Kiss the Boys Goodbye

How the United States Betrayed Its Own POWs in Vietnam

Monika Jensen-Stevenson, William Stevenson

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781629144498
• eBook ISBN:
  9781632200150
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

The classic account of the abandonment of American POWs in Vietnam by the US government. For many Americans, the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan bring back painful memories of one issue in particular: American policy on the rescue of and negotiation for American prisoners. One current American POW of the Taliban, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, stands as their symbol. Thousands of Vietnam veteran POW activists worry that Bergdahl will suffer the fate of so many of their POW/MIA comrades—abandonment once the US leaves that theater of war. Kiss the Boys Goodbye convincingly shows that a legacy of shame remains from America's ill-fated involvement in Vietnam. Until US government policy on POW/MIAs changes, it remains one of the most crucial issues for any American soldier who fights for home and country, particularly when we are engaged with an enemy that doesn't adhere to the international standards for the treatment of prisoners—or any American hostage—as the graphic video of Daniel Pearl's decapitation on various Jihad websites bears out.In this explosive book, Monika Jensen-Stevenson and William Stevenson provide startling evidence that American troops were left in captivity in Indochina, victims of their government's abuse of secrecy and power. The book not only delves into the world of official obstruction, missing files, censored testimony, and the pressures brought to bear on witnesses ready to tell the truth, but also reveals the trauma on patriotic families torn apart by a policy that, at first, seemed unbelievable to them.First published in 1990, Kiss the Boys Goodbye has become a classic on the subject. This new edition features an afterword, which fills in the news on the latest verifiable scandal produced by the Senate Select Committee on POWs.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Map of Vietnam and Southeast Asia
• Overview: The Story
• Chapter 1: Traitor
• Chapter 2: “Roadblocks” in the Name of National Security
• Chapter 3: Taking on the Government
• Chapter 4: The White House Colonel
• Chapter 5: The Government Position
• Chapter 6: Betrayal
• Chapter 7: The Freelance Operative
• Chapter 8: There but for the Grace of God. . .
• Chapter 9: Lies in Laos
• Chapter 10: Telling Dirty Secrets
• Chapter 11: Complications and Conspiracies
• Chapter 12: Prisoners and Politics
• Chapter 13: Silencing the Critics
• Chapter 14: The Radical, the Billionaire, and the Green Beret
• Chapter 15: The Vanishing Cabbie
• Chapter 16: The Drug Lord
• Chapter 17: Buried Lists
• Chapter 18: The Business of Covert Ops
• Chapter 19: The Sleaze Factor
• Chapter 20: Getting “Bo”
• Chapter 21: Scott Barnes Tells His Story
• Chapter 22: The Party Line (or Else)
• Chapter 23: Perot Makes a Move
• Chapter 24: Garwood Debriefed
• Chapter 25: Vietnam Revisited
• Chapter 26: What the Government Always Knew
• Chapter 27: A Matter of Ethics
• Chapter 28: The Secret War
• Postscript
• Afterword
• Appendix 1: Open Letter from Robert Garwood to the House Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs
• Appendix 2: Letter from Ronald Reagan to Mrs. Anthony Drexel Duke
• Appendix 3: Extracts from an Affidavit by Jerry Mooney
• Appendix 4: Affidavit of Clarence Edward Johnson
• Glossary
• Note to Readers
• Notes
• Bibliography