Walking K — Wes Demott

The President of the United States gives a small speech near the end of Walking K that defines the boundaries of this emotionally heart-breaking story: "I hate to say it so bluntly, but those men are expendable. They always have been. It's no different today than when they hit the battlefields of the sixties, and no different than the hundreds of thousands of other expendable soldiers who have died and will die in past and future wars. Don't you think we owe them something, Slaughter? Don't you think we have an obligation to the men and women who follow in the giant steps of Chuck Wooten? Don't we owe them the dignity of being treated as prisoners, if that's their fate, instead of bargaining chips?" It's this compelling argument, rationally articulated but emotionally rejected, that claws at our humanity as DeMott takes readers down a jungle footpath of our own beliefs, challenging us to be courageous and do far more than what's expedient. Walking K brings most readers to tears. What other thriller can you think of with that much power? DeMott, a former FBI Agent, analyzed intelligence documents, Nixon's White House tapes, Congressional Records, and interviews with commanding officers of Prisoners of War in researching WALKING K, the tragic story of a reluctant conspiracy lumbered upon the shoulders of each U.S. President since 1975. Crosscutting between dramatic battlefield scenes, heartbreaking torture, American businesses protecting their investments, and a continuing refusal by the White House to reveal the shameful truth, the emotional ending of this political thriller sadly shows why the United States Government stopped wanting the lost men of that war to come home, and perhaps sheds light on the government's attitude toward the POW classification in wars since Vietnam. America's leaders haven't faced a Prisoner of War crisis since the debacle over POWs left behind in Vietnam. Walking K is an exciting thriller that exposes the tragic reason it can't be allowed to happen again. This 2012 print edition is an entirely revised and updated edtion. It is also available in e-book.