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Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POWs in Vietnam Paperback – September 26, 1991
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- Print length512 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPlume
- Publication dateSeptember 26, 1991
- Dimensions5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100452266718
- ISBN-13978-0452266711
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Product details
- Publisher : Plume; Reissue edition (September 26, 1991)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 512 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0452266718
- ISBN-13 : 978-0452266711
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,547,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #39,425 in Asian History (Books)
- #110,745 in Military History (Books)
- #164,295 in Politics & Government (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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The book is really about a 60 minutes producer's adventure to prepare a story about the Vietnam MIA issue. The story goes over a period of years. You are with her as these mysterious people arise from the shadows to explain things. Through this you learn about the issue. The author presents some interesting theories on why the MIAs remained missing. She waves a tale that supports the story that a conspiracy at the highest levels of government intelligence agencies existed to keep them missing. Intelligence agencies were running a secret war against the communists. To finance this war the CIA was peddling drugs world wide. MIAs coming back would blow the lid off of that whole scheme.
Her tales as told through these witnesses were wild to say the least. She talks about failed or canceled raids to save POWs, She talks about North Vietnam delivering a ransom demand for the POWs. A lot of the book focuses around the return of PFC Garwood. The author presents PFC Garwood as a victim and not what the official record says. She quotes a witness about a tale that some prisoners were secretly sent home in 1987. Another witness talks about how the NVA were capturing other American's and moving them north to hold for ransom later. Supposedly the government knew about Garwood in detail before he came home. The book explains why Perot doesn't like the Bushes. Her last chapter is a real grabber. She describes herself meeting a mysterious person in North Vietnam who looked like a POW.
After reading the book you will be convinced of the belief that the government did leave the POWs behind. However her evidence is from these mysterious gentlemen. The tales are sound. However there isn't much hard evidence, just a few letters in the back. Spies make there living by lying. I think people might consider that when you read this. Overall there surely is a lot of smoke around this issue. Where there is smoke there must be fire. The mere thought that we on purpose left people behind is very sad. Anyone who thinks government is our savior needs to remember that. The government that might left those people behind for a live of hell can do anything to any of us.
There is a 15-page Overview, as a prelude to Chapter 1.
The Book’s subtitle sets the tone for the entire book, so be ready for the authors to start setting the stage and drilling down into both the annotated information as well as that which is anecdotal. As the book is being read, the subtitle starts to pop. In contrast, Ken Burns’ 2017 multi-episode documentary, “The Vietnam War”, at one point, brought up what this book’s subtitle avers…but almost as an afterthought.
The Index of the book includes names of famous people, reading like a ‘Who’s Who?’ in history, civics, military, government, and diplomacy at the crux of an important time period in US and foreign SE Asian interactions. Those of us who came of age during the Vietnam War years know these names. We were on college campuses getting degrees, rubbing shoulders with both ROTC and GI Bill vets, witnessing sit-ins, engaging in late-night discussions, and losing friends who never came back from this war (who either died or may still be alive). We also saw major campus demonstrations and learned about all ‘sides’ of the war by talking with fellow students, learning what they believed, and why.
My first copy of this book was smaller and in paperback. I started dog-earring and marking pages from page 142 onward. This book is one of which I buy multiple copies and give to friends, so that we can discuss what it says. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone’s opinion matters.
Several years ago, we were rubbing shoulders with people at a luncheon. When the husband, a Vet, said that he was born on a base abroad and his father flew missions in Vietnam, I recommended that he read this book. He emailed to tell me that the book had credibility because some of his dad’s fellow-pilot friends were mentioned in the book. He said that he would write to them to learn more about their relationships to his father, what missions they flew, and how they handled the ‘aftermath’ of flying these missions.
Another friend more recently said that he was there, and like the Ken Burns documentary, what the men saw and did there didn’t jibe with what was being said and authorized here. It was like a big disconnect.
In many ways, what the authors aver in this book has some carry-over into what our country is involved with now. Could any of this still be happening? How? Why? For what purpose?
Buy the book, read it, share it, discuss it, and talk to people who were involved in this war.
Great research in this book that leads the reader into wanting to learn more to find out what may have been done, or not done, since its the time of this writing.






