A US Army helicopter pilot shotdown and captured by the North Vietnamese wrote a fine book on his experiences as a POW and provides an account of his extradtion to Hanoi along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In his book he notes the various intelligence services had photographs of him while being moved along the trail.
There was no attempt to effect a rescue for him or his group of POW's.
The explanations provided by the US Government as to why there were no attempts made to rescue him prompted him to write his book.
The following link leads to a research effort regarding the 1970 Cambodia Incursion which sheds a lot of light on the various failures of senior commands and political leaders. It also incorporates other embarrassing events that our national leadership probably would rather not hear about.
After reading this lengtht article, one will have a much better appreciation for the individual accounts set forth in the various books listed as being good reads.
It took Keith Nolan's...."Into Cambodia" for me to begin to understand what my daily activities did to contribute to that major action. As is usual in combat operations, one's own perspective is very limited in reach but with hearing the "rest of the story", it means much more.
That link is:
http://members.aol.com/spur317f/private/cambodia.htm