Until the Last Man Comes Home: Pows, MIAs, And The Unending Vietnam War

by Michael J. Allen

Fewer Americans were captured or missing during the Vietnam War than in any previous major military conflict in U.S. history. Yet despite their small numbers, American POWs inspired an outpouring of concern that slowly eroded support for the war. Michael J. Allen reveals how wartime loss transformed U.S. politics well before, and long after, the war's official end.

Throughout the war's last years and in the decades since, Allen argues, the effort to recover lost warriors was as much a means to establish responsibility for their loss as it was a search for answers about their fate. Though millions of Americans and Vietnamese took part in that effort, POW and MIA families and activists dominated it. Insisting that the war was not over "until the last man comes home," this small, determined group turned the unprecedented accounting effort against those they blamed for their suffering. Allen demonstrates that POW/MIA activism prolonged the hostility between the United States and Vietnam even as the search for the missing became the basis for closer ties between the two countries in the 1990s. Equally important, he explains, POW/MIA families' disdain for the antiwar left and contempt for federal authority fueled the conservative ascendancy after 1968. Mixing political, cultural, and diplomatic history, Until the Last Man Comes Home presents the full and lasting impact of the Vietnam War in ways that are both familiar and surprising.

Genres: History

433 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

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Michael J. Allen - Law

Michael J. Allen - Archaeology

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Reviews

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the late 1980s, an acquaintance of mine urged me to read a book revealing how the US government knew there were hundreds of POWs still in Vietnam, but chose to let them rot rather than admit this. Allen's book explains how this belief became an article of faith for soldiers' families and countless others, even though we had fewer POWs and a smaller percentage of our soldiers captured than in WWI, WWII or Korea.
As Allen shows, the focus on POWs started with the Vietnamese government releasing them to antiwar activists to show they were willing to negotiate. Then families of remaining POWs made bringing the boys home a political movement. Nixon hopped on the bandwagon which didn't help him (he wanted POWs to justify continued fighting; families wanted the war to end so prisoners would be repatriated). But he did push the idea that even MIAs should be classed with POWs, which upped the numbers of supposed captives. He and later presidents would call for a full and complete accounting of every MIA, which made a great soundbite, but wasn't possible, leading to further problems and issues.
An excellent book on the subject.

[Laura]

This is my son's first book - war history on body recovery efforts of American wars. Very interesting and informative read. Felt like he made the POW/Mia issue much more real and personal than anything I've read before.

[Chris Huff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of how politicians and right-leaning activists prolonged the myth of live POWs in Southeast Asia for political and personal reasons.

[University of Chicago Magazine]

Michael J. Allen, AB’96
Author

From our pages (Nov–Dec/09): "Examining the lasting effects of the Vietnam War, Allen identifies POW/MIA families and activists as a small but ultimately key group responsible for transforming U.S. politics. These families’ activism during the war created divisions between the United States and Vietnam and among Americans, Allen writes, ultimately sparking major changes in U.S. foreign policy."

[Julieallen3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredibly written and exhaustive history of the POW/MIA movement and how it shaped our culture and politics for decades. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the legacy of the Vietnam War. Fabulous!

[Amber]

My brother wrote this book and I am excited to read it!