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Because Newsletter

Our first Because Newsletter was sent out this week to audiences across the United States and around the world, including France, the UK, Germany, Australia, Vietnam, and Laos. A friend I made through mutual contacts received the newsletter and forwarded it, along with his email below, to over 250 of his friends. He is a highly intelligent, wise, and articulate man, the founder of the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE), and a former Advisor on Disability and Rehabilitation to the Prime Minister of Vientiane, Laos. He has given me permission to share his email.

Dear Friends

The author of this book, James Wells, has traveled a huge distance in trying to unravel the story of how his father died in the American war against SE Asia. The result of his investigations have been horrific – and yet, not entirely unexpected. 

I travelled a part of that journey with him and we have become friends – although we have never met. It has been harrowing for both of us, since he could never get closure until he discovered the truth – a truth which the US government kept from him, and his family, behind a tight wall of secrecy.  

Now, his book – Because:  A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew – is on the verge of publication. It is an incredible story of persistence, commitment, huge personal expense, frayed family loyalties, amazing revelations and coincidences, and a final release from his travails.  

I guess that nobody needs to read this to know the terrible things that the US state does to its citizens – we have just so many examples – but I do totally commend it to you.  

With all best wishes

Michael A B Boddington MBE

Vientiane, Lao PDR

James b. Wells's avatar

By James b. Wells

JAMES B. WELLS is a retired criminology and criminal justice professor in the School of Justice Studies in the College of Justice, Safety, and Military Science at Eastern Kentucky University, and is the recipient of the 2025 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences John Howard Award, an award given intermittently, upon significant demand, to recognize an individual who has made significant and sustained contributions to the practice of corrections. A former carpenter, soldier, and correctional officer in a super-maximum-security prison and later as a researcher/planner assisting architects in prison design, he has multiple degrees, including an M.S. in Criminal Justice, a Ph.D. in Research, and an MFA in Creative Writing. He’s authored or co-authored over sixty-five books, chapters, articles, and essays, as well as over a hundred and fifty research reports for various local, state, and federal agencies. Recent essays from his research and memoir work appear or are forthcoming in Collateral Journal, About Place Journal, Wild Roof Journal, Military Experience and the Arts, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Shift, Proud to be: Writing by American Warriors, Trajectory Journal, and From Pen to Page III: More Writings from the Bluegrass Writers Coalition.

His investigative memoir about his father's still CIA-classified death in Vietnam in 1965, titled Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew, will be launched on Father's Day weekend, 2025. Links to publications, presentations, trailers, social media, blog, and other information can be found at https://jamesbwells.com. James enjoys spending much of his leisure time with his spouse on their Lexington, Kentucky farm located on the palisades of the Kentucky River, where he is an organic gardener and beekeeper.

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