About this item
"With astonishing verve, The League of Wives persisted to speak truth to power to bring their POW/MIA husbands home from Vietnam. And with astonishing verve, Heath Hardage Lee has chronicled their little-known story -- a profile of courage that spotlights 1960s-era military wives who forge secret codes with bravery, chutzpah and style. Honestly, I couldn't put it down." -- Beth Macy, author of Dopesick and Factory ManThe true story of the fierce band of women who battled Washington -- and Hanoi -- to bring their husbands home from the jungles of Vietnam. On February 12, 1973, one hundred and sixteen men who, just six years earlier, had been high flying Navy and Air Force pilots, shuffled, limped, or were carried off a huge military transport plane at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. These American servicemen had endured years of brutal torture, kept shackled and starving in solitary confinement, in rat-infested, mosquito-laden prisons, the worst of which was The Hanoi Hilton. Months later, the first Vietnam POWs to return home would learn that their rescuers were their wives, a group of women that included Jane Denton, Sybil Stockdale, Louise Mulligan, Andrea Rander, Phyllis Galanti, and Helene Knapp. These women, who formed The National League of Families, would never have called themselves "feminists," but they had become the POW and MIAs most fervent advocates, going to extraordinary lengths to facilitate their husbands' freedom -- and to account for missing military men -- by relentlessly lobbying government leaders, conducting a savvy media campaign, conducting covert meetings with antiwar activists, and most astonishingly, helping to code secret letters to their imprisoned husbands. In a page-turning work of narrative non-fiction, Heath Hardage Lee tells the story of these remarkable women for the first time. The League of Wives is certain to be on everyone's must-read list.
About the Author
Heath comes from a museum education, historic preservation, and writing background. She holds a B.A. in History with Honors from Davidson College, and an M.A. in French Language and Literature from the University of Virginia. She started her museum career at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina, as the Director of Education and Programs. Heath has since worked as a consultant for southern house museums such as Stratford Hall, Robert E. Lee's birthplace, and Menokin Plantation, once home to Francis Lightfoot Lee. She is currently working as the Coordinator of the History Series for Salisbury House & Gardens, a 1920's house museum in Des Moines, Iowa. Heath has written for numerous magazines, newspapers and blogs. Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause, her biography of Varina Anne "Winnie" Davis, is her first book. Winnie will be published April 1, 2014, by Potomac Press, a division of the University of Nebraska Press. Heath moved to Des Moines from her hometown of Richmond, Virginia in 2008. She is married to Chris Lee and they have two children, Anne Alston Lee and James Hawkins Lee. While living in Midwest, Heath has found that she loves the Iowa State Fair, the Butter Cow, and corn. True to her Southern roots, she still loves North Carolina BBQ, (the vinegar kind,) Virginia ham (very salty) , and Sally Belle's cupcakes (caramel) . The cupcakes are made in Richmond, right down the street from the White House of the Confederacy where Winnie was born in 1864.
