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An Alberta man with a recently self-published memoir about being a soldier in the Vietnam War has confessed to plagiarizing the entire experience .

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Author Dennis Surrendi’s memoir,

Set Me Free,

was discovered as being almost identical in content to Robert Mason’s 1983 war memoir

Chickenhawk.

Mason had received a letter from an Irish reader who had been a fan of

Chickenhawk,

which has sold nearly half a million copies since its release, and noticed the striking similarities.

Set Me Freedescribes Surrendi being drafted into the United States Army while attending the University of Wisconsin. According to Surrendi, despite being Canadian and in the United States on a work visa, two CIA agents approached him with draft papers because of his athletic and scholastic background. Surrendi’s fabrications included stating he was one of the most decorated non-Americans serving in the Vietnam War by receiving two Purple Hearts, the Bronze Star for bravery and the Silver Star. None of these things happened to Surrenid, and in fact all of these accomplishments are lifted from the pages of Chickenhawk.