What reviewers have said about:
Broken Soldiers
This immensely popular and whistle-blowing book indicts the U.S. military for sending troops into the Korean War unprepared for capture and the horrific mind-bending techniques of the Chinese and North Koreans, and for attempting to cover up that failure at the end of the conflict.


“Lech’s book explores the compelling and often wrenching story of these [Korean War] POWs, their experiences during the war, and what awaited them when they returned home.”
                            MILITARY.COM                     
                            Lillian Howard Potter
                            (December, 2000)

“Here he recounts eyewitness testimony of capture, psychological and physical torture, and life in the camps, giving readers excellent insight into the circumstances of a Korean War POW.”
“Recommended for all library collections, this work should be considered the ultimate reference work on this topic.”
                            LIBRARY JOURNAL
                            (October, 2000)          

“A powerful indictment of justice miscarried, BROKEN SOLDIERS raises troubling questions that remain unanswered decades after the events.”
                            UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
                            (Fall, 2000 Catalogue)

“Because Lech has been able to use records of trials (including that of Rothwell B. Floyd, who was tried by my office at Fort Leavenworth in 1954), his text contains a personal element that is rarely to be found in volumes concerned with the treatment of prisoners of war in Korea.”
“BROKEN SOLDIERS is a work of great interest, and extremely thorough and authoritative study.”
                            COL. HOWARD S. LEVE
                            Professor Emeritus of Law
                            Saint Louis University Law School
                            Author of PRISONERS OF WAR IN 
                            INTERNATIONAL ARMED 
                            CONFLICT

“This unique and important book, a top-notch investigation into the POW issue in the Korean War, which had been kept under wraps.  Based largely on materials Lech was able to pry out of the government using the Secrets Act, BROKEN SOLDIERS amounts to a world scoop on the subject.”
                            DAVID C. SMITH
                            Coeditor of AMERICAN WOMEN IN 
                            A WORLD AT WORLD:
                            CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS 
                            FROM WORLD WAR II

“What makes this book unique is that Lech uses recently unclassified intelligence debriefings and courts martial transcripts to piece together a complete story about individual prisoners from the moment of capture to either death or repatriation.  For this reason, Lech can make an important contribution to the history of the Korean War, to the history of the military judicial system, and to our understanding of the incredible hardships imposed on men who fall helplessly under the absolute control of an armed enemy.”
                            HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
                            (Advance Review)

“The author’s exhaustive research succeeds in a building a new and devastating definition of the term ‘brainwashing.’”
“Firsthand descriptions by those who were released are nothing less than horrifying; barbarous Nazi concentration camps exceed Korean detention centers only in the number of inmates.”
                            PROCEEDINGS
                            United States Naval Institute
                            February, 2001

“Using recently declassified trial transcripts, independent scholar Lech, author of ALL THE DOWNED SAILORS (1982; reprinted as THE TRAGIC FATE OF THE U.S.S. INDIANAPOLIS, 2001), reconstructs the POW experience in Korea and it’s aftermath, exposing the brutality of the captors and the inconsistency of the US military justice.  He supplies the most comprehensive account of the subject to date.”
“His book will appeal to military specialists and general readers alike. [Recommended for] all collections.”
                            CHOICE
                            Current Reviews of Academic Libraries,
                            July, 2001
                            By: J. R. White
                            University of Nebraska - Lincoln

“I read your book with great interest and found the information to be accurate and forthright.... I want to thank you for your good work and hope your book receives the attention it deserves.”
                            Akira B. Chikami
                            Command Master Sergeant (Ret.)
                            Former Korean War POW
                            Letter to Author, March 19th, 2001

“I wanted to write to you and express my appreciation for the outstanding work you did on writing the story, BROKEN SOLDIERS.  I really appreciated the opportunity to read BROKEN SOLDIERS, and many more besides the ones you wrote about were also broken with the burden of trying to prove their innocence.... Again, many thanks for your dedication in writing this story.”
                            William A McClain
                            Former Korean War POW
                            Letter to Author, March 28th, 2001

“Your book and your research provide a fascinating perspective on the Korean War POW experience.”
“I want to recommend the chapter on POWs in Max Hastings’ book on the Korean War.  Hastings discusses some of the same issues that BROKEN SOLDIERS addresses, without the quality of detail your work provides.”
                            William Latham, USA
                            Lieutenant Colonel
                            United States Military Academy
                            West Point, New York
 Copyright © 2006 Raymond B. Lech. All rights reserved.