Honor Bound; American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973
Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1999. Third Printing [stated]. Hardcover. xiii, [3], 704 pages. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrations. Footnotes. Appendices. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. Slight wear to dust jacket. Inscribed by Ted Kiley (the co-author); Inscription reads "For Julie--I hope you will find this amazing saga as moving to read as I did to write. Thank you for your interest in our former POWs. I hope we have done justice to their story. Most cordially, Ted Kiley, Air Force Academy, December 2002". This book combines rigorous scholarly analysis with a moving narrative to record in detail the triumphs and tragedies of the several hundred servicemen and civilians who fought their own special war in prison camps in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Stuart I. Rochester (November 24, 1945 – July 29, 2009) was the chief historian for the United States Office of the Secretary of Defense and author and co-author of several books, including this notable account on American prisoners of war in Southeast Asia. Rochester was an authority on the comparative national defense policies of post-WW II presidential administrations. Co-author Frederick Kiley, a USAF veteran of the Vietnam War with a Ph.D. (University of Denver), taught for years at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. “A monumental achievement, not only in its depth and breadth of treatment but in its honesty and accuracy.” —Vice Adm. James Bond Stockdale. This work was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Honor Bound, a collaborative effort researched and written over the course of more than a decade by historian Stuart Rochester and Air Force Academy professor and POW specialist Frederick Kiley, combines rigorous scholarly analysis with a moving narrative to record in unprecedented detail the triumphs and tragedies of the several hundred servicemen (and civilians) who fought their own special war in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia between 1961 and 1973. The authors address a gamut of subjects from the physical ordeal of torture and deprivation that required clarification of the Code of Conduct to the sometimes more onerous psychological challenges of indoctrination, adjustments to new routines and relationships, and mere coping and passing time under the most monotonous, inhospitable conditions. The volume weaves a winding trail through scores of prison camps, from large concrete compounds in the North to isolated jungle stockades in the South to mountain caves in Laos, while tracing political developments in Hanoi and Washington and the evolution of the “psywar” that placed the prisoners at the center of the conflict even as they were removed from the battlefield. From courageous resistance and ingenious methods of organization and communication to failed escapes and questionable conduct —“warts and all”— Honor Bound examines in depth the longest and perhaps most remarkable prisoner-of-war captivity in U.S. history. From the Publisher: The authors trace the capture and movement of U.S. servicemen and civilians through jungles and jails from the Mekong Delta to Hanoi and west and north into Cambodia, Laos, and China. They cover the rationed food, cramped and rat-infested cells, bricked windows, and camps laced by barbed wire that were the daily lot of American POWs. They address a wide range of subjects from the physical ordeal of torture to the psychological challenges of indoctrination, exploitation for propaganda purposes, and the mere passing of time under the most adverse circumstances. In examining the lives of the prisoners in captivity, the book presents a vivid, sensitive, sometimes excruciating, and even humorous account of how men sought to cope with the physical and psychological torment of imprisonment under wretched and shameful conditions. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Escape, Everett Alvarez, Indochina, Jeremiah Denton, John McCain, Vietnam War, POW's, Laos, Geneva Convention, Hanoi Hilton, Torture, Nick Rowe, Antiwar Movement, Code of Conduct, Robert Garwood, Lawrence Guarino, Hoa lo, Interrogation, Douglas Hagda
ISBN: 1557506949
[Book #80179]
Price: $150.00