U.S. Army Special
Forces Captain Floyd James ("Jim") Thompson grew
up dreaming of battlefield glory. In late December 1963, Thompson
left behind three young daughters and a pregnant wife to go
to Vietnam. Three months later, on the day before Alyce gave
birth to their son, the Vietcong captured Thompson not far
from the Laotian border. While many of his fellow Americans
had barely heard of the small jungle nation in Southeast Asia,
Jim Thompson was already a prisoner. For the next nine years
- five in solitary confinement - he endured starvation, loneliness,
and unspeakable cruelties. Miraculously, he survived. After
an eternity in hell, Jim Thompson was coming home. In 1973,
he returned to an America that was radically different from
the one he had left ten years before. Powerfully told in Thompson's
voice and the voices of those who shared in his life and trials,
it is a gripping account that will stand forever as one of
the most truthful and important documents to emerge from the
Vietnam era.
