Prisoners of Hope:: Exploiting the POW/MIA Myth in America (Hardcover)

by Susan Katz Keating (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The POW/MIA "industry," according to the author, has long nurtured a powerful myth that Americans listed as missing in action since the Vietnam War are still alive and being held captive. One supposedly supporting argument is the apparent precedent that the Vietnamese held French POWs long after the first Indochina war ended in 1954. Keating points out that the two situations are not comparable and that U.S. prisoners would not be likely to have survived the torture and starvation the Vietnamese traditionally inflicted on POWs. She describes how the POW/MIA myth has been encouraged by profiteers, do-gooders and self-appointed commandos such as James "Bo" Gritz, whose private-sector forays into Southeast Asia have fanned the hopes of MIA families for years, along with bogus reports of "live sightings." Keating reviews the cycle of government investigations that have failed to turn up solid evidence, and supports the Senate's Kerry Committee conclusion that the U.S. did not knowingly abandon any troops in Southeast Asia and that there has been no government conspiracy of concealment. This is a first-class investigative report that may make a difference. Keating is a reporter for the Washington Times. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
A compelling book dealing with the question of MIAs in Vietnam. As a journalist Keating has worked for Soldier of Fortune magazine and the conservative Washington Times. Nonetheless, in the present volume, she uses her skills as an investigative reporter to attack the notion that American POWs and MIAs were left behind in Indochina. A vocal lobby clamors for a full accounting of all MIAs, numbered by the federal government at around 1,200. Reported sightings add fuel to the belief that American soldiers were held hostage by the Vietnamese and abandoned by a government eager to put the war behind it. After all, the logic goes, hadn't it happened to the French in the 1950s? The truth, however, according to Keating, is that the US experience is not that of the French: No American POWs remain. And aside from a few known defectors, all the MIAs are dead. Citing the 80,000 missing from WW II, Keating points out that MIAs are part of the nature of modern warfare, in which the recovery or identification of remains is often impossible. In the case of the Vietnam POWs, however, the military had reduced the number of true ``missing'' to under 100 before a political hue and cry forced them to inflate the MIA list with the names of many men known to be dead but whose bodies were not found. Sightings of live POWs are hoaxes, says Keating, designed to fuel a political machine or to extort money from relatives on the slim hope that the men are alive. She slams, in particular, mercenaries like Bull Simons and Bo Gritz, who plan raids into Indochina (most of which never occur) in search of the lost. The real conspiracy, writes Keating, is not committed by a government bent on hiding a scandal but by those who prey on the hopes and fears of the ones truly left behind--the families of the dead. Highly persuasive. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (November 8, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679430164
• ISBN-13: 978-0679430162
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,779,053 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid and important research for every American, February 14, 1999

By A Customer

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.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Prisoners" is a sensible, but sad, book on the MIA issue., January 16, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Bristol, TN) - See all my reviews

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.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great primer on Vietnam, October 28, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Prisoners of Hope: Exploiting the Pow/Mia Myth in America (Hardcover)

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!