Corporal Johnny Moore, U.S. Army, celebrated his 21st birthday in 1953 as a prisoner of the Chinese People's Volunteers Force. That he was still alive was a cause for celebration. Of the some 3,000 American soldiers captured with Moore in November–December 1950, about half had died. The survival rate was worse than that of the Americans who had surrendered on Luzon in 1942. Four days after his birthday the Chinese released Moore at Panmunjom, and he rejoined the U.S. Army after almost three years of captivity. He then faced another war, which he lost.
I Cannot Forget is a memoir Moore recorded in 2002; it was then edited and annotated by an academic historian, Judith Fenner Gentry, a family friend. Moore's account has two novel features. His story includes his disastrous Army career, 1953–1957, and his harrowing experiences as a “progressive” prisoner of war (POW) and a stigmatized “collaborator” caught...