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.

His 2007 New York Times bestseller,[1] An Enormous Crime, 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.

[4] Bush's feelings aside, after Hendon was narrowly defeated (50.7% to 49.3%) in the 1986 mid-term elections,[5] 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.