What Remains: Bringing America’s Missing Home from the Vietnam War

by Sarah E. Wagner

Nearly 1,600 Americans who took part in the Vietnam War are still missing and presumed dead. Sarah Wagner tells the stories of those who mourn and continue to search for them. Today’s forensic science can identify remains from mere traces, raising expectations for repatriation and forcing a new reckoning with the toll of America’s most fraught war.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

292 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 5, 2019

About the author

Sarah E. Wagner is Associate Professor of Anthropology at George Washington University. She has written widely on war and its devastations, focusing in particular on forensic efforts to recover and identify the victims of violence in both the United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is the author of two previous books, To Know Where He Lies and, with Lara J. Nettelfield, Srebrenica in the Aftermath of Genocide. She has received a number of awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Reviews

[Ernie Tidball · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok, but not great. The book is more of a focus on the forensics of accounting then the actual stories. I found it incredibly deep and struggled to turn the pages in a few areas, due to sheer boredom. The author flips between stories constantly so it’s difficult to follow.

[William]

An interesting read. A lot less is written about the forensics and investigations than I expected The majority of the book seems more centred and focused on the memories of the family members, their communities and the effect thereof on their lives. Regardless it was informative. She touches on the last known alive cases briefly. Most books on this issue seem to do the same. It’s all about remains. I however still am skeptical of identifications made by one tooth or fragment
The Vietnamese are famous for “salting” so called crash sites and graves. They could easily resolve most of the cases that occurred over or on land. Too bad the author doesn’t delve into that aspect of the POW/MIA issue.

[versarbre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it's rare that here an anthropologist who finally takes up the issue of American militarism and some minimal analysis of military projects (a little bit on the internal hierarchy too), albeit peripherally. It tells a clear story, which makes anthropologists closer to public story-telling.