Stolen Valor
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Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History is a self-published book by B.G. Burkett & Glenna Whitley which is critical of what it claims are misinterpretations and distortions of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. It focuses on the Winter Soldier Investigation, and is critical of prominent VVAW spokesman John Kerry.
It is typically cited by supporters of America's role in Vietnam as a definitive and credible document which contradicts claims of war crimes and other issues related to the Vietnam War and America's conduct. Opponents of America's role in Vietnam typically dismiss it as partisan apologism or revisionism written to support a premise, and entirely dependent upon official records which would naturally not contain sensitive information.
[edit] Reviews
Mackubin Thomas Owens, an adjunct fellow at the Ashbrook Center and a professor of strategy and force planning at the Naval War College in Newport and a Marine infantry veteran of Vietnam, wrote:
- Mr. Burkett did something that any reporter worth his or her salt could have done: he used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to check the actual records of the "image makers" used by reporters to flesh out their stories on homelessness, Agent Orange, suicide, drug abuse, criminality, or alcoholism. What he found was astounding. More often than not, the show case "veteran" who cried on camera about his dead buddies, about committing or witnessing atrocities, or about some heroic action in combat that led him to the current dead end in his life, was an impostor.
- Indeed, Mr. Burkett discovered that over the last decade, some 1,700 individuals, including some of the most prominent examples of the Vietnam veteran as dysfunctional loser, had fabricated their war stories. Many had never even been in the service. Many, like Joe Yandle, had been, but had never been in Vietnam. [1]
A VVAW review by Dave Curry has a much different view:
- B.G. Burkett's stated goal is to steal back the valor of the Vietnam veterans who really served in Vietnam. ...In order to accomplish his goal, Burkett and his coauthor set out to steal the legacy of being Vietnam veterans from all Vietnam veterans who opposed the Vietnam War and all Vietnam veterans who suffer or have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, homelessness, suicide, service-connected substance abuse problems, or health problems related to Agent Orange.
- Burkett does not claim to be a social scientist, nor should he be mistaken for one. His "research" might be passed off for poor journalism, but no more. His central research technique is leafing through the military records of other veterans that are made available through the federal Freedom of Information Act. There are a number of problems with this approach — chief among them the notorious inaccuracy and incompleteness of military records. For Burkett, if there's no military record available through Freedom of Information, there's no veteran. There is no evidence that Burkett ever attempts to expand his research by soliciting interview information from the victims of his attacks. He does cite opinions of "successful" veterans and authors who agree with his particular prejudices, but even that is done selectively.[2]
