The Ghosts of Hanoi

“According to the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office there are still 1,681 U.S. servicemen still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.” That statement comes from the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO), and is dated 27 March 2012. During the late 1970s and 1980s, a large number of people including influential members of the US Government believed there were large numbers of US servicemen still held in captivity in Southeast Asia by the Communist governments of Vietnam and Laos. “The Ghosts of Hanoi” is the story of an intrepid intelligence analyst working in the Pentagon’s office charged with investigating “sightings” of POWs in Southeast Asia. There is pressure from his superiors to “prove” there are still men held captive but he doesn’t believe it. Striking out on his own, he discovers what seems to be a huge conspiracy by the Hanoi government and certain Vietnamese-Americans living outside Washington, DC to convince the US that there are live POWs over there, while simultaneously denying it at the official level. But why? That’s what leads Anthony “Buzz” Basilio on the adventure of his lifetime that almost costs him his freedom. “Ghosts” is a work of fiction written by a former POW/MIA investigator dealing with an issue that still stubbornly refuses to go away - the fate of almost 1700 US servicemen still unaccounted for in a war that everyone wants to forget.