Here, at last, is the go-to book on a major, unique, and scandalously neglected feature of the Vietnam War: the organized international movement of American deserters. Paul Benedikt Glatz’s scholarship is meticulous, insightful, and well-balanced. His fluency in several languages allows him to explore—and bring to life—the battles swirling around the deserters in several nations. All future work on the Americans who deserted the Vietnam War will owe a great debt to this invaluable book.

H. Bruce Franklin, professor emeritus, Rutgers University; author of Crash Course: From the Good War to the Forever War

Today, in the United States, there is a move to whitewash the tragedy, disaster, and criminality of the U.S. war against Vietnam. Vietnam’s Prodigal Heroes shows the viewpoint of soldiers who were actually there, as well as others who were at risk of being sent there and chose to desert. Glatz has left no stone unturned in his efforts to portray a realistic view of deserters, one not often presented to the general public. This book will help to defeat the sanctimonious pronouncements of today’s politicians.

Robert Fantina, independent scholar; author of Desertion and the American Soldier 1776-2006

This is a great book, loaded with primary documentation, much of it French, German, and Swedish. Glatz locates the origins of military desertion during the war in Vietnam in Europe and then positions it within the larger matrix of antiwar activism. Had it been available, my own work over twenty years would be peppered with references to Vietnam’s Prodigal Heroes.

Jerry Lembcke, associate professor emeritus, Holy Cross College; author of The Spitting Image

In his very well researched and balanced book, Paul Benedikt Glatz has made a most valuable contribution to the history of the anti-Vietnam War movement. With its publication, Vietnam's Prodigal Heroes becomes the essential source in understanding the complicated issue of U.S.military deserters during the war and what happened to them and why after the war's end.

Melvin Small, Wayne State University; author of Antiwarriors: The Vietnam War and the Battle for America's Hearts and Minds

The American War in Vietnam was the most controversial war of aggression since the end of World War II. Deserters strike at the heart of the military-industrial complex. This transnational study is an important milestone towards understanding a major seachange in popular attitudes and militant actions to question authority.

Gerd-Rainer Horn, The Paris Institute of Political Studies; author of The Spirit of '68: Rebellion in Western Europe and North America, 1956-1976

Paul Benedikt Glatz’s Vietnam's Prodigal Heroes is a deeply-researched, well-written analysis of the motivations and often courageous actions of American soldiers who expressed their opposition to the Vietnam War by deserting. Glatz has given us an important and nuanced addition to the scholarship of antiwar dissent during America’s most controversial war.

Ralph Young, Temple University; author of Dissent: The History of an American Idea