When Lieutenant Robert Wideman’s plane crashed on a bombing run in the Vietnam War, he feared falling into enemy hands. Although he endured the kind of pain that makes people question humanity, physical torture was not his biggest problem. During six years as a prisoner of war, he saw the truth behind Jean-Paul Sartre’s words: “Hell is other people.” Unexpected Prisoner explores a POW’s struggle with enemies and comrades, Vietnamese interrogators and American commanders, his lost dreams and ultimately himself.
Taps on the Walls: Poems from the Hanoi Hilton
How did a prisoner of war survive six years and eight months of soul-crushing imprisonment and torture in the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War? By writing poetry. And how did he do it without pencil or paper? Then-captain John Borling ”wrote” and memorized poems to keep his mind sharp
