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Summary: Stolen Valor returns valor to the true Vietnam Vets!
Review: This book does a fine job of debunking some of the many myths surrounding the Vietnam war and it's veterans and sterotypes. I picked up a copy of "Stolen Valor", intending to only skim through it, but found myself reading it cover to cover, aghast at the calumny of those purporting to be veterans and heroes. My reaction is the same as it has always been to frauds who steal our nation's honors - anger and sorrow, but to a greater degree, because I had never realized how pervasive this theft is. Thank you for a masterful work - those of us who did serve in the military, and who were truly Vietnam and Vietnam-era vets, applaud you for your courage in speaking out.
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Summary: A Vietnam Eye-Opener
Review: I was highly impressed with Stolen Valor. As a retired USAF Major who had two brothers serve in Vietnam, I thought I had a pretty good handle on what went on over there. I was wrong. Burkett and Whitley did a excellent job of documenting the desecration of our fighting men by Hollywood, people with hidden agendas and (surprisingly) the Veteran's Administration. The rip-off of government funds by wannabes, fakers and crooks is infuriating. Stolen Valor describes it all without losing its cool. If you read one book on the Vietnam War this decade, make it Stolen Valor. These guys have their stuff together.
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Summary: Excellent Defense of the Vietnam Veteran
Review: Burkett and Whitley have written a first-rate book which debunks many of the myths about Vietnam veterans. The book forcefully proves that the vast majority of those who served in Vietnam did so with honor, and they returned home to become productive members of American society. I have grown weary of some of the unfair criticism of this book in regards to PTSD. Burkett does NOT deny the existence of PTSD. On page 237 he writes, "Fraudulent claims of PTSD not only denigrate Vietnam vets who truly suffer from trauma,..." On page 264 he writes, "Cases like these take time, energy, and financial resources away from treating true combat veterans with PTSD." Burkett acknowledges that PTSD does exist, but the purpose of the book is to expose the phonies, so he doesn't spend a great deal of time discussing legitimate cases. This is a great book that should be read by everyone who is interested in having a true picture of Vietnam veterans.
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Summary: Exposing the Media Myth
Review: The authors of this book have done a real service to the American veterans who actually served in Vietnam by exposing not only scores of famous "wannabes", but the fraud and misrepresentation of the media and the Veterans Administration in inventing an epidemic of PTSD for us guilty, tormented souls who committed atrocities in an evil war.First of all, the book is interesting just because of all the celebrities it exposes as fake Vietnam veterans. However, these guys (and some women) are minor nuisances compared to those fake veterans who have testified at public hearings, had their stories told on national media, and even been published in the Congressional Record. The atrocities they tell had always sounded exaggerated to me, and I spent a year and a half as a Navy Corpsman working a triage in one of the largest emergency hospitals in the country where I saw just about everything out of the field. On the occasions when I visited Marine units "in the bush" maybe a half mile from our facility, I found well disciplined units, not crazed killers who would lift the ears from dead enemy. In fact, on a couple of occasions we had the misfortune of being the check point for individuals or small groups who had committed minor atrocities, like rape, on their way to court martial after neuropsychiatric examination. The hoards of scraggly, loser veterans living on the edge because of the miseries they had experienced did not jive at all with the experience of the veterans I knew then and met later. In fact, the media, which reported with a strong procommunist bias during the Vietnam war (as documented, for example, in Peter Braestrup's Big Story or the more recent Vietnam, the Necessary War, by Michael Lind) have invented the myth of the failed Vietnam veteran who is suffering some grand Karmic illness as a result of having served in the evil war. This is hogwash, as is pointed out in this dose of truth by Burkett and Whitley, who give the actual figures that correspond to my own experiences: most Vietnam veterans are doing quite well, and are not freaked out losers. Of course, when the media focuses on the veterans at public gatherings, they always ignore those clean, well spoken, and well dressed veterans for the motley crew, since it reinforces the myth they have been perpetuating since the war. What Burkett has determined by examining records is that the majority of these media-hyped veterans never served in Vietnam at all, and many never even served in the military. And the atrocities that have been fodder for the newspapers and talk shows were committed in the imaginations of people who were never in any combat. The Veterans Administration is another bureaucracy (yes, the media is a quasi-public bureaucracy) that has manipulated the myth of the PTSD epidemic to further its own goals. In this case, however, the VA goals are the same as the real mission of any public bureaucracy that is established, namely to perpetuate itself. The VA has grown by finding an epidemic of veterans who are so traumatized by the horrors of their Vietnam experience that they cannot function in society, and so must be supported by the public. Needless to say, I have always been suspicious of so many feeding at this spigot of public funding, and it seems that my suspicions were justified. As Burkett and Whitley have learned, many of these cases are fraud, fueled with the incredible numbers (incredible because they are just false) of Vietnam veteran suicides. It seems that the real atrocities have been committed by the irresponsible media and later by the Veterans Administration. Anyone who wants to learn something about how these lies are perpetuated today should read this book. And to think, I thought I was the only one who kept meeting all these former SOG operatives and former SEALS from Vietnam who could not tell me where they served because it is still classified!
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Summary: WELL WRITTEN.....POOR CONTENT
Review: I gave Mr Burkett's book two stars because, after all, the book is well written and does have some amusing parts in it. The most amusing are the wannabe's who walk our streets pretending to have seen the horrors of combat. Now, Mr Burkett refuses to recognize PTSD and in fact denies it's existance. Well, if I had been a REMF officer who whined that a piece of shrapnel came close to hitting me (it did come within a ball park of him)wouldn't I know what a stressor is? I'm sure Mr Burkett was stressed out on occassions...like when the shower ran out of hot water, or he had to use a piece of Sears paper rather than "Charmin" oh, but what if the pool was too cold, or his "house" leaked. Mr. Burkett had his stressful times in Vietnam and since he does not suffer from PTSD, no one should. Then there is the Agent Orange matter, Mr Burkett stated that "Ranch Hands" personnel would drink pecticide as an initiation rite......please Mr Burkett, give it a break. REMF's, civilians, and some politicians will love this book. "Combat" veterans will take issue with it. Here is a case of another person making money off the Vietnam Veteran who saw the horrors of the war.
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Summary: The thread that binds us...
Review: My dear friend Doug (A-503 BB-55, Nha Trang Mike Force Medic 1968, one busy year) said he had never heard the term "FNG" until he watched a movie supposedly about Vietnam. I asked him "well what did you call the new guy?" In which he replied "the new guy." He said that there is so much disinformation about the war and of the brave men that fought in Vietnam that for someone who wasn't there, or did not serve in the military, they cannot tell fact from fiction. B.G. Burkett does an outstanding job of pulling back the wool which has been thrown over our eyes, for whatever reason, so the truth can be told about the real heroes of our generation. We are losing something important to our history and our families if we fail to remember the truth of those men; not as rag tag renegades but as decent, hardworking and honorable human beings. B.G. Burkett should be given a snap salute for a job well done.
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Summary: The truth wins out--outstanding read--X-files in reverse
Review: A very important work -- not just about Vietnam but about today. This book documents how assertions left unverified drive policy and history. Get this book and ready it. You'll never watch a TV journalism piece or read a paper the same way. If it can happen with Vietnam it can happen with everything. Some veterans will see this a piece bashing those in need of help. The truth has nothing to fear. The anecdotes are both amusing and sad. If you want tax dollars going to legitimate needs not to frauds, this books will pique your interest. It was a long but fascinating read - I truly enjoyed it. It ought to be required reading at the War Colleges. Thanks
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Summary: Absolutely "outstanding"--truth wins out
Review: Tired of bias reporting, yearn for the days of professional journalism. Read this book for ammunition for those letters to the editor. Burkett and Whitley expose fraud after fraud. If you like military history you'll love reading this book. It calls much accepted facts into question. Agree or disagree but don't be afraid to hear the other side. This ought to be issued at the War College's as required reading. Thanks
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Summary: I agree
Review: I was certinly happy to see this book. I couldn't put it down either. I used the highlighter and make many notes of my own in my copy. Burkett reinforced my own opinion about the war and our real vets. His stories about being "in country" sound familiar, true. The review from C-1-9 sent shivers down my back. I was with C-2-94th Army, supporting the 3rd Marines in 67-68. Thank you B.G. Burkett.
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Summary: Just another Stereotype
Review: B.G. Burkett's view on PTSD is obviously one from someone with no symptoms of this disorder. As a lieutenant he was privy to a privileged life while serving in Vietnam and he experienced very little combat. I find it disheartening that he would dismiss such a terrible disorder just because he doesn't experience any of this symptoms. In Burkett's book, Stolen Valor, he dedicates three chapters to the subject of PTSD. He spends the bulk of these chapters finding veterans who are receiving benefits for PTSD and proves them to be liars and cheats. He researches their military history and proves that did not serve in Vietnam or was not exposed to enough combat and traumatic events to bring on PTSD. He makes a handful of veterans abusing the system the norm, rather than the unusual. When Burkett does bring up the facts, he bases all of his findings on the subject of PTSD from one study, the CDC Study (Centers for Disease Control). The National Vietnam Veteran Readjustment Study, the only other study mentioned in this book, he tears apart. Burkett insinuates that the poorly educated and the poor suffer from PTSD in higher numbers due to the money they receive from the government. He says that the NVVRS study is faulty by design because it is self-supporting. Burkett is quoted as saying the "VA hospitals and PTSD programs are havens for malingers who manipulate the system for their own psychological and financial ends." PTSD suffers beware! B.G. Burkett believes that veterans severely afflicted with PTSD which manifested itself twenty years after the triggering incidents is purely political, not scientific! Regardless of what the studies find, Burkett is stubborn to the repeated facts about PTSD. No matter how noble his intentions with the writing of this book, I believe he just created another stereotype. Now Vietnam veterans are all out to steal from the government and they are all cheats and liars. Burkett based too much of his opinion in his information about PTSD. He did not back up his information with factual information, only his personal convictions. Throughout three chapters on PTSD, he does not positively represent the Vietnam veteran. PTSD does exist; this is proven over and over in every case study. Ask anyone who suffers from it, they will tell you that it is not worth the money they receive in benefits. I will admit that there are veterans or (not veterans) that abuse the system and Burkett is correct in saying they do not deserve benefits. I would have to guess that this is very minute numbers compared to the thousands who do suffer from this disorder.
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