`ve seen. As a long time VA physician[>25y], I agree with many of their observations of the PTSD programs in the VA. Almost all of the clinicians in these programs are well-trained and caring individuals; but, as Stolen Valor points out,have no military background. The VA ,as an organization, in trying to care for those individuals who were truly wounded by Vietnam, has not been as thorough as it should in confirming the accuracy of the claims made by individuals applying for PTSD benefits. Burkitt provides an excellent method in the book[i.e. the FOIA request]. I was a physician in Vietnam in 66-67.My patients were brave men doing a job they believed their country wanted them to do. A few even got medals. Most us were happy just to come home. I am concerned that frauds and 'wannabes' have written fake histories of their exploits in order to take advantage [financial or emotional ] of well meaning individuals. I`ve suggested the book to my clinic staff as a valuable educational tool to help them understand the "wannabes" dynamic. After doing so I hope the staff will give the real Vietnam [& other ] Veterans even more of the care and respect they deserve.
Rating: 
Summary: Stolen Valor
Review: One of the few honest, and no political agenda books, written about Vietnam. It truly, and with documentation, exposes the myth of PTSD and a horde of wanab's. Col Mike Robb, USMC(Ret)
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