Heath Hardage Lee

I purchased the hard copy of this book and am reading it again. Such an important part of history!
July, 2023

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this interesting non-fiction book. As a daughter of an Air Force pilot in the Vietnam War, this was an especially interesting book to me, and one I highly recommended to my parents to read.

These brave, determined wives of POW and MIA men in Vietnam had to deal with so much that the general public never heard about, at least not for several years until the women went against the "keep quiet" instructions given to them for years by the government.

Great insight into what went on during the Vietnam War.… (mer)

In The League of Wives Heath Hardage Lee tells the inspiring story of the wives of American POWs and MIAs during the Vietnam War. The women persevered through the intransigence of the North Vietnamese regime, and the "keep quiet" policy of the Johnson administration to become "partners" with the Nixon administration. The League they formed was instrumental in ensuring that Kissinger's peace plan to end America's involvement in Vietnam included demands on the return of POWs and the accounting for MIAs.

There are a number of wives who take part in this story, and at times it can get a little bit overwhelming keeping track of who is who. But other than that, I really liked this book and learned a lot that I'd forgotten or never knew about that time in American history.

This is a book that, like Hidden Figures, sheds light on a little remembered group of women who had a strong role to play in historical events. The author is a historian and museum conservationist who began what eventually became this book with the papers of Phyllis Galanti.

Phyllis Galanti's husband was a POW, and she was active in the wives movement that led to forming the national League. Galanti, a native of Richmond VA like the author, passed away in 2014 and her papers were subsequently donated to the local historical society. Starting out by reviewing Galanti's papers, Heath Hardage Lee spent the next five years researching and writing this book. She provides a wealth of detail that really makes the book come to life.… (mer)