Solitary Survivor

Of the more than 600 American servicemen captured or unaccounted for in Laos during the war in Southeast Asia, Lawrence R. Bailey, Jr., was the first. His terrifying memoir of brutal solitary confinement reveals a little-known aspect of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia and describes a triumph of the human spirit over the most physically demanding and mentally challenging circumstances.

Ron Martz writes on defense issues for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His books include Solitary Survivor: The First American POW in Southeast Asia (with Lawrence R. Bailey, Jr.; Brassey’s, Inc., 1995) and White Tigers: My Secret War in North Korea (with Ben Malcom; Brassey’s, Inc., 1996), which Publishers Weekly praised as "exciting reading." He lives in Roswell, Georgia.