"Looking into the underlying factional divide between pro-war "hardliners" and anti-war "dissidents" among the POWs, authors Wilber and Lembcke delve into the postwar American culture that created the myths of the Hero-POW and the dissidents blamed for the loss of the war. What they found was that it was the class backgrounds of the captives and their pre-captive experience that drew the lines. After the war, the hardcore hero-holdouts, like John McCain, moved on to careers in politics and business, while the dissidents faded from view as the antiwar movement, that might otherwise have championed them, disbanded"-- Provided by publisher.

Forgotten Voices from Hoa Lo Prison: Dissent in the Hero-Prisoner Story -- Profiles of Dissent: Senior Officers -- Profiles of Dissent: "The Peace Committee" of Enlisted POWs -- The Manchurian Candidate Stalks the Homeland: Hollywood Scripts the POW Narrative -- Damaged, Duped, and Left Behind: Displacing POW Dissent -- A Captive Nation: POWs as Grist for the American Myth -- The Heritage of Conscience: From the American War in Vietnam to America Today.