The War Behind Me

Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth about U.S. War Crimes

Contributors

By Deborah Nelson

On Sale
Oct 28, 2008
Page Count
304 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780786726783

In 2005, Deborah Nelson joined forces with military historian Nick Turse to investigate an extraordinary archive: the largest compilation of records on Vietnam-era war crimes ever to surface. The declassified Army papers were erroneously released and have since been pulled from public circulation. Few civilians have seen the documents.

The files contain reports of more than 300 confirmed atrocities, and 500 other cases the Army either couldn’t’t prove or didn’t’t investigate. The archive has letters of complaint to generals and congressmen, as well as reports of Army interviews with hundreds of men who served. Far from being limited to a few bad actors or rogue units, atrocities occurred in every Army division that saw combat in Vietnam. Torture of detainees was routine; so was the random killing of farmers in fields and women and children in villages. Punishment for these acts was either nonexistent or absurdly light. In most cases, no one was prosecuted at all.

In The War Behind Me Deborah Nelson goes beyond the documents and talks with many of those who were involved, both accusers and accused, to uncover their stories and learn how they deal with one of the most awful secrets of the Vietnam War.

Formats and Prices

Price

$15.99

Price

$20.99 CAD

Format

ebook

Format:

ebook $15.99 $20.99 CAD

Deborah Nelson

About the Author

Deborah Nelson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and professor at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. She previously worked at the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Seattle Times, and Chicago Sun-Times and currently writes for Reuters. She lives in Maryland.

Learn more about this author