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 describes how these captives drew upon their national heritage to compose a collective history 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 centre 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 jailors, and America's Vietnam legacy.
Reviews
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 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780195086805
Author Craig Howes
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 444g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 157mm * 21mm