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 asserts both that there is a popular view of Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 veterans as broken men and psychopaths and that this view is false. In addition the book purports to document "wannabes": people lying about Vietnam experience, often when they had never been there. B.G. Burkett is a Vietnam War Veteran who served with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade as a company grade officer. Glenna Whitley is an investigative journalist who writes about crime and the legal system.

Contents

Stolen Valor is divided into 4 parts and an appendix.

Part I (The Image) begins with a chapter about B.G. Burkett's time in the 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, US 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 in Vietnam Veterans and how it is treated by the Veteran's Administration and the rise of war atrocity accusations against Vietnam Veterans. It also does further analysis of the effects of people, the author believes to be Vietnam War Veteran imposters, on the image of the Vietnam Veteran, specifically, the lack of investigation by the news media into the background of these possible veterans. This part delves into what the author believes to be the mislabeling of one of the causes of homelessness, the Vietnam War.

Part III (Stolen Valor) describes what the author believes to be a widespread wearing of Vietnam War specific medals, ribbons and badges by people who did not earn them. The author, using the Freedom of Information Act, was able to retrieve records of individuals who claimed they served in Vietnam during the War and he used this method to denounce people who didn't have records to support their service, badges, ribbons and medals. In this section, the author also demonstrates his disbelief in the idea that minorities participated in rates higher than their percentage of the populations.

In Part IV (Victims and Heroes) , the author discusses what he believes to be a myth about the effects of Agent Orange, profiling pilots from the Vietnam War who flew Agent Orange delivery missions in Vietnam and who have not had an increase in health effects since then. In this section, the author also denounces the Vietnam Veterans of America

Vietnam Veterans of America

Vietnam Veterans of America Inc. is a national non-profit corporation founded in 1978 in the United States that promotes the interests of United States military veterans of the Vietnam War era. It is funded without any contribution from any branch of government...

, calling them "Vietnam Victims of America."

The Appendices provide lists of Medal of Honor awardees, Distinguished Service Cross awardees, Navy Cross awardees, Air Force Cross awardees and U.S. military POWs who survived their captivity.

Reception

Mackubin Thomas Owens

Mackubin Thomas Owens

Mackubin Thomas Owens is an American military historian and conservative political figure. He is currently the Associate Dean of Academics for Electives and Directed Research and Professor of Strategy and Force Planning for the Naval War College, as well as a contributing editor to National...

, an adjunct fellow at the Ashbrook Center, a professor of strategy and force planning at the Naval War College

Naval War College

The Naval War College is an education and research institution of the United States Navy that specializes in developing ideas for naval warfare and passing them along to officers of the Navy. The college is located on the grounds of Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island...

 in Newport, R.I., and a Marine infantry veteran of Vietnam, praised Burkett as finding impostors by doing "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."

Vietnam veteran Dave Curry, in a review published by Vietnam Veterans Against the War

Vietnam Veterans Against the War

Vietnam Veterans Against the War is a tax-exempt non-profit organization and corporation, originally created to oppose the Vietnam War. VVAW describes itself as a national veterans' organization that campaigns for peace, justice, and the rights of all United States military veterans...

, accused Burkett and his coauthor of displaying political partisanship, making "errors in research methodology," making misleading statements about Winter Soldier Investigation

Winter Soldier Investigation

The "Winter Soldier Investigation" was a media event sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War from January 31, 1971 – 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...

participants, and denigrating the experiences and motives of veterans who subsequently opposed the war.