Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation was Robbed of its Heroes and its History (History)

By B. G. Burkett & Glenna Whitley

Publisher: Verity Pr Inc. (September 1, 1998)

Hardcover 692 pages 

 
       “I saw this media distortion first hand. During an NVA attack of a nearby village, several South Vietnamese civilians suffered burns when the enemy torched their homes. The injured civilians were brought into our dispensary for medical treatment. Two reporters appeared at the main gate to do a story on how the Americans had ‘accidently napalmed’ the civilians. The village had not been napalmed. There had been no air strike. But the reporters had decided in advance what the story was. They wrote that the story had been napalmed.”

This powerful book describes the systematic stigmatization of the Vietnam veteran by the leftist anti-war movement with ties to communist elements and a lazy press intent on pushing an agenda rather than uncovering the truth. The term “fake news” has come into fashion lately and is bandied about by both the left and right- that is the manipulation of facts to push a political or social agenda. Little did we realize, as this book demonstrates, that the phenomenon of fake news has been going on in the mainstream media for as long as most of us has been alive.

For decades, various groups have been pushing the image of the Vietnam vet as a deranged loner, crippled with severe emotional trauma, unable to readjust back into the society that sent them into hell. However, as this book demonstrates over and over again, this is not the truth. Often these individuals who make claims of being involved in atrocities in Vietnam to reporters, or who show up at veteran’s events in old military gear, stinking of alcohol, are fakers. People who had never served in the military, were kicked out, or who never served in a combat zone. While many of them have mental issues, those conditions existed well before any military service.

The author of the book, while attempting to raise funding for a Vietnam memorial in Texas, kept running into obstacles with these fakes and the media portrayal of the Vet. Often one fed into the other. Reporters would ignore those who were adjusted and flocked to the deranged. Then the author began to look into the actual military history of the men who told the most outlandish stories and, almost universally, found that they were grossly exaggerating their experiences or were making them up completely.

Author B. G. Burkett

They had been allowed to get away with this for decades because the media were too lazy to check on these faker’s stories. Often they just reported whatever stumbled out of the “vets” mouth as absolute fact. When presented with evidence that they had been deceived, the media personality either would ignore it or became defensive and attacked whoever told them the truth. Learning that he always needed to have documentation, the author began systematically exposing phonies through their military records. The documentation in this book is fairly exhaustive, even if his stories of military frauds isn’t.

While every war has spawned its fakers, traditionally they have always revolved around fraudulent claims of valor in combat or fraud for veterans benefits. But it was the singular case of the Vietnam veteran that brought out the new type that of the PTSD faker, or the wounded vet fraud. One who would blame the war for why they couldn’t fit in with society. At first this was a mere trickle, but it quickly became a flood after the 1983 hit film First Blood and the introduction of its hero, John Rambo. After this, the victim hero became all the rage and the media was awash with mentally ill people describing false atrocity after atrocity and blaming “the war” or “the government” for their paranoid schizophrenia.

As we all know, PTSD is a real condition. It has been described in various terms throughout all history. The very first description of it comes from ancient Egypt. The Civil War named it Soldier’s Heart. World War I called it shell shock. Now we have a more clinical term, but, as any psychologist will tell you, it is a condition that is treatable and one from which 99% of soldiers recover. The fakers will nearly always claim it though, for attention, for benefits fraud, or to cover their other mental illnesses.

As these fakers made for a better story, the media (often without checking the faker’s stories). This then led to the reinforcement of the Vietnam Vet as psychotic time bomb, and attracted more loonies who wanted attention. This culminated in the CBS documentary The Wall Within by military wash-out Dan Rather. This film featured five “vets” that were unable to adjust back into American society after being forced to commit heinous rapes and murders of civilians by the U.S. Government. Several claimed to be special forces, or at least heavily involved in a combat arena. The author of this book filed various Freedom of Information Act requests and discovered that none of them had been deployed into combat zones in Vietnam. Several had never been in the military, others were nowhere near the fighting, a few had been enlisted after the conflict was over. Whether this was incompetence by the media, willful blindness, or a deliberate distortion is up for debate. However, no one can claim that it was fine journalism.

One of the most egregious examples of Stolen Valor Frank Dux, fake marine and fake "ninja" warrior. 

He continues to discuss the PTSD incidents, because he believes that it is used to push political agendas, the VA financial agenda (always need more money), the financial status of malingerers and fakers who can blame the failures of their entire lives on “the war”. He demonstrates here that while PTSD is a real thing, its effects should lessen over time, not increase. But if a person is receiving $2,500 a month from the government, tax free, because of PTSD related illnesses, where is the incentive to improve? If anything there is a negative incentive, it’s as if the government wants vets to be disabled… or at least pretend to.

Next to PTSD, the biggest fake claims comes from those who claim to have been infected with Agent Orange. The herbicide has been accused of causing everything from cancer to premature baldness, but no studies have linked it to anything except a skin rash if the dermis is exposed to it. The actual herbicide is a colorless liquid which causes leaves to shrivel up and die (not totally destroy the plant) whose purpose was to expose enemy troops hiding in the jungle. The trees would regrow their leaves within a week. It was called Orange, because the barrels containing it had an orange stripe down the side. So any stories from people claiming to be vets stating that they were covered in an orange mist is bogus.

Overall, it is difficult to contest that with the sheer number of fakers he uncovers, many of them picked up because their “incredible” stories are lauded in the media, there is a problem in the US. Whether it be sloppy journalism (as we are now all aware, the meticulous journalist is the rarity) or a ignorance by people how how to file a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a person’s military record (DD-214).

Also included in the book are several appendices with the complete Department of Defense lists for those in Vietnam who have received the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Air Force Cross, and the names of all POWs in Vietnam who returned alive. Useful if you want to quickly check up on someone claiming to have won one of the highest military honors.

           For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.