Customer Reviews

Code-Name Bright Light : The Untold Story of U.S. POW Rescue Efforts During the Vietnam War

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Code Name Bright Light is a fascinating and highly revealing look into rescue operations in Vietnam performed under the auspices of the Joint Personnel Recovery Center (JPRC) during the longest war ever fought by the United States.

In a six year period, more than 125 rescue operations would be launched to recover U.S. prisoners of war. Attempts to retrieve U.S. servicemen would also be tried by ransoms and prisoner exchanges. The latter methods were minimally successful at best due to the dismal cooperation from the North Vietnamese government and their unwillingness to recognize humanitarian overtures. The actual rescue attempts themselves were outstanding examples of bravery, courage, and audacity in the most harrowing of situation but were also mired in endless problems.

Rescue teams would suffer the indignity of inter-service rivalries and competition, mediocre intelligence information, numerous bureaucratic breakdowns, compromised missions, and bad luck in many cases. Much of this would lead to slow response times to initiate raids on POW compounds which in turn produced many near misses when trying to extricate POW's. On countless occasions, rescue personnel would assault POW camps only to find that prisoners and camp cadre had relocated to new areas only hours before. Although some missions conducted were successful, they would also be bittersweet at the same time. The JPRC teams, during their tenure in Vietnam, were able to rescue hundreds of South Vietnamese POW's but were unsuccessful in ever freeing any living Americans held in confinement.

Leaving no stone unturned, geographically speaking, George J. Veith covers the entire spectrum of Vietnam regarding rescue efforts with serious emphasis placed on Laos which has always been, and continues to be today, highly controversial concerning Americans that are missing in action in that country. In addition, Code Name Bright Light uncovers further high profile operations and rescue missions such as the Son Tay POW camp raid, Operation Thunderhead, the Bat-21 incident, and the notorious Lima Site 85 in Laos.

George J. Veith has composed a meticulous and brilliant narrative in Code Name Bright Light which probably deserves recognition for being one of the finest books ever written about the Vietnam war. For those interested in this subject matter, this book is immensely satisfying and comes highly recommended.

"Code Name Bright Light" is an extremely well-researched and documented story about the efforts (failures! ) of the United States to rescue its' POWs during the Vietnam War. Just count the footnotes in each chapter! There can be no doubt that the story you will read is authentic. And that is a problem because most Americans will be saddened to learn that the blame cannot be heaped upon a cruel and intransigent enemy but with our own political. military and especially diplomatic leaders. Inter-service rivalry, intra-service rivalry, poor planning and just plain Vietnam-style bad luck all played a large part in the story. But there is so simple "sin-loi" here. Ambassador to Laos William Sullivan and Ambassador to South Vietnam Bunker wholeheartedly emphasized politics over POW rescues. One must ask even now whose side was Mr. Sullivan on? And where was the Johnson White House? Where was Robert McNamara? All very disturbing. There are many better "Vietnam" books but for those interested in the POW story, this is the Bible. I have read 4 other books on POWs, including Ms. Stephenson's "Kiss the Boys Goodbye" and seen the tape "We Can Keep You Forever", but "Code Name Bright Light" tells it all the best. A serious, disturbing but excellent job!

During my military career, the year I spent in JPRC-SOG was my proudest. This book by Jay Veith explains our memories, frustrations and efforts to assist in a small way our countrymen and their families. We worked in a classified and constrained environment, but we had the total support from the chief of SOG (COL Sadler), the SOG staff and the recon teams. It is a great book telling about a great job-I would do it again without hesitation!

Jay Veith, while working outside the bureaucratic infrastructure said to be "dedicated" to the PW-MIA issue, has made a major contribution to the families of those missing by compiling this study of wartime efforts to recover our men in captivity. His dedication in making the facts available to the public continues today, and serves as an excellent example to our civil servants, who could do more were they of a mind to do so.

I had the good fortune to sit down to dinner with Jay and Col. Reisner, the first commander of Bright Light. His book is a very factual account of the efforts to locate and rescue the American POW's. In fact, the CIA doesn't like this book because it has been intelligently assembled from unclassified sources. It has opened the doors on many operations I was involved with, but at the time were classified (the pilots wouldn't tell us what they were up to), now I know. Thanks Jay, It means very much to the families.

Having played an intelligence role in Vietnam myself, I find Veith's work extraodinarily accurate. It made me relive the frustrations of trying to find an elusive enemy and POW's. The bureaucratic dilemma that faced many of us trying to do a good job is accurately portrayed in this book. It is too bad that the MIA/POW paid the price of the paper pushing Command.

Jay has spent years researching this true yet frustrating story. He details the absolute heroic effort by so many Brave American Soldiers to find and free their captured compatriots. I, as one of those who "waited" for that rescue, greatfully salute, and thank those who so vainly, yet valiantly made that bold and endless effort. I also commend Jay Veith for telling this story. This book so aptly defines the frustration that was, and still is, Vietnam. A great book that demands reading......

Captain Veith delivers a very concise description of the military bureaucracy that seemed to dominate POW recovery efforts. It was and still is a travesty.

The possibility he does not consider is that Bright Light was penetrated by the Trinh Sat, or North Vietnamese intelligence organization.

John Plaster makes a credible case that SOG was penetrated from the very beginning. It would follow that Bright Light was also penetrated. Some sources place the penetration agent very high in the South Vietnamese government, but there is credible evidence that the real source was an American (or perhaps Americans) with access to sensitive information.

We may never know, and Captain Veith does the reader a disservice by not considering the possibility.

Rock

I'd rate this book and "The Bamboo Chest" by Graham as two of the best books on Vietnam POWs, rescue attempts, and the MIA question available!

My friends dad in High School 25 years ago claimed he was a Para Rescueman in Vietnam
that is what inspired me to read the book. I was stunned to learn that the Air Force
had eliete teams of parachute qualified medically trained (paramedic) commando like troops
who swooped into the jungle, some times on swing seats suspended from helicopters to rescue downed airmen, pilots
soldiers, marines, and Navy personell. Usually they arrived in small teams by helicopter or
parachuted in from C-130 cargo plane variations.

There really were Prisoner of War Missing in Action
stories of Americans being held in secret military prisons in Vietnam. The Son-Tay raid
is very important because it was a real event-you need to read the book to find out the
outcome. Truly and amazing book it describes how
Col. Arnie Anderholt formed the Joint Personell Recovery Center in Vietnam and all
of the early history as well as late war history. This was a fantastic book to read.
Most recently I had a encounter with another person who claimed to be a Para Rescueman
in Vietnam, I googled the Pararescue association and sure enough he was not.
When I asked about his "stories" there were very few. This book could make a great gift
addition to the military history library or could be great information to prevent someone
from B.S.ing you that they were a part of it when they cant describe what it was that they did.