Unveiling Vietnam War secrets: An Enormous Crime, by William Hendon and Elizabeth Stewart, exposes secrets of the Vietnam War and provides ample documentation that American POWs were left behind.(Book review)

An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia, by William Hendon and Elizabeth A. Stewart, New York: Thomas Dunne Books (a division of St. Martin's Press), 2007, 608 pages, hardcover, $29.95.

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   The refugee from Southeast Asia passed the polygraph 
   test. He claimed that he "and two co-workers 
   were delivering supplies to the Pathet Lao camp." The 
   year was 1980, seven years after the Vietnam War ended. 
   He says they saw "several manacled, emaciated Caucasian 
   prisoners being escorted to a camp bath point under guard. 
   The refugee told U.S. officials he asked a PL soldier who 
   the prisoners were and the soldier replied they were Americans 
   and that 50 of them were being held in the camp." 

This is just one of the 700 live sightings documented in the book An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia. This particular sighting is part of the record kept by the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. The refugee who reported this sighting "passed a second polygraph and satellite imagery confirmed the existence of a camp at the exact location on Route 19 west of Muong Khoua he had described and drawn," according to government records.

Authors Bill Hendon (former U.S. Rep., R-N.C.) and Elizabeth A. Stewart have spent 30 years investigating the plight of American prisoners of war and those missing in action. They've concluded that an enormous crime has taken place: live American soldiers were left behind after the Vietnam War and our government has been involved in a heinous coverup, waiting for these men to die in captivity rather than being brought home.

The book chronologically unveils secrets of the Vietnam War and the years following, all the way up to this new century. It's impressively documented. Several thousand reported live sightings establish the credibility of the authors' contentions, plus satellite/aerial photography and radio intercepts. It contains 77 pages of notes in small print to corroborate the book's assertions. And for the skeptic (or anyone else who wants to learn more), a web link is provided to access even more supporting documents, roughly 20 pages more to add authentication (www.enormouscrime.com/supporting.html). The website is still growing as the authors post, as they say, "large volumes of additional non-copyrighted documents, intelligence reports, photographs, maps etc. cited in the text and endnotes."

In fact, the authors begin to make their case even before the reader cracks the cover. On the front cover of the book is a symbol beneath the words "USA." The photo used as cover art is actually a picture of 12-foot letters that were spotted in Sam Neua Province, Laos, in 1988 by a U.S. spy satellite. According to the authors, "The letters 'USA' appear to have been dug out of the ground, while the code appeared to have been fashioned from rice straw." The code, or symbol, is "a highly classified Vietnam War-era USAF/USN Escape & Evasion code in a rice paddy in a narrow mountain valley." The authors add that "similar codes, secret messages, and secret authenticators in rice paddies, fields and garden plots along trails in Laos and Vietnam" have also been seen from the sky.