Unsure whether they would be greeted as traitors or heroes, POWs returning from Vietnam responded by holding tight to their chosen motto, "Return with Honor." "We're giving the American people what they want and badly need--heroes," said a Vietnam jungle POW. "I feel it's our responsibility, our duty to help them where possible shed the idea this war was a waste, useless, as unpopular as it may have been." In the first book to explore the entire range of memoirs, biographies, and group histories published since America's Vietnam POWs returned home, Craig Howes explores the development of a collective history. He describes how these captives drew upon their national heritage to compose a unified, common story while still in prison, and how individual POWs have responded to this Official Story. Examining what racial, cultural, and political assumptions support this shared Official Story, Howes places the POWs' experiences squarely in the center of American history, and within those larger clashes of opinion and belief which characterized the nation's response to the Vietnam War. The result is an engrossing study of what these captivity narratives can tell us about the POWs, their captors, and America's Vietnam legacy.
Voices of the Vietnam POWs : Witnesses to Their Fight
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"In fact or fiction, the argument--from many of the senior POWs and from some cultural commentators--that the prisoners were the war's only true 'heroes' is one of real cultural and historical importance, for it will help determine in part what the overall 'text' of the Vietnam War is, how the overall event is connected and harmonized within older, larger American mythic narratives."--Thomas Myers, author of Walking Point
"[A] fascinating account....A penetrating account of the creation of memory and the uses of collective history."--Canadian Military History
About the Author
Craig Howes is at University of Hawaii at Manoa.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb book on the Vietnam POWs.,
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This review is from: Voices of the Vietnam POWs: Witnesses to Their Fight (Paperback)
Absolutely excellent book. I read it in just 2 sittings. It combines the best of many books in a concise and enlightening way.
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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camp authority, prophet returns, survival school, fink release program, new shootdowns, camp radio, camp policy, command chain, camp officials Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
North Vietnamese, Jim Stockdale, Jeremiah Denton, Charlie Plumb, Code of Conduct, United States, Robinson Risner, Jay Jensen, Richard Stratton, Air Force, Korean War, Larry Chesley, Lance Sijan, World War, Howard Rutledge, Peace Committee, Operation Homecoming, John Dramesi, Robert Garwood, Jim Mulligan, Other Sides, The Story, Hanoi Hilton, Everett Alvarez, Vietnam War Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
camp authority, prophet returns, survival school, fink release program, new shootdowns, camp radio, camp policy, command chain, camp officials Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
North Vietnamese, Jim Stockdale, Jeremiah Denton, Charlie Plumb, Code of Conduct, United States, Robinson Risner, Jay Jensen, Richard Stratton, Air Force, Korean War, Larry Chesley, Lance Sijan, World War, Howard Rutledge, Peace Committee, Operation Homecoming, John Dramesi, Robert Garwood, Jim Mulligan, Other Sides, The Story, Hanoi Hilton, Everett Alvarez, Vietnam War Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
5
books
cite this book:
- We Were Each Other's Prisoners: An Oral History Of World War II American And German Prisoners Of War by Lewis H. Carlson in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Soldier Talk: The Vietnam War in Oral Narrative by Paul Budra on page 114
- Tempered Steel: The Three Wars of Triple Air Force Cross Winner Jim Kasler by Perry D. Luckett in Back Matter
- The Wars We Took to Vietnam: Cultural Conflict and Storytelling by Milton J. Bates in Back Matter
- ˇRaza Sí! ˇGuerra No!: Chicano Protest and Patriotism during the Viet Nam War Era by Lorena Oropeza on page 254
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