Michael Hiam’s book on Sam Adams is in renewed demand after whistle-blower Edward Snowden wins Sam Adams Integrity in Intelligence award

News of the award, recently reported by Eileen Kersey at Allvoices.com, spurred a rise in sales of used copies of Hiam’s book “Who the Hell Are We Fighting?”: The Story of Sam Adams and the Vietnam Intelligence Wars (Steerforth Press, 2006). Sam Adams, a CIA analyst during the Vietnam War, made shocking discoveries about the Johnson administration’s deceptive public statements on Viet Cong troop strength, bringing about Westmoreland v. CBS—at the time the biggest libel case in U.S. history—after Adams’s revelations were reported by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes.

Adams, a fascinating American figure—a rumpled, “downwardly mobile WASP,” Harvard-educated scion of the great presidential family, principled patriot, doomed hero—is the subject of Michael Hiam’s highly regarded book—which fell out of print in 2009.

Steerforth cover (2006)