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Author | B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley |
---|---|
Cover artist | Mark McGarry |
Country | U.S. |
Publisher | Verity Press |
Publication date | 1998 |
Media type | Hardcover Paperback |
Pages | 692 pages |
ISBN | 1-56530-284-2 |
OCLC | 39458833 |
959.704/3373/0922 21 | |
LC Class | DS558 .B85 1998 |
Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History (1998) is a self-published book by B. G. Burkett, a Vietnam veteran, and Glenna Whitley, an investigative journalist. It reveals that numerous people claiming to have been mentally injured by serving in the Vietnam War never served there. In addition, it reveals persons who were mistakenly given military awards. It won the Colby Award for military writers in 2000.
Stolen Valor is in 4 parts, with appendices.
Part I, "The Image", begins with a chapter about author B.G. Burkett's time in the U.S. Army. The next four chapters detail the author's argument that the image of the Vietnam veteran was tarnished by a combination of media coverage, veteran imposters, U.S. citizens' anger against the draft, and a perception of the veteran as a victim.
Part II, "The Trauma of War", looks into the diagnoses of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Vietnam veterans, and how it has been treated by the Veterans' Administration. It also explores accusations against Vietnam veterans of war atrocities. The authors explore the effects of Vietnam War veteran imposters on the image of the Vietnam veteran. They contend that the news media inadequately investigated some persons claiming to be veterans and attributing such problems as homelessness to the aftermath of the war.
Part III, "Stolen Valor", describes individuals wearing Vietnam War medals, ribbons and badges although they had not earned them. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the authors retrieved records of people who claimed they served in Vietnam and received awards. The book denounces those whose records do not match their claims; examples include William Northrop and Frank Dux. The authors also attempt to counter claims that African-American soldiers were overly represented among the war's casualties.
Part IV, "Victims and Heroes", the authors discuss what they characterize as myths about the effects of Agent Orange. They profile individual pilots who flew Agent Orange delivery missions in Vietnam without negative health effects. The authors criticize Vietnam Veterans of America, referring to them as "Vietnam Victims of America."
The appendices provide lists of recipients of the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Air Force Cross, and of U.S. military prisoners of war who survived their captivity.
U.S. Senator Jim Webb praised Stolen Valor, calling it "one [of] the most courageous books of the decade". [1] The book received the Colby Award for military writers in 2000. [2] [3]
It is believed to have contributed to Congressional passage of the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which made it a crime for an individual to falsely claim to have been awarded military medals. [4] [5]
In 1999, Mackubin Thomas Owens, a Marine infantry veteran of Vietnam, praised the book and Burkett, saying, concluding, "Mr. Burkett has done an immense service to his fellow veterans, and by extension to his country". [6]
In 2004, Dave Curry from Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) responded to the criticism of VVAW in the book. In a scathing review, he said the book displayed political partisanship, made "errors in research methodology" and misleading statements about Winter Soldier Investigation participants, and denigrated the experiences and motives of veterans who subsequently opposed the war. [7]
In 2008, psychiatrist Paul R. McHugh listed Stolen Valor as one of the five best books on "the factions and follies of psychiatry." He cited Burkett's efforts to uncover fraudulent PTSD claims.
A 2009 article in Columbia Journalism Review discussed how Stolen Valor exposed the media's gullibility in failing to fact-check people who claimed military service and awards. It concluded that "no reporter who reads it will ever again crank out a Veterans Day feature without making an effort to verify the subject’s claims first". [5]
Frank William Dux is a Canadian-American martial artist and fight choreographer. According to Dux, a ninjutsu expert named Senzo Tanaka trained him as a ninja when he was a teenager. He established his own school of ninjutsu called Dux Ryu Ninjutsu, and has said he won a secret martial arts tournament called the Kumite in 1975. His alleged victory at the Kumite served as the inspiration for the 1988 film Bloodsport starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Dux's victory at the Kumite has been disputed, as has the existence of both the Kumite he described and Senzo Tanaka.
Stolen Honor is a 45-minute anti-John Kerry video documentary that was released during the September 2004 election season. It features interviews with a number of American men who contend they were prisoners of war in North Vietnam and suffered increased maltreatment while prisoners as a direct result of Kerry's Fulbright Hearing testimony in April 1971. The subtitle of the film is Wounds That Never Heal; on the production company's website the complete title is given instead as Stolen Honor: John Kerry's Record of Betrayal. Its name was based on the book Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley.
Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry is a documentary film on U.S. Senator John Kerry's military service during the Vietnam War and his subsequent participation in the peace movement. There is significant emphasis on Kerry's famous speech before a Senate committee, historical footage from the Winter Soldier Investigations, and coverage of the Dewey Canyon III anti-war demonstrations in Washington, D.C. The majority of the film is composed of archival footage, with much of it in the original black-and-white format.
Francis J. "Bing" West Jr. is an American author, Marine combat veteran and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs during the Reagan Administration.
The "Winter Soldier Investigation" was a media event sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) from January 31, 1971, to February 2, 1971. It was intended to publicize war crimes and atrocities by the United States Armed Forces and their allies in the Vietnam War. The VVAW challenged the morality and conduct of the war by showing the direct relationship between military policies and war crimes in Vietnam. The three-day gathering of 109 veterans and 16 civilians took place in Detroit, Michigan. Discharged servicemen from each branch of the armed forces, as well as civilian contractors, medical personnel and academics, all gave testimony about war crimes they had committed or witnessed during the years 1963–1970.
Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) is an American tax-exempt non-profit organization and corporation founded in 1967 to oppose the United States policy and participation in the Vietnam War. VVAW says it is a national veterans' organization that campaigns for peace, justice, and the rights of all United States military veterans. It publishes a twice-yearly newsletter, The Veteran; this was earlier published more frequently as 1st Casualty (1971–1972) and then as Winter Soldier (1973–1975).
B. G. Burkett is a retired Army officer and financial advisor. He is best known as co-author of the self-published book Stolen Valor (1998), written with journalist Glenna Whitley. It received the Colby Award for military writers in 2000.
Saved by the Light is a 1994 nonfiction book by Dannion Brinkley describing his purported near-death experience (NDE). It is co-authored by Paul Perry. The book was adapted for a 1995 FOX TV film of the same name starring Eric Roberts.
No Gun Ri: A Military History of the Korean War Incident is a 2002 book by United States military officer Robert Bateman about the events that took place at No Gun Ri in 1950 and the controversy that followed. Bateman contested the veracity of a Pulitzer prize-winning account published earlier. The book was awarded the 2004 Colby Award for military history.
The Stolen Valor Act of 2005, signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 20, 2006, was a U.S. law that broadened the provisions of previous U.S. law addressing the unauthorized wear, manufacture, or sale of any military decorations and medals. The law made it a federal misdemeanor to falsely represent oneself as having received any U.S. military decoration or medal. If convicted, defendants might have been imprisoned for up to six months, unless the decoration lied about is the Medal of Honor, in which case imprisonment could have been up to one year. In United States v. Alvarez (2012), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was an unconstitutional abridgment of the freedom of speech under the First Amendment–striking down the law in a 6 to 3 decision.
The William E. Colby Military Writers' Award was established in 1999 by the William E. Colby Military Writers' Symposium at Norwich University in Vermont in order to recognize "a first work of fiction or non-fiction that has made a major contribution to the understanding of intelligence operations, military history, or international affairs." It is named in honor of William Egan Colby. As of 2021, Alex Kershaw is the chair of its selection committee.
Carlo D'Este was an American military historian and biographer, author of several books, especially on World War II. He was a decorated U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. In 2011, he was awarded the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.
Patrick K. O’Donnell is an American author of books on military history.
Karl Arthur Marlantes is an American author and Vietnam War veteran. He has written three books: Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War (2010), What it is Like to go to War (2011), and Deep River (2019).
Jon Elhai is a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Toledo. Elhai is known for being an expert in the assessment and diagnosis of Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), forensic psychological assessment of PTSD, and detection of fabricated/malingered PTSD; as well as in internet addictions.
United States v. Alvarez, 567 U.S. 709 (2012), is a landmark decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was unconstitutional. The Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was a federal law that criminalized false statements about having a military medal. It had been passed by Congress as an effort to stem instances where people falsely claimed to have earned the medal in an attempt to protect the valor of legitimate recipients. A 6–3 majority of the Supreme Court agreed that the law was unconstitutional and violated the free speech protections under the First Amendment. Despite reaffirming the opinion that was previously issued by the Ninth Circuit, it could not agree on a single rationale. Four justices concluded that a statement's falsity is not enough, by itself, to exclude speech from First Amendment protection. Another two justices concluded that while false statements were entitled to some protection, the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was invalid because it could have achieved its objectives in less restrictive ways.
William Warren "Will" Northrop was an American-born military historian, investigator and writer. He was best known for the controversy regarding his claims of military and combat service in the Vietnam War, and prior to that for his role in the so-called "Brokers of Death" arms case, a precursor to the Iran–Contra scandal in 1986. He was a writer and wrote articles over the years for such diverse venues as Penthouse, New Dimensions magazine, and The Jerusalem Post. He also wrote several articles in Recall, the magazine of the North Carolina Military Historical Society, mostly battle analyses.
The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 is a United States federal law that was passed by the 113th United States Congress. The law amends the federal criminal code to make it a crime for a person to fraudulently claim having received a valor award specified in the Act, with the intention of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit by convincing another that he or she received the award.
Donald W. Shipley is a retired United States Navy SEAL, who has gained recognition for his activism investigating and publicizing individuals who have made false claims of military service.
A military impostor is a person who makes false claims about their military service in civilian life. This includes claims by people that have never been in the military as well as lies or embellishments by genuine veterans. Some individuals who do this also wear privately obtained uniforms or medals which were never officially issued to them.