Notes
235 Notes Introduction 1. William Robinson interview, #906, andersonville national historic site, andersonville, ga. (hereinafter cited as anhs). 2. edwin g. burrows, Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners during the Revolutionary War (new york: basic books, 2008), x, xii. 3. William marvel, “Johnny Ransom’s imagination,” Civil War History 41 (september 1995): 181–89; James m. gillispie, Andersonvilles of the North: The Myths and Realities of Northern Treatment of Civil War Confederate Prisoners (denton: university of north Texas Press, 2008), 6–22. 4. Typically, sympathetic congressmen offered private pension legislation on friday afternoons in the absence of quorums, when they were passed by unanimous consent. for more on the issue of pensions, see William henry glasson, Federal Military Pensions in the United States (new york: oxford university Press, 1918). 5. for an examination of the postwar lives and legacies of civil War soldiers, including prisoners of war, see James marten, Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America (chapel hill: university of north carolina Press, 2011). 6. for more on this issue see glenn Robins, “Race, Repatriation, and galvanized Rebels: union PoWs and the exchange Question in the deep south Prison camps,” Civil War History 53 (June 2007): 117–40. 7. Robert c. doyle, Voices from Captivity: Interpreting the American POW Narrative (Lawrence: university Press of Kansas, 1994), 5. 8. Thomas saylor, Long Hard Road: American POWs during World War II (st. Paul: minnesota historical society Press, 2007), 257. for similar reports of the stigma of capture and the desire to remain silent about being a PoW, see the comments of two former PoWs, Louis grivetti and Louis Pfeifer, in Lewis h. carlson, We Were Each Other’s Prisoners: An Oral History of World War II American and German Prisoners of War (new york: basic books, 1997), 231–43. 9. saylor, Long Hard Road, 256. 10. elliott gruner, Prisoners of Culture: Representing the Vietnam POW (new brunswick, n.J.: Rutgers university Press, 1993), 8. 11. Lewis h. carlson, Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War: An Oral History of Korean War POWs (new york: st. martin’s Press, 2002). 12. Lori Lyn bogle, The Pentagon’s Battle for the American Mind: The 236 Notes to Pages 4–11 Early Cold War (college station: Texas a&m university Press, 2004), 119–24. 13. carlson, Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War, 222. 14. mark bowden, Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War (new york: atlantic monthly Press, 1999); michael J. durant with steven hartov, In the Company of Heroes (new york: g. P. Putnam’s sons, 2003). 15. Joe dunn, “The PoW chronicles:abibliographic Review,” Armed Forces and Society 9 (spring 1983): 495–514. although dunn’s piece is a bit dated, the early trends have continued. for two recent examples of the officer-aviator memoir tradition, see george R. hall and Pat hall with bob Pittman, Commitment to Honor: A Prisoner of War Remembers Vietnam (Jackson, miss.: franklin Printers, 2005), and Leo Thorsness, Surviving Hell: A POW’s Journey (new york: encounter books, 2008). 16. maureen Ryan, The Other Side of Grief: The Home Front and the Aftermath in American Narratives of the Vietnam War (amherst: university of massachusetts Press, 2008), 115. for more on the issues of Vietnam PoW narratives and of a master narrative or official history, see craig howes, Voices of the Vietnam POWs: Witnesses to Their Fight (new york: oxford university Press, 1993). 1. Unfortunate Sons 1. for the transcript of the entire Johnson speech, see New York Times, 5 august 1964, p. 1. 2. h. R. mcmaster, Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara , the Joint Chiefs, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam (new york: harpercollins , 1997), 126–32. 3. everett alvarez Jr. and anthony s. Pitch, Chained Eagle: The Heroic Story of the First American Shot Down over North Vietnam (Washington, d.c.: Potomac books, 2005), 8–20. 4. ibid., 20–25, 215–17. 5. neither alvarez nor Thompson was the first american serviceman captured during the Vietnam War. That distinction goes to army Private george fryett, who was captured on 26 december 1961 and released six months later. for more on Thompson’s story, see Tom Philpott , Glory Denied: The Saga of Jim Thompson, America’s Longest-Held Prisoner of War (new york: W. W. norton, 2001). 6. bill Robinson, interview by the author, 21 october 2008. (unless attributed otherwise, all interviews cited were conducted by the author.) see also Robert b. Robinson iii, ed., Roanoke Rapids: The...
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