Customer Reviews

Inside Hanoi's Secret Archives

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For two decades following the Vietnam war, ill-fated attempts by the United States to obtain conclusive evidence concerning the fate of hundreds of POW/MIA's from the Vietnam war finally found success. In a bold and daring espionage mission, former U.N. refugee officer Theodore G. Schweitzer was the acting agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in what later became known as Operation Swamp Ranger.

Beginning in March of 1992 and lasting several months, Schweitzer was granted access to Vietnamese war archives that held a voluminous amount of information on U.S. servicemen that were missing in action and others that were held as prisoners of war. Vietnam, up until this point, had strenuously denied for years that they had any useful data on missing servicemen and they blatantly withheld documents that would solve many discrepancy cases on unknown losses of U.S. personnel. Using previously unreleased photographs, meticulously annotated files, and physical evidence, Operation Swamp Ranger completely exposed Vietnam's attempts to bury the POW/MIA issue over the years. Although only suspected by the U.S. government, Vietnam's General Political Directorate (GPD) finally admitted that many U.S. servicemen were killed in cold blood.

Operation Swamp Ranger also proved to be useful in the aspect that it helped dispel the widespread theory that Americans had been abandoned by the U.S. government after repatriation of POW's in 1973. Furthermore, scams and other fraudulent activities aimed at the grieving families of MIA's were exposed and contradicted by evidence gained from Hanoi's archives. Lastly, there appears to be no conclusive facts to date which could verify that there are actual live POW's still held in Vietnam today.

Although limited cooperation with the Vietnamese government regarding POW/MIA's faltered after revelations from Operation Swamp Ranger became known to the public at large, the U.S. government still claimed a large victory in what amounts to a monumental breakthrough in the enduring POW/MIA controversy. Unfortunately, this long and arduous journey does not have a happy ending. Not yet, anyway. Even as the Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO) continues to negotiate, haggle, bargain, cajole, and mediate with Vietnam regarding additional unreleased material they still hold, there are no clear indications of just how much further progress will be accomplished in the future. As stated in the author's narrative, communist archives are notoriously known for disinformation and forgeries and nothing in Vietnam is ever straightforward or simple.

Inside Hanoi's Secret Archives is a remarkable investigation into previously hidden wartime data. Generously footnoted and offering revealing photographs, this is a fascinating and memorable reading experience. Anyone having the slightest or even most demanding questions concerning the ongoing legacy of missing U.S. servicemen in Vietnam, I would enthusiastically recommend this book to you and to everyone in general.

...I'm not sorry I read it.

Throughout, there are hints of "conspiracy theories" but I think that is unavoidable in a topic as sensitive as this one. Did the US knowingly abandon troops in Vietnam and Laos? Do we know they are still there but unwilling to do what's necessary to get them home? These questions are answered, I think, satisfactorily. It's well-documented and the photographs are very applicable.

While not necessarily what I consider a 5-star book, it was recommended to me by an avid history and military history reader whose opinion I regard highly. If these topics are your "cup of tea", I'd recommend this even more.

Unbeliveable. Everyone who has voiced an opinion on the MIA issue needs to read this book.

For the makers and marketers of those nifty little conspiracy books about American PoWs that are still alive and being held in Vietnam, this book should be the slap in the face that makes them stop writing such painful trash.

While I will stipulate that I believe some US personnel in the period from World War Two until, say, 1975 did end up in the former Soviet Union, I do not believe that camps now exist in Southeast Asia that contain any US service people.

Why?

Because this book lays out factual evidence that all those listed as anything but KIA in Communist controlled territory are dead. They died either evading capture; were killed during capture; died in captivity from torture or from disease.

The bulk of this book is devoted to describing the convoluted process needed to get an American researcher access to some - but not all - military files on US PoWs in Hanoi is fascinating in and of itself. When the level of detail these files contained is exposed, it is heart-wrenching if ultimately satisfying to know what happened to these men. There are some vignettes telling of wives and families finally learning and, in some cases, seeing what happend to their loved ones. But, worse still is the fact the reader learns: there are more files - to which access was not granted - that provide even greater knowledge of the fates of some.

Worth the harrowing read.