The War Behind Me; Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth About U.S. War Crimes

New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, 2008. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [8], 296 pages. Includes Introduction, Acknowledgments, Notes, Appendix A, Appendix B, and Index. Inscribed by the author on fep. Inscription reads: For Shibly, May the truth make us free. Deborah Nelson. Deborah Nelson is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and the Associate Professor of Investigative Reporting at the University of Maryland. Previously, she was the Washington investigations editor for the Los Angeles Times, a reporter for The Washington Post and a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1997, Nelson won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for her work, exposing "widespread corruption and inequities in the federally-sponsored housing program for Native Americans, which inspired reforms." She received acclaim for her book, The War Behind Me, which investigates declassified Army papers on Vietnam-era war crimes and uncovers the lives of soldiers who were witness to the crimes. This book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Nelson and military historian Nicholas Turse describes their search for answers from the U.S. soldiers accused of committing atrocities against unarmed civilians in Vietnam, the witnesses who reported them, and the higher-ups who covered them up. The declassified Army papers were erroneously released and have since been pulled from public circulation. Few civilians have seen the documents. The files contain reports of more than 300 confirmed atrocities, and 500 other cases the Army either couldn't prove or didn't investigate. The archive has letters of complaint to generals and congressmen, as well as reports of Army interviews with hundreds of men who served. Punishment for these acts was either nonexistent or absurdly light. In "The War Behind Me" Nelson goes beyond the documents and talks with many who were involved, both accusers and accused, to uncover their stories and learn how they deal with their aftermath of the Vietnam War.