{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = William Martin Hendon | image =Bill Hendon.png | caption =Bill Hendon circa 1985 | image_size=150px | birth_date = {{Birth date|1944|11|09}} | birth_place = Asheville, North Carolina, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|06|20|1944|11|09}} | death_place =Forest City, North Carolina, U.S. | state = North Carolina | district = 11th | term_start = January 3, 1981 | term_end = January 3, 1983 | preceded = V. Lamar Gudger | succeeded = James McClure Clarke | term_start3 = January 3, 1985 | term_end3 = January 3, 1987 | preceded3 = James McClure Clarke | succeeded3 = James McClure Clarke | party = Republican | spouse = | alma_mater=University of Tennessee, Knoxville }} '''William Martin Hendon''' (November 9, 1944 – June 20, 2018) was an American author, POW/MIA activist, and two-term Republican U.S. Congressman from North Carolina's 11th District.
==Political career== In 1980, Hendon ousted two-term incumbent Democrat V. Lamar Gudger to become the first Republican to represent what is now the 11th since 1929. For the rest of the decade, Hendon's rivalry with Democrat Jamie Clarke gained national attention. In 1982, Clarke defeated Hendon's bid for re-election by less than 1,500 votes. In 1984 Hendon gained revenge by defeating Clarke's bid for re-election by just two percentage points—likely helped by Ronald Reagan's landslide victory. In their third consecutive meeting in 1986 Hendon lost to Clarke by one percentage point. Despite being encouraged to run against Clarke for a fourth time in 1988, Hendon declined.
==Post-political career== thumb|left|Hendon inspecting a Vietnam War-era prison, 30 miles (48 km) south of Hanoi, 1993. His 2007 New York Times bestseller,<ref name="NYTbeseller">{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/books/bestseller/0617besthardnonfiction.html | title = New York Times Best Sellers: Hardcover nonfiction, June 17, 2007 | newspaper = New York Times | date = 2007-06-17}}</ref> [http://www.enormouscrime.com ''An Enormous Crime''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070601064726/http://www.enormouscrime.com/ |date=2007-06-01 }}, co-written with attorney Elizabeth Stewart, argues that American soldiers were abandoned in Indochina following the Vietnam War. In its review, ''Publishers Weekly'' stated, "controversial former North Carolina congressman Hendon and attorney Stewart make the case that the U.S. knowingly left hundreds of POWs in Vietnam and Laos in 1973, and that every presidential administration since then has covered it up."<ref>{{Cite journal | title = Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 4/9/2007 | journal = Publishers Weekly | issue = May 2007 | date = 2007-04-09 | url = http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-312-37126-5 | access-date = 2010-02-17}}</ref> ''Kirkus Reviews'' called it "a sprawling indictment of eight U.S. Administrations.… A convincing, urgent argument."<ref>{{Cite journal | title = An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia | journal = Kirkus Reviews | issue = May 2007 | date = 2007-04-15 | url = http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/bill-hendon/an-enormous-crime | access-date = 2010-02-17}}</ref>
One day prior to the release of ''An Enormous Crime'', ''The Raleigh News & Observer'' ran a story about a passage in Douglas Brinkley's ''The Reagan Diaries,'' wherein President Ronald Reagan, following a briefing by then-Vice President George H. W. Bush, wrote that Hendon was "off his rocker" with allegations about Americans held in Vietnam.<ref name="Reagan Diary">{{cite news | url = http://www.newsobserver.com/659/story/582501.html | archive-url = https://archive.today/20070514111849/http://www.newsobserver.com/659/story/582501.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2007-05-14 | title = Reagan dissed N.C. lawmaker in his diary | newspaper = The Raleigh News & Observer | date = 2007-05-28 }}</ref> Bush's feelings aside, after Hendon was narrowly defeated (50.7% to 49.3%) in the 1986 mid-term elections,<ref>{{Cite news | title = How the West Was Won: U.S. House | newspaper = Asheville Citizen | location = Asheville, North Carolina | pages = 16 | date = 1986-11-06 }}</ref> Reagan appointed him to the board of directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Hendon withdrew his name from consideration for the post in the face of stiff Senate Democratic opposition to his environmental record, and instead accepted a position with the pro-defense American Defense Institute.<ref name="tva">{{cite news | last = Molotsky | first = Irvin |author2=Weaver Jr., Warren | title = Washington Talk: Briefing; Turning Down the T.V.A. | newspaper = The New York Times | location = New York, NY | pages = B4 | date = 1987-02-23 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/23/us/washington-talk-briefing-turning-down-the-tva.html | access-date = 2010-02-17}}</ref> He would remain an active voice on the POW/MIA issue until his death in 2018.
Hendon died on June 20, 2018, under hospice care in Forest City, North Carolina after long illness at the age of 73.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/north-carolina/articles/2018-06-26/former-north-carolina-congressman-bill-hendon-dies-at-73|title=Former North Carolina Congressman Bill Hendon Dies at 73|magazine=US News|date=June 26, 2018|access-date=June 26, 2018}}</ref>
==Tenure in the United States Congress== *97th United States Congress (1981–1983) *99th United States Congress (1985–1987)
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=North Carolina | district=11 | before=V. Lamar Gudger | after=James McClure Clarke | years=1981–1983}} {{US House succession box | state=North Carolina | district=11 | before=James McClure Clarke | after=James McClure Clarke | years=1985–1987 }} {{s-end}}
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
== External links == *[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000490 Biography], The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress *[https://www.archives.gov/publications/ref-info-papers/90/appendix-m.html A Finding Aid to Records Relating to American Prisoners of War and Missing in Action from the Vietnam War Era, 1960–1994], The National Archives, compiled 1996 *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060507022814/http://www.usvetdsp.com/story19.htm Hanoi and Washington Officials Reneging on Promises of Joint POW/MIA Cooperation], ''U.S. Veteran Dispatch'', February/March 1995 *[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/05/world/world-news-briefs-mia-hunter-in-hanoi-chains-himself-to-gate.html M.I.A. Hunter in Hanoi Chains Himself to Gate], ''The New York Times'', June 5, 1995 *[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/09/world/world-news-briefs-vietnam-ousts-american-over-the-pow-issue.html Vietnam Ousts American Over the P.O.W. Issue], ''The New York Times'', June 9, 1995 * {{C-SPAN|13679}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hendon, Bill}} Category:1944 births Category:2018 deaths Category:American political writers Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Politicians from Asheville, North Carolina Category:University of Tennessee alumni Category:University of Tennessee faculty Category:Republican Party United States representatives from North Carolina Category:Activists from North Carolina Category:Vietnam War POW/MIA activists Category:20th-century United States representatives