Gritz, James (Bo). Called to Serve. Lazarus Publishing Company (Box 472 HCR-31, Sandy Valley NV 89019), 1991. 647 pages.

James (Bo) Gritz is a much-decorated Vietnam special forces veteran who continued working in covert operations after the war. He is convinced that live POWs remain in Southeast Asia, and went into Laos in 1983 to try and rescue some. Pentagon officials made it clear to Gritz that the highest levels of the U.S. government preferred to ignore the evidence. This in turn caused him to reconsider the flag-and-motherhood politics that brought him to Vietnam in the first place. By 1990 he was opposed to the Gulf War and interested in the JFK assassination, and by 1992 he was the Populist Party candidate for President.

Although one might wish for a bit less of Gritz's Green Beret machismo and a few more names of covert cowboys and assorted spooks, this book is, after all, an autobiography. Gritz does add new evidence of U.S. duplicity in the war on drugs by visiting opium warlord Khun Sa in Burma. Khun Sa's perspective on the opium trade implicates U.S. officials such as Richard Armitage. More than once Khun Sa offered to sell his entire crop to the U.S. government in order to keep it off the streets, and has also asked for crop- substitution assistance. But the U.S. showed no interest in Gritz's efforts to mediate the issue, and continued to demonize Khun Sa. As a final insult, the feds then brought silly charges against Gritz himself.
ISBN 0-916095-38-4

Extract the names from this source

Back to search page