Customer Reviews

Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History

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I was yanked out of the field in Vietnam to come home on emergency leave because Dad had a heart attack. I had on khaki uniform, jump boots and a Green Beret. A civilian drinking coffee beside me asked me where I was serving. When I replied "Vietnam" he turned and stared. "You guys are all screwed up," he said. Then he picked up his coffee and moved down the counter. He continued to shoot curious glances at me. Waiting for a flight I found that people would not make eye contact and kept their distance. What is going on here? I wondered, because I had been overseas for almost three years by that time.
In his amazing book, Stolen Valor, BG Burkett and co-author Glenn Whitley tell the story of what happened to those who served and, sadly, what continues to happen. Page after page, Burkett takes on every one of the myths, the exaggerations, the pretenders, the bogus vets and the entire cultural stereotype that has become the Vietnam Veteran.
I put off reading Stolen Valor for awhile because I thought that there would only be a story or two of a pretender in it. What a shock, even for someone who thought he was in the know, to see the prodigous work that Burkett and Whitley have amassed. Now I wish that I had read it immediately on release. I am certain that over the years I will refer back to it frequently. It is in the "keeper" section of my bookshelf.
One of the most useful results of this amazingly effective book is that for those who might have felt guilty about supporting our Vietnam veterans you also can hold your heads high knowing full well that you are not supporting the contrived 'baby killing, drug besotted, anti-social bum' that Hollywood and the anti-war left presented to you.
As Burkett correctly notes, we are your children, parents, cousins and fellow countrymen. We are just like you, just like the amazing American service men and women who preceeded us and who sacrifice for us now. Thanks to BG Burkett for giving us back the honor that was so casually and reprehensibly besmirched by those who didn't have the courage to serve themselves.
If you want to start your Vietnam library start with this book. If you are a vet, know a vet and especially if you unwittingly bought into the negative stereotypes about us, you must read this book. Tell everyone about it. Given time the truth will out.

Several recent reviews have cast serious aspersions on Burkett's research and honor. That is ironic, given that "Stolen Valor" was given the Colby Award for Outstanding Military Book and that Burkett himself was presented with the U.S. Army's highest civilian award, the Distinguished Civilian Service Award, by former President George H.W. Bush on December 1, 2003. Such recognition is hardly indicative of poor scholarship!

The review by Shelby Stanton is particularly galling, since he knows that Burkett "has the goods" on him and is able to document where he was and what he did during Viet Nam (it was not the stuff of which movies are made!). I have not seen any evidence that Stanton, a lawyer, has brought suit against Burkett for libel. What Burkett said about Stanton in "Stolen Valor" is a matter of record. If I were Stanton, I would withdraw myself from public view, given how he appropriated reams of classified military documents and stored them in an unsecure location for several years. Only the fact that the documents were declassified AFTER Stanton purloined them kept him out of serious difficulty.

I would recommend to anyone interested in the Stanton case that they should read pages 435-443 of "Stolen Valor." Stanton stands condemned by his own words as much as by Burkett's.

Regarding reviewer Latham's comments about PTSD and the VA, a recent blind study conducted on 100 randomly selected records of "totally-disabled" Viet Nam vets reveals an interesting statistic--60% of those individuals were never in combat at all, and a significant number of them were never in Viet Nam. The Department of Veterans Affairs is sitting on a scandal of monumental proportions, a scandal that should earn an enterprising reporter a Pulitzer Prize, such are its ramifications.

Burkett is my hero, as he is for thousands of other Viet Nam veterans and lovers of honesty. "Stolen Valor" should be read by anyone with a desire to know how the courage of true heroes is besmirched every time some "wannabe" lies about what he did in the war.

As a retired Navy SEAL officer who has spent countless hours exposing phony SEALs, I am indebted to Burkett for what he does to keep the phonies in the spotlight.

Keep it up, my friend!

Every journalist, editor, and TV producer should read Stolen Valor. Hopefully that would keep them from interviewing and featuring the scruffy looking liars, fakers, and "wannabees" in camouflage fatigues covered with patches, pins, and unearned medals when they want to interview a Vietnam veteran.

Too many journalists pass on to their readers--and preserve for posterity--whatever lies they are told about secret missions behind enemy lines, American atrocities, amazing Rambo-type combat, and our nation's highest awards for valor which somehow were never recorded in the faker's official records. Are these journalists just naive or are they intentionally supporting an anti-Vietnam War, anti-military, and anti-American agenda?

Burkett and Whitley demonstrate how those opposed to the war (and the military and the government) are using the myth of vast numbers of Vietnam veterans being so psychologically scarred by the war that they are dysfunctional and the parallel myth of widespread American atrocities in Vietnam to validate their own political agendas.

The leaders of the American Legion, VFW, and other mainstream veterans' organizations would also do well to read this book. Many of them have been hoodwinked by fakers who gain positions of leadership and influence within veteran's organizations and become public spokesmen based on their impressive--but false--war records.

The machine copies of DD214 forms used by individuals to join veterans' organizations, obtain VA care, and convince skeptics cannot be accepted as valid proof of service because they can be forged with copy machines. Burkett and Whitley tell us the way to unmask the liars and frauds is to use a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a copy of their DD214 directly from the National Records Center in St. Louis, MO.

I've encountered some of these phonies myself and my theory is that the longer and dirtier their hair and beards are, the more they look like street people, the more medals, badges, patches, pins, and other gewgaws they are wearing, the more likely they are to be impostors.

It's not difficult for a real veteran to see the inconsistencies in their claims but journalists and the public who have never served are easily fooled into believing these bums are typical of Vietnam vets. That's why "Stolen Valor" is an appropriate title for this book. They are besmirching the reputation of all of us who served honorably and are proud of it.

This is a real stand up and cheer book for Vets and their friends and families. A two-tour Army Nurse friend recommended it the last time I sent her an email ranting about Wannabees and fakes, and I am most grateful for the suggestion. Thanks, Chris.

At a time when Vietnam Vets are finally beginning to receive something like the respect and recognition that they always deserved, this is the time to wage war on those who would cash in by pretending to have served.

I am particularly angry with the fakes who have actually managed to receive State help as a result of their false claims. One of my American Red Cross Donut Dollie friends has suffered from PTSD ever since her tour with the 101st Airborne, yet because the ARC-DD girls were technically civilians, they are not entitled to Veteran status.

Yet unlike the fakes and liars who try to sponge off the system, the DDs Hueyed around VN, supporting the troops in Fire Support Bases and Landing Zones, which were not the safest places on Earth. Another DD friend, who was with the 1st Infantry, once had such a narrow escape from the VC, that she could feel the door gunner's M-60 casings hitting her legs as she scrambled into the Huey.

It is quite chilling to read the level of faking that actually goes on and has been documented. Everything from exaggerating medal earnings and combat records to out and out faking being a Vietnam Vet - in some cases, by draft dodgers, which is perhaps the ultimate insult. From coward to hero with one big lie.

We have all met people whose stories don't quite gell - in my own case, I know one guy who is about two years too young to have seen service in Vietnam, and another who was supposedly on one of the hospital ships - about a year after the last one, the Sanctuary, went off station in 1971 (the Repose left in 1970). Uh huh.

Some guys even reckoned to have toured in 1975 - quite a feat, considering the US Forces left in April 1973, after a frantic year of troop withdrawals in which the medical services went down to 2 Evac. Hospitals - the 95th and the 71st (after the 24th Evac. left in October 1972) and the US Army Hospital in Saigon. Scary time.

Most real Vets can quote their unit down to the Company and platoon level in a flash. Rarely do real Vets mumble something vague about being 'Infantry'. If you'd been with the 25th or the 9th for example, you'd be proud of it, and say so.

Yes, the Press have been very gullible in taking a lot of fakes and their lies at face value. Way back in John Kerry's protest days, there was supposedly a demo by 1,000 Vets, many of whom are now thought to have been Left Wing protesters - liars and fakes.

Stolen Valor goes a long way towards raising awareness about these worms and in doing so, the authors are defending the honor of the true Vets. The courageous American men and women who EARNED the right to be called Vietnam Vets.

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!

As a Vietnam veteran who lost one leg along with the loss of use of the other leg and right arm, I must say that Stolen Valor is a courageous, insightful book that should be required reading for every VA doctor and administrator in this country. I for one am sick and tired of hearing about another so-called "stressed out" Nam vet going beserk, when in fact the closest he ever got to Vietnam was when he washed the general's wife's car while stationed in Hawaii.

Just because someone claims to have fought in Vietnam does not make it a fact. And how does someone who swabbed the deck of an aircraft carrier as it sailed 20 miles off the coast of Vietnam claim he's now suffering from PTSD? Or the loser who cleaned latrines in the safety of Da Nang--while sleeping in air conditioned rooms and eating sumptuous meals and never hearing the sound of a rifle fired in anger--come home with an armload of combat medals, including two or three Purple Hearts?

I for one am sick of it. If everyone who said they served in Vietnam during the war actually did, that small peninsula would have sunk into the South China Sea decades ago. These leeches MUST be weeded out, and this book is a good start. Are their lives so shallow they must steal what other men have earned and shed their blood for? Get a life, for God's sake. And as for the VA...open your eyes! I will close by posing a question for the VA: Has even one person who receives compensation for PTSD ever actually recovered? I doubt it. Why climb off the "gravy train." This charade is a slap in the face to every Vietnam veteran who was legitimately disabled fighting for his country.

Far from being tedious, I couldn't put this book down when it first came out. The author's thesis reflected my own experience growing up in the '60's and 70's (1974 HS grad), knowing many vets, including relatives and friends, who did not resemble the phony "bush vet" stereotype emerging in TV and film. I served in the Marine Corps 1981-84 after college as a Lt. in the infantry, and again, among the many vets I served with, I knew no one with the "whacked out vet" persona.
I became a police officer in 1985, and in the ensuing 20 plus years I have encountered scores of phony "traumatized" vets among the alcoholics, drug addicts and petty criminals living by choice at the margins of society. The symptoms are as noted: secret special forces ops, classified service records, an inability to respond intelligibly to questions about unit, MOS, places of service in-country, sob-inducing stories of atrocities committed, etc. As reviewers have noted, one's unit & MOS are things that are pretty ingrained(I spent the bulk of my tour with Bravo Co., 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, attached to 1st Marines, 1st Mar Div, FMF Pac at Camp Pendleton... MOS: 0302, Infantry Ofc. Total decorations: one Sea Service Deployment Ribbon). I don't know how many times I had to explain to a self decribed Viet vet what the acronym MOS meant, and then the reply would be generic or nonsensical. I have always been explicit that I never saw combat (in fact, I was on Okinawa on a West Pac deployment when Grenada and the bombing of the barracks in Beirut occured), believing that to claim that experience would be a dishonorable lie,and a slap in the face to those who did. This, I always felt compelled to dissect the lies of these phony vets, so at least they would understand there was at least one person they hadn't conned. And perhaps in the process, I wanted in some way to speak up for the genuine Vietnam veterans.

It's telling that this is one of the books that has received hundreds of reviews, indicating it has struck a significant nerve. The syndrome it describes is, I believe, just another manifestation of a narcissistic culture of celebrity victimhood that encourages identification with a false self, an inflated ego image, rather than encourage the authentic suffering entailed by a search for one's true self and authentic identity. These phony "whacked out" vets are simply creating their own version of the kind of manipulative celebrity persona which has been increasingly and pervasively glorified in our culture.

I have to comment briefly on the negative reviews I read; I also have the sense that some people seemingly read a different book. For one, the author went out of his way to describe himself as a rear echelon pogue, complete with photo in clean starched utilities during his Vietnam tour.
Moreover, I'm pretty independent politically (voted for Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Kerry)& I didn't get the powerful conservative OR liberal bias that some reviewers have criticized.
At the same time I understand the psychological and emotional consequnces of traumatic experiences,and I don't suggest that disorders like PTSD don't exist, nor do I beleive the author is doing so.(I'm currently working on my thsis for a Master's in Counseling Psychology).

In sum, this book is a great public service, and I congratulate the authors for their courage and perseverance in bringing it forth.

The inspirational stories of individual heroism alone make the book worth it.

Vietnam is history to me. I was five years old when Saigon fell and have no recollection of the event. But I do remember Memorial Day parades. I was one of many excited children following the flag bearing columns of "old men" as they marched through the streets toward the city's local war memorial. In retrospect, there was a stark contrast between these solemn men and their entourage of giddy children. I would feel horrible today for our naïve excitement over a parade if I didn't believe that our happiness served as a reminder to these men of the reason for their sacrifice. I don't remember anyone young enough to have been in Vietnam marching in any of these parades.

My generation owes it to those who fought in Vietnam to read this book and learn the truth about the myths that disparage the millions who served. You will be shocked at the number of factually wrong things that major media outlets have repeated for decades despite the truth being readily available. No American will be able to read a newspaper or watch a news broadcast the same way after reading this book.

This is one of the top 3 books on understanding Vietnam and its aftermath. Many, all for their own selfish purposes, have impugned the character of American's Vietnam fighting men. The 60's radical left deliberately distorted the character of America's Vietnam fighting men for political purposes. Their distortions continue to this day. Many in the news media deliberately distorted it for political purposes and money, and remain unrepentant to this day. The government deliberately distorted it to protect the concomitant stupidity of many of its military and political leaders, like Johnson, McNamara, Harkin, Taylor, and Westmoreland. But no distortions did more damage to the true character of the honest, brave, and patriotic American's who stood up and were counted by serving honorably in Vietnam than those perpetuated by the pretenders. Burkett and Whitley expose the wannabe's who lied about their service, their valor, their missions and their importance, and thus set the record straight. The so-called Vietnam generation was not about college protestors and Woodstock. It was about honor, serving your country, sacrificing a few years of your life for the greater good, and fulfilling your patriotic duty. It is much more difficult to carry the flag in harm's way than it is to put a flag decal in your car window. The pretenders and their lies painted all Vietnam Veterans in false colors. Thanks to Burkett/Whitley, the lies are now out in the open. Unfortunately, the pretenders are still active and loud. On November 10, 2002, the Marine Corps birthday and day before Veterans Day, the FBI and Houston Police Department arrested a pretender for wearing unauthorized medals. This man was an executive board member of an elite Marine Corps unit organization with many active members who served in Vietnam. The message is clear: do not accept tales as facts, DD214's as accurate, or leftist and media characterizations as history. Read Stolen Valor and Neal Sheehan's Bright Shining Lie, and either get a signed release to obtain unaltered service records, or send for records via the Freedom of Information Act for anyone claiming to be a Vietnam Veteran. Stolen valor is valor that still exists, it's just missing. The truth can restore it to its proper place. Reading this book is a great place to start the restoration. Thank you to Burkett & Whitley...

This book should be required reading, particularly by those in the media, for anyone who researches or reports on the Vietnam War.

The truth is that the VAST majority of us went into the service, did our jobs, came home and got on with our lives!!!

This book exposes the frauds and those who use them to further their own agendas.

Burkett and Whitley prove their point with real veterans and real statistics.