Customer Reviews

The Bamboo Cage: The Full Story of the American Servicemen Still Missing in Vietnam

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was the first book I had read that really opened my eyes to the public manipulation a government was capable of. Cawthorne pulls facts together from very credible sources and uses them to weave cohesive arguments that are difficult to refute. This book should be more widely read, and portions of it should be used in Civics classes across the United States to teach our youth to be more objective about political motivations.
If any fault can be found with the book, it's the amount of detail it provides. Though, given the prevailing public "knowledge" of American POW's, it serves the author well to support his statements from many angles.

because it describes in detail, unlike other books, the efforts of a USAF sergeant who collected radio intercepts of downed airmen and the N. Vietnamese proving the pilots survived capture. He also collected radio intercepts of the N. Vietnamese and Laotions after Op. Homecoming that show some airmen were sent to Russia. His collection of radio signals during the war gave what he thought was a clear picture of the N. Vietnamese air defence system, which I thought was interesting since it was the first time I have ever heard of such a thing.

This was not by any means the main point of the book. The book discussed all political developments about the POWs thru the 70's and 80's.

The book does get bogged down in what I considered too many personal capture stories of the POWs. But I guess the author felt he needed all these to prove his point.

I first read this book at the age of 23 while I was a Sergeant in the Marine Corps. I was angered, disgusted, and deeply disturbed by this book. I intentionally left the book in the Squad Room of the barracks and never saw it again. After 15 year of searching I finally found it here and ordered myself a new copy.

This book is still as disturbing to me as it was back when I first read it. It has a large number of "facts" however upon further research thanks to the internet

which was not available to me when I first read the book, I found numerous errors. I still believe that its a good book, but can not look upon this book as a definitive account. There are just too many errors.

Great book about "our friends" who never were able to come home. A high price for "our freedom." Thanks to all of you!

This was the first book I had read that really opened my eyes to the public manipulation a government was capable of. Cawthorne pulls facts together from very credible sources and uses them to weave cohesive arguments that are difficult to refute. This book should be more widely read, and portions of it should be used in Civics classes across the United States to teach our youth to be more objective about political motivations.

If any fault can be found with the book, it's the amount of detail it provides. Though, given the prevailing public "knowledge" of American POW's, it serves the author well to support his statements from many angles.

I have a lot of veteran friends who worked on this POW issue, and I mean by that, attempting rescues of men in Laotian prison camps toward the end of the war. By defining the VN war solely within its own borders, we not only lost this conflict, but left behind many Americans who we would not recognize that were somewhere else than Vietnam. Then, the Paris "Peace" Accords really sealed their fate. Nixon and Kissinger should have been shown with their pants down to their ankles for their miserable "accomplishments" to end the war. The North Vietnamese let us bring our remaining troops home, then attacked; Thieu knew it was going to happen.

Nigel Cawthorne shows what happened to South Vietnam and our POW's once they got rid of the pesky Americans, who had been an intrusion for 25 years, after they demolished the French. We have yet to respect this enemy, and also all our vets who worked so hard in this hopeless fracas. The most amazing part of the book to was about the 3.25 billion dollars of reparations that Nixon agreed to, on White House stationary; that was the bargaining chip to bring these poor souls home. We violated them as well as ourselves by the bozo's we had in the Nixon Administration, and are still paying the price, both at home and overseas in IndoChina. I am glad that I never got shot down and suffered the fate of our military men who were sadly betrayed by this country and continue to be so. More and more, the experiences I portray in OUTLAWS IN VIETNAM were thankfully the only ones I still have to report...!

I have read Nigals book many times, more for my on information then anything. This book gives a definitive explantion and reasons behind why the U.S. Government refuses to deal with LIVE POWs rather then the remains of MIAs.

It is well researched and has given hope that the Vitnamese will one day come forward with men that I believe and KNOW are still under supervision by their captors. I could write more on this subject as I was one Nigal's informers.