Few issues in America have been more contentious or painful than the fate of the thousands of U.S. servicemen who were imprisoned or went missing during the Vietnam War. In his book, Until the Last Man Comes Home, Michael Allen, associate professor of history at Northwestern University, points out that President Richard Nixon—a man who campaigned in 1968 on his “secret plan” to end the conflict—was among the first to politicize the issue, parading the wives of prisoners on television in 1969 to justify his expansion of the war. “We've got those liberal bastards on the run now!” he reportedly crowed.