Some eighteen months before the “Tet offensive”, Nick Spree a U.S. marine fell into the hands of the Viet Cong during a night patrol in the South Vietnamese jungle. He was captured in the vicinity of Hue, was led by his captors northwards, across the border into North Vietnam; there he was interned as a P.O.W in a reeducation center two and a half miles south of the capital Hanoi.
He is the sole captive in that well camouflaged jungle citadel; previous detainees must have perished by torture and executions, thus he the only captive there. But instead of solitary confinement, day and night harsh interrogations and torture, he is met with bearable conditions and an unexpected treatment. A young beautiful Eurasian comrade Lee Chen Woe her name, conducts his brainwash process in a peculiar and sophisticated method. However, the process progress is slow, the reeducation center’s commander and staff are frustrated, the hated Eurasian free hand with Nick, the backup she has is a thorn in their eyes. Meanwhile the war enters a further step – the escalation, the American air force B52’s raid the North Vietnamese capital. During this time Lee Chen Woe convinces Nick that she is not his enemy, he starts to believe that she has hidden ties with the South – that she might land a chopper in a nearby jungle clearance to rescue both of them. According to her ambiguous instructions he tries to escape during one of the air raids and fails. He is caught in a deserted jungle shack where he waited for her to join him. He loses his consciousness in the brawl with the reeducation’s staff, that were sent out to bring him back, and he loses her as well.
After a few days of solitary confinement Nick is sent southward through the Ho Chi Min trail, to serve as a living decoy, to tempt his fighting comrades into deadly traps. In an unexpected almost miraculous escapade he manages to escape at last, and he is rescued by a pair of patrolling choppers. He spends a week in an army…
To Hell and Back: Book 1
