--- title: The Vietnam War: POW Hal Kushner and Wife in LIFE Magazine description: When her husband—who is featured in the new docu-series 'The Vietnam War'—was a POW in Vietnam, she was on the cover of LIFE magazine. canonical: https://time.com/4936126/vietnam-war-kushner-pow-wife/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-28T13:00:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:08.802Z og:title: Behind the 'Vietnam War' Story of 'P.O.W. Wife' Valerie Kushner og:description: She was featured on the cover of LIFE in 1972 og:url: https://time.com/4936126/vietnam-war-kushner-pow-wife/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69a91f2fa53b70f0/6988dd3897cdff3b656b2627/valerie-kushner-pow-wife-20.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2322 og:image:height: 1306 og:image:alt: Valerie Kushner P.O.W. Wife og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Behind the 'Vietnam War' Story of 'P.O.W. Wife' Valerie Kushner twitter:description: She was featured on the cover of LIFE in 1972 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69a91f2fa53b70f0/6988dd3897cdff3b656b2627/valerie-kushner-pow-wife-20.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Behind the _Vietnam War_ Story of 'P.O.W. Wife' Valerie Kushner > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=fd64f08e-c4b6-4c3f-a8d9-2838322a0c86&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=fd64f08e-c4b6-4c3f-a8d9-2838322a0c86&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: the Influencers: Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sebastian Junger [Watch (HLS stream): the Influencers: Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sebastian Junger](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ApkZjOyL.m3u8) (6:16)  _Published 2017-09-26. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sebastian Junger on war and human nature_ by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Sep 28, 2017 1:00 PM UTC  Valerie Kushner with her children Toni Jean and Mike. Valerie Kushner with her children Toni Jean and Mike. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Sep 28, 2017 1:00 PM UTC When Valerie Kushner was on the cover of LIFE Magazine in 1972, there were 537 known prisoners of war in Vietnam and more than 1,000 men missing in action. As those men became something of a political football, LIFE [noted in that Sept. 29, 1972, cover story ](https://books.google.com/books?id=RlcEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false)that their families were caught in the middle. Initially, they had been told to keep quiet lest news about the [POWs](http://time.com/4934501/national-pow-mia-recognition-day-flag-history/) provoke their captors—a calculation [still in play](http://time.com/4876077/the-art-of-the-hostage-deal/) for some Americans dealing with analogous situations today. But President Nixon had decided that, after years of stalemate, it couldn’t hurt to have them come out of the shadows. Kushner was one of the people who did so with particular force. She was the wife of POW Harold Kushner, whose story is featured in the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick docu-series [_The Vietnam War._](http://time.com/vietnam-photos/) She was a founder of POW/MIA Families for Immediate Release, and the LIFE photograph that’s fourth in the gallery above appears in the documentary.  September 29, 1972 cover of LIFE magazine. LIFE Magazine “Her husband, a flight surgeon, was captured five years ago,” the magazine explained. “Reluctant to play the role of docile service wife, she seconded McGovern’s nomination at the Democratic convention and is now an active worker in his campaign. He is the last hope, she now believes, for her husband’s safe return.” In all the time he had been gone, Kushner had received only two letters from her husband. She wrote back despite knowing he did not receive the replies, although announcements he was forced to record by his captors were aired on Radio Hanoi. She believed that electing George McGovern, a Democratic Senator from South Dakota and a former pilot who championed withdrawing from Vietnam, was the only way to bring her husband home.  Letter from Hal Kushner. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Valerie was pregnant with the couple’s second child when Harold, known as Hal or “Spanky,” was shot down. The LIFE article, which made its way to Vietnam, was [the first time](http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/032308/met%5F261120891.shtml#.WcBI2Y5w1bs) that Hal Kushner saw a photograph of his son. His wife was raising both children with the help of their grandparents, but shunned any praise of her ability to maintain her political work as a single mother. “I never had any doubts about my own capabilities,” she told LIFE. In fact, she added with remarkable candor, she believed that being deprived of sex gave her plenty of extra energy to sublimate into other activities. “There are things that you miss more than sex, however,” she said. “I miss being loved more than being made love to.” But, she acknowledged, she believed that the return of the prisoners would be a preface to many divorces, as both sides realized that the partner they had lost was not the same person to whom they returned. McGovern lost the election, but Harold Kushner was released on March 16, 1973\. As _The Vietnam War_ reveals, however, Valerie’s prediction proved true: the man had survived, but the marriage would not.  Caption from LIFE. Only moment when the public eye is no longer on her does the strain of her long fight begin to show. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. There's no man around to help Valerie with her luggage, so she carries it herself (above in Danville, Va.) throughout her whistle-stop tours. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Valerie Kushner having a quiet moment alone. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Valerie Kushner gamely takes on an unsympathetic audience in Appleton, Wis. "She has nice legs, but she's been brainwashed," a Kiwanis member said later. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Valerie Kushner holding a stack of newspapers. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Eight-year-old Toni Jean (in a tender moment with her mother) was only 3 when her father was captured in South Vietnam. She still tells stories of things she and her daddy did together, however, and still answers the family phone, "Hello, Dr. Kushner's residence." Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Mike has a picture in his room of his father in a flight suit standing near a helicopter. When he plays with his GI Joe Rescue Helicopter, he questions his mother, "Is this helicopter anything like my Daddy's?" Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Mike loves his granddad, Bob Kushner, a dentist, tries hard to fill in for his missing son: he takes young Mike fishing, buys him toys and the two of them meet every Wednesday for lunch. "When Mike's father comes back Mike can start calling me 'Grandpa,' " Kushner says, "but until then I'm Bob and he's my buddy." Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Valeries Kushner with her children Toni Jean and Mike. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Valerie Kushner speaking with a group of people. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Mr. and Mrs. Vern Anshus, have a POW son, but they told Valerie in Hamilton, Ohio that they plan to vote for President Nixon. Although their son, Richard, added his name to a plea for peace made by Captain Kushner from Hanoi, they can't believe he was serious. "It was just a means of letting us know he's there." Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Sharon Walsh's husband was shot down in February 1969 and is now listed MIA. Like Valerie, she also works for McGovern. "But," says Sharon, "my activities are strictly political. I don't expect my husband to come home." Valerie admits, "I still feel guilty around Sharon when I mention that I got a letter from Spanky." On a campaign stop in Minneapolis, where Sharon lives, they had time for a long talk in the kitchen with Sharon's friend Dick Faunce. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Sharon and Valerie share an emotional goodbye at the airport. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. An intense Valerie delivers one more speech in River Falls, Wis.To maintain the pace of her grueling schedule, she chain-consumes Coke and cigarettes. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Valerie Kushner speaking with a group of people. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Valerie Kushner being interviewed. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Valerie Kushner preparing for an interview. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Valerie Kushner on the phone. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Valerie Kushner with her daughter Toni Jean riding her bike in the background. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Valerie Kushner with her children Toni Jean and Mike. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] We study war because we know, obviously, it brings out the worst. But we study war because it also brings out the very, very best. [ MUSIC ] The demonstrators resisted when police attempted to arrest a young man who tried to rip down an American flag. We spent ten years working on the Vietnam war. We wake up, and our films about mass demonstrations taking place all across the United States against the current administration. About a White House obsessed with leaks, in total disarray. About a president who thinks the press is lying and making stuff up about him. About asymmetrical warfare, about huge document drops of stolen classified material into the public sphere. And about accusations that a political campaign reached out during the time of a national election to influence that campaign And we kinda go wait a second, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. A quote that's attributed to Mark Twain. This is all Vietnam and hundreds of other things rhyme, and I'm thinking what you're doing and the kind of stuff you're trying to grapple with seems almost exactly the same thing we're trying to grapple with. But specifically about who these people are that we make Do the fighting that we ask to put their lives on the line. Well, you know I'm anthropologist and I look at all my journalism and film making through that lens. We're a dominant species because we're capable of organized aggression against enemies, we are mean. [ FOREIGN ] [ SOUND ] And I think you have this dynamic tension in human society which is why you keep getting these stories repeated over and over and over again You have the sort of the collective will of the people and there's a certain sense of egalitarianism and fairness. And then you have a very necessary sort of hierarchical structure that keeps order in society. And people in power then resort to a kind of top- down hierarchy and abuse it. If war is human behavior, human nature on steroids, then Also it shows the exaggerated positiveness of our species because in these moments of our worst behaviour we also see this empathetic tendencies, the love. The lost soldiers that I know of [ UNKNOWN ]. Right. A lot of people that I know who look through catastrophes. [ INAUDIBLE ] I know a woman who [ INAUDIBLE ] my first [ INAUDIBLE ] early 90's Right . >> Now decades later, I interviewed her and she said a lot of people in [ UNKNOWN ] missed the war - >> Yes, right . >> Because it brought everyone together [ MUSIC ] You know, from the Vietnam era as you were talking I'm thinking it's not just soldiers who feel that way, it's people who protested the war. They were part of something that was deeply meaningful to them and they thought they sacrificed. Some of them went to jail, went to Canada. You know, really committed themselves in a deep way to something they though was right. It didn't involve aggression in the way that Going to wars but there was a sense of life being higher, more powerful, more [ UNKNOWN ] like I was saying. [ UNKNOWN ] primarily two things a sense of meeting within our community and closeness and the closer you get to a catastrophe, to a disaster, to a war. The more people depend on you and vice versa. And that's what humans are evolved for. You clearly have studied this. I wanna know stuff to do. I don't mean no more wars. We know that's never gonna happen because, as you suggest, people are kind of excited about that stuff. But what is it that we and do? I mean we remember that sense of collective solidarity in a Few weeks post 9 / 11 that got squandered by the hierarchy that said go shopping, rather than please pay 50 cents more a gallon per gas. Right. Please don't do this. Please do this All of which every single American would have done. Done with glee but now we just got a kind of political sense in which we don't ask anything of Americans, we want to cut their taxes even more we want to do all this stuff and have the same smoke and mirrors. I'm not suggesting a political answer from you but there's a social and human set of actions, perhaps is the way to say it, that might help This. Psychologists will tell you the more you sacrifice for something the more you value it and the problem in modern America one says very lucky that we're such a wealthy safe nation that we don't require individual sacrifice of anyone. In some sense that's very lucky. But in other sense is actually not very good for us. I'm against the draft, I think it's [ UNKNOWN ] for someone to fight a war that they don't believe in but I would be completely for national service. Yeah, we agree completely. Yes. [ CROSSTALK ] And if you do that, because people are sacrificing a year or two of their lives towards this collective goal of having this nation You raise the value of the nation in people's hearts and that's when you start to feel a real part of something. I mean, just thinking about Vietnam and we've been thinking about it for so long that the lack of [ UNKNOWN ] was usually traumatic for soldiers and for the people on the other side, too. That the country didn't know there was such incredible. Profound cognitive dissonance That's right. About what we were doing. And it was on every level. Modern society is easy on the body and hard on the mind. Most of the country, Democrat or Republican, either way, I think most people want a kind of collective good for country Yes, I agree. Right? The country has to come up with norms of behavior that confront and contradict what has happened in our political world. In a crisis obviously, we've seen in Texas, people do that immediately. Right. Right, no black, white, rich, poor, no one cares. Right. That's humans at their best. But can we achieve that without the hurricane, without the war, without the fight, can we do it? I think we can, but we have to espouse it in a proactive way. Well, it seems like counting on the politicians to beat in the lead on that is probably unlikely, but it can bubble up through the way people tell stories and the way human experiences [ CROSSTALK ]. [ CROSSTALK ]. [ MUSIC ]. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4936126/vietnam-war-kushner-pow-wife/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4936126/vietnam-war-kushner-pow-wife/"},"headline":"Behind the Vietnam War Story of 'P.O.W. 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