Inside Hanoi's Secret Archives

by Malcolm McConnell, Theodore Schweitzer

Providing definitive answers to the POW/MIA mystery, an authoritative investigation into an enduring controversy reveals shocking information from secret Vietnamese archives about MIA and POW cases, including photographs and material obtained from Operation Swamp Ranger. 30,000 first printing.

464 pages, Hardcover

First published January 25, 1995

Reviews

[Lee Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a sea full of conspiracy theories, some REAL historians got access to Hanoi secret's archives, and started a cold war diplomacy battle to find answers.
This book won't make any conspiracy theorist happy, but there's nothing else but the truth, in there.
If you are really interested in the POW/MIA issue, that's the book for you, with the final answer to a mistery that hunted USA for many years.
I read it to write a novel about the subject (this and other books), but I consider this one of the best, or the best ever.

[Dr. Amiruddin Alauddin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book of which I know more about "Hilton Hanoi" and what happened to the pilots shot down in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

[Laurent Reinhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Came across this while researching the fate of a Navy A-4 pilot from the USS Midway air wing who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965 during a combat mission. There were reports he might have ejected from his jet and possibly survived for some time in enemy territory. While this book does not address that specific case or others involving Midway aviators, it provides an interesting narrative of Schweitzer's ultimately successful efforts to access Vietnamese archives and find evidence dispelling popularly held notions that hundreds of American servicemen declared missing in action or their remains were still being held by the Vietnamese two decades later. It wasn't a easy job. Schweitzer had to gain the trust of Vietnamese as well as US officials affected by political turf wars and infighting, all against the backdrop of a thriving cottage industry in MIA conspiracy theories. Not a light read, it provides compelling insights into the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
"From the summer of 1992 onward evidence accumulated that the Vietnamese government was no longer withholding hundreds of stored MIA remains as they had in the past. The fact that the repatriated remains up to that point correlated to many - but by no means all - of the crash sites in heavily populated areas was significant." p248

[W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Firmly toes the commie line about no POW’s being left behind, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

[Bill Yancey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent review of secret operation to gain access to MIA information held by Vietnam. Believe it or not there are no living MIAs living in SEA.