The Vietnam Deserters Who Fought the CIA, the Brainwashers, and Themselves

Matthew Sweet

A JAPANESE FISHING boat, moving north to Soviet waters. Six Americans in the forward hold below the captain’s cabin. Trying to stay warm. Trying to keep their nerve. Trying not to vomit too loudly. One is too drunk to feel seasick. He’s up on his feet, swigging from a bottle of sake, peering into the moonless night, swearing he can see dolphins in the water and helicopters in the sky. The others don’t bother to look. But when the beam of a searchlight streams through the crack in the door, all six scramble to the porthole, jostling to catch sight of the ship that has come down from the ice floes to meet them. “It’s them, man,” says one. “The Russians are coming. We gonna be free now, baby.” Most of us would find it hard to pinpoint the single act that determined the course of our lives. Mark Shapiro […]