Running late for work one morning in September 1994, Tom Hargrove, communications director for an international agricultural aid organization in Cali, Colombia, was mildly annoyed when he spotted a roadblock, or retén, manned by soldiers in fatigues. He chafed at the delay, but told himself that guerrillas and kidnappers didn’t operate on a main highway in broad daylight. But Hargrove had been dreadfully mistaken. Despite his assertions that he worked for a non-profit agricultural agency, he was forced at gunpoint into a vehicle and driven into the mountains by communist narco-terrorists who believed he was a valuable hostage. For almost a year, Hargrove was held by the guerillas and moved from one remote location to another. To maintain his grip on sanity, he recorded his daily experiences in makeshift journals: in a checkbook; on children’s notebooks; and on scraps of paper scrounged during his ordeal. Hargrove’s story, originally published in 1995, was the basis for the major motion picture Proof of Life, starring Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan. Now available again in paperback, Long March to Freedom chronicles one man’s spirited determination to hang onto life and faith amid nearly impossible circumstances.

Long March to Freedom: The True Story of a Colombian Kidnapping

Biographies & Memoirs

Hargrove, Tom

Historical

Texas A&M University Press

In June 1969, Tom Hargrove arrived in Vietnam as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army. But he wasn’t just there to make war against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese armies; Hargrove was also to introduce improved rice varieties into the war-torn region. This unique memoir tells of Hargrove’s efforts to improve the everyday lives of the Vietnamese, even as he was calling in B-52 strikes against opposition forces. It also relates the story of his return to Vietnam in 1988 and 1990 to observe the progress of the “Green Revolution” he had helped initiate with the introduction of “miracle rice.” In a dramatic twist, his guide on both visits had been a local Viet Cong political officer: a man who could have had Hargrove killed. The rice had improved the lives of the people of the land and preserved the life of Tom Hargrove, though he hadn’t known it at the time. This account of the U.S. Army’s attempts to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people—an attempt that failed strategically but ultimately achieved its humanitarian goals—is a vital contribution to the ongoing history and literature of the Vietnam era. Hargrove’s dramatic juxtaposition of the sword and the plowshare brings into sharp contrast the paradox of this pivotal time in history.

A Dragon Lives Forever: War and Rice in Vietnam's Mekong Delta (Volume 12) (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)

Leaders & Notable People

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hargrove, Tom. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hargrove, Tom

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hargrove, Tom. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Long March to Freedom: The True Story of a Colombian Kidnapping

A Dragon Lives Forever: War and Rice in Vietnam's Mekong Delta (Volume 12) (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)