An excruciating oral history of the life of the longest-held
American prison of the Vietnam War, from "Military Update
"columnist Philpott. Thompson was held prisoner in Vietnam from
1964 until 1973. Although his experiences during those nine years
make horrifying reading, it must be said that they do not add up to
a terribly interesting biography-for, as the author makes
abundantly clear, Thompson was not a very appealing (or even
decent) character. He was a brute who regularly beat his wife and
was rarely sober before he was shipped to Vietnam with his Special
Forces unit. His life is pieced together in a mosaic of interviews,
given by some 80 people, that describes both the terrible ordeal
Thompson suffered as a POW and the unpleasant life led by his
family back home. Shortly after the plane he was flying went down
and he was reported missing, his wife moved in with another man.
Thompson was psychologically and physically tortured for years,
starved and beaten: "I was put into a horizontal cage maybe two
feet wide, two feet high, and five feet long. There I was kept for
four months, chained hand and feet." Ultimately, he was forced to
read one of the infamous propaganda statements that were broadcast
by North Vietnam, in which he declared the impropriety of American
involvement in Vietnam-and his family became military outcasts as a
result. Although he managed to survive his imprisonment, Thompson
returned home to a family shattered by his experience, one that
would never reunite-indeed, one that has simply disintegrated. The
entire story is grim, allegorically opaque, and too long by half.
Fate and politics dealt Thompson a bad hand, and he ought to have
been left in peace-biographically as well. (16 pp. photos, not
seen) (Kirkus Reviews)
He was Born in New Jersey in 1933 and only dreamed of being a
military man. Marrying shortly after high school, he joined the
army in 1956 and was dispatched to Vietnam in 1963 when America
still seemed innocent. Jim Thompson would have led a perfectly
ordinary, undistinguished life had he not been captured four months
later, becoming the first American prisoner in Vietnam and,
ultimately, the longest-held prisoner of war in American history.
Forgotten Soldier is Thompson's epic story, a remarkable
reconstruction of one man's life and a searing account that
questions who is a real American hero. Examining the lives of
Thompson's family on the home front, as well as his brutal
treatment and five escape attempts in Vietnam, military journalist
Tom Philpott weaves an extraordinary tale, showing how the American
government intentionally suppressed Thompson's story.
General
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