Rating: 
Summary: Stolen Valor
Review: This book was interesting reading with the exception of the comments on PTSD. It is sad to see someone down play the true horror of this disorder. I found it offensive to all that suffer the nightmares and flashbacks that can effect daily lives. It is obvious that the authors have never experienced the suffering that comes with sleeping in a world of nightmares, they only had conversations.
Rating: 
Summary: Stolen Valor
Review: This is a great book for anyone who has ever been told a war story that wasn't true. This book not only sets the story straight on who has been there and who has not, but also gives you (the reader) the information needed to find the truth on your own. This is a must buy book for any collection!
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Summary: A cure for resignation
Review: Many of those who served in Viet Nam -- including me, a veteran of two tours -- long ago gave up trying to explain our experience. We shared, as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it long ago, about another conflict, "the uncommunicable experience of war." The overwhelming power of received wisdom, promulgated unthinkingly by those who wished us well or ill in the entertainment media, the political generations, and writers of fiction and nonfiction alike, had long ago suffocated anything like an objective truth. It was finally time for some of this witless mythology to be well and truly deconstructed.While Burkett and Whitley sometimes tend to use a hatchet where a scalpel would have done as well, Stolen Valor is a powerful antidote for all those obfuscations and polemics so many presumed were true because -- well, because "everybody knows." The political left, for reasons that may be accounted noble or self-serving, depending on point of view, slandered the wrong people during the war, concentrating on the soldiers as vehemently as on the policy-makers. Repenting too late of their error, they then went to great lengths to rechannel all that compassion by way of compensation. Unfortunately, much of that well-intentioned payback was misdirected, and veterans were again condemned -- from baby-killers to feckless losers in one leap, with no decent interval! I was one of those missed in biased surveys -- I stayed in, for 25 years. Worse, I also earned a doctorate in psychology. The ones who stayed in, and the ones who picked up their lives and went on to succeed in other ways. Over the years, we became deaf to the absurd statistics and presumptions of guilt, to journalistic laziness (for often I believe it is that, not willing deceit, that creates the injustices that Burkett and Whitley describe -- reporters have a tough job, trying to report correctly and cogently about matters in which they have no content knowledge). We wondered what was really producing those scruffy prople in cammies and ponytails that panhandled and appeared like mayflies when the weather was good and something was being dedicated, but we called them brothers and handed them money. Who were these people? What happened to them that didn't happen to us? We knew the truth from our own experience -- Viet Nam was a war like any other, fought by soldiers who tried to do their best and survive, cursed and complained and grumbled as soldiers always do. Then we came back and got on with life. We remembered a lot with bitterness. But it wasn't the war itself, which was terrifying, exhausting, and sometimes proudly remembered or happily forgotten by most of us. The rage came at the lies and the insults, the smug presumptions that clung to all of us. And we gradually became deaf and numb, and we moved on with our lives. Now I'm angry again, after so many years; but I'm tired, too. I'm just glad Stolen Valor came along before I was too old to remember that "incommunicable experience of war."
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Summary: Layers of Truth
Review: This was a book I couldn't put down - imagine that, a non-fiction book with copious footnotes and bibliographic references, keeping me awake, reading way too far into the night! While I wasn't in 100% alignment with the political orientation of the authors, the layers of truth kept being peeled back like an onion. I'm a Vietnam combat veteran from 1967-68 (C-1-9, 9th Marines, 3rd Mar Div), and in struggling with the effects of PTSD and shell fragment and concussion wounds, I've seen and heard the "professional vets," the phony vets, the malingering whiners, the con artists and "wannabees" all too often. Not to mention the brick wall a legitimate vet can encounter at the VA. So this book is a true breath of fresh air, exposing the media's incessant parade of stereotypes, perhaps at the root of much of the problem as I see it, since the mass media has so much to do with shaping perceptions. All you VN vets who ever gagged at the stupid VN war movies, or who ever had to endure some moronic "bs artist" - this book is for you! The lists of bona fide Medal of Honor, Navy Cross and Distinguished Service Cross recipients and POWs are invaluable in smoking out the phonies near you. The only reason I didn't rate with 5 stars was that the authors omitted a section on Freedom of Information Act procedures which would have been invaluable (as other reviewers have noted already). A GREAT book - check it out!
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Summary: Truth IS More Exciting Than Fiction
Review: Thank you Mr. Burkett and Ms. Whitley for putting forth the tremendous effort it must have taken to research and write this book. I just couldn't believe that every Vietnam Vet was a total washout, and yet, that's all I ever seemed to see or hear about in the media. I had begun to doubt my own memories and that there were men and women who are still proud that they served there. What a job the cowards and those with hidden agendas have done. I can take the horrible lies personally, but what I hate most is how badly these cheats have made our country and its institutions look. My commanders did everything they could, working long hours, to play by the rules, take care of their people and defeat a brutal enemy. After reading this wonderful book, I am again reminded of how proud I was to serve this wonderful country alongside men and women of character and committment. Once again, thank you Mr. Burkett and Ms. Whitley.
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Summary: accuracy?
Review: Stolen Valor quotes someone else quoting Bowman. I have searched the 25th Div.guestbook and the guestbook archives and can find no letter from Bowman. Where is it? This book is accurate and fair. Phonies are all over the place, including on many of the VN websites asking people to 'share memories' probably so they can claim them as their own. Be careful.
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Summary: The Way It Really Was
Review: This book puts the phonies and wannabees on notice. To all the REAL soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen and coastguardmen who served HONORABLY, no finer tribute can be written. This narrative cuts to the bone - and lets the blame fall where it is deserved. Don't lie to those of us who really served, that's the message. Pretenders take note, Mr. Burkett served honorably- where were you and what were you doing? I spent 30 months of my life "in Viet Nam", and the authors are putting the spotlight on LIARS, the ill-informed media and Veterans organizations who perpetuate a myriad of falsehoods. Admit your errors, and screen the stories: that is the essence of this book. The average Viet Nam veteran is the best educated warrior in this nation's history. As Sergeant Joe Friday, Badge 714, would say: "...just the facts...."
Rating: 
Summary: Has Mr. Burkett gone to far?
Review: I won't rate Mr. Burkett's book at this time because of a letter I have read. It was written by a C W Bowman and is located in the guest book at 25th Infantry Division Association.com It seems that Mr. Burkett has attacked a vetern who was in the Infantry in VN about an award he did NOT receive. Also see additional letters in response to his. If this is true it makes this book questionable.
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Summary: Stolen Valor - a must read for all Vietnam Vets
Review: Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of It's Heroes and It's History is a powerful piece of investigative journalism. The book begins with an account of the building of the Texas Vietnam Memorial and co-author B.G. Burkett's year "in country" during the Vietnam War and his return to the United States. While the veterans of World Wars 1 and 2 and Korea were considered to be heroes, the Vietnam Veteran was treated like a pariah, refused opportunities for job interviews and being called "baby killers". The following chapters deals with the some of the stories of the true heroes of the Vietnam war and the frauds, phonies and "wannabes" who have and still are capitalizing on the legacy that others fought and died for. This is a no holds barred expose on those who are faking post traumatic stress disorder, using it as an excuse for crimes and for getting benefits from the Veteran's Administration, who's sloppy investigative work on claims and military service has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars over the years. It also exposes our politcal leaders who once used the Vietnam war as a vehicle for protest and launching political careers but now embrace their service in Vietnam for political gain as well as Hollywood and the media for the inaccurate portrayals and reporting on the war. In talking with some of my co-workers who are Vietnam veterans, they all said the same thing: "the real heroes are on the Wall". Stolen Valor is a must read. It certainly opened my eyes. To those Vietnam veterans reading this review, thank you!
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Summary: Extremely eye opening
Review: An excellent book. I graduated from Virginia Tech in 1996 and while I was there I took a class called "The History of the Vietnam War" taught by a Dr. Nurse. His class was full of the falsehoods, lies, and misrepresentations that this book debunks. What truly occured to me when I finished this book is that these lies have now been ingrained into our history at an academic level and will now be taught to generations to come! I sincerely hope that Virginia Tech and Dr. Nurse will make this book part of the course. As for the vets on here berating Burkett for being a "REMF" all I can say is that he himself describes his war record as a modest one. He uses that as an example for what the majority of vets (who weren't in combat units) saw in their time over there. Get a grip guys. He readily acknowledges that a lot of guys had a harder time over there than he did.
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