Customer Reviews

Prisoners of Hope: Exploiting the Pow/Mia Myth in America

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Ms. Keating has produced a first class expose of the deep and tragic situation that surrounds the subject of P.O.W.-M.I.A's of the Vietnam War. She shows with astute research and a concise writing style the way that so many money hungry glory seekers have perpetuated the myth of men left behind in Vietnam. It is a shame that many patriotic Americans have been taken in by this sham, kept alive by those more interested in money than in the lives of servicemen. It is time to face reality and lay aside this fiction. The evidence presented in this book should leave no one in doubt. We owe it to the men and women who served to honor the memory of their sacrifice and move on to a new day.

Susan Katz-Keating has written one of the three best books on the Vietnam War MIA issue. Sadly, the issue has been -- and continues to be -- exploited by charlatans, frauds, wannabes, and some honest people who have been misled by the others. Ms. Keating puts the claims of the MIA enthusiasts to the test of logic and reality and their case loses at every turn. Tragically, the real losers in this whole affair are the families of the missing men, many of whom are still having old wounds ripped open by shameless self-promoters. The other two books that I recommend are: "M.I.A.: Mythmaking in America," by H. Bruce Franklin, and, "M. I. A.: Accounting for the Missing in Indochina," by Paul Mather. The Franklin and Mather books are also available from Amazon.com.

This book seems to ignore the huge body of DOCUMENTATION provided in Bill Hendon's ENORMOUS CRIME. Granted, guys like Bo Gritz haven't helped things, but from DAY ONE, the Vietnamese were clamoring for the reconstruction aid promised by Nixon and Kissinger, with the MIA's and remains of many KIA held in the balance. SKK focuses on the French experience, but doesn't touch at all on the CUBAN experience from the Bay of Pigs, where the Vietnamese learned first hand that the U.S. would pay for POWs.

Read both books and decide for yourself who makes the better case.

An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia

We studied this book in our High School civics class this semester.

While it deals with one apsect (the exploitation of the POW issue by revisionists on the right) it is unequivocably knocks down many of the fallacies and lies that surrounded the war.

Most jarring was how it showed how, even after the war, when the fake body counts, illegal free fire zones, the killing of tens of thousands of vietname children, were all known, that contempory politicians and extreme self promoters were (and are) exploiting the (...).

Our teacher is a Vietnam Vet, he has stories that will make you cringe and feel ashamed for (...). I wish everyone could take his class and learn how and why the military lost that war, and how the lies that got us into resonate today!

I have read some criticism of the book, but the critics have one thing in common (even here) they never address specific facts. Look at (...). he is a critic of the book! well he was shown for what he was. that is why even today he calls John mcCain, the biggest and most genuine hereo of the war -- a traitor, when Sampley did nothing!

This book is the best book in the history of the world!

This book shows how Ted Sampley abused the hopes of grieving families for profit. Their best-known victim, until now, was Sen. John McCain. He first drew Sampley's poisonous attention when, along with John Kerry, he debunked the idea that Americans were still being held by Vietnam, and endorsed the restoration of diplomatic relations with the Communist government.

Keating describes in detail how, in 1992, Sampley commenced a "scurrilous" crusade to punish McCain:
"Sampley ... accused McCain of being a weak-minded coward who had escaped death by collaborating with the enemy. Sampley claimed that McCain had first been compromised by the Vietnamese, then recruited by the Soviets.
"To those who know McCain and are familiar with his behavior in captivity, the charge is ludicrous. McCain resisted his captors to such a degree that he was isolated in a special prison for troublemakers. He repeatedly refused special favors, including early release, and emerged as a spiritual and religious leader for other prisoners. Nonetheless, Sampley was persistent enough in his claims that the press in McCain's home state of Arizona picked up on the KGB story."
This book is an excellent reply to the venomous right such as Rush Limbaugh (who by the way avoided military service) who try to portray honorable Veterans like John McCain and John Kerry as less than honorable vets. McCain and Kerry served with honor. Limbaugh dodged the draft.

Keating ignores solid documentation on POW/MIAs and combines old Defense Department lines with unsubstantiated rumors. Her comments about the key area of satellite imagery and pilot distress symbols ignore basic published facts. All in all a total misrepresentation of the POW/MIA issue.

Rich Daly Researcher and Board member of the Minnesota League of POW/MIA Families and Minnesota Won't Forget POW/MIA

It's good that this piece of #$%^$ is out of print. Who ever told this lady she knew how to write. She ignores the facts and makes up her own fictional representation and tries to pass it off as the truth. Avoid this one and anything else this non-writer comes up with.