They never did come back, and that fact has been hidden by both Republican and Democratic administrations.

They were left, as your excerpt says, until the US met the commitment Kissinger and Nixon gave for reconstruction funds.

However, Nixon left the White House in disgrace and the mood of the country was to just get the hell out. I remember Congress being unwilling to appropriate $26 million for ammunition for the South Vietnamese in the last days. That was after billions, and hundreds of thousands of lives. The last $26 million was too much.

Well, we did get out, we didn't give 'em anything, and those people are still there. Americans, acting under the orders of their government, were knowingly abandoned.

Another interesting story is the one about the US troops left behind in Korea. There were several hundred, all pilots and aircrew, who came down either in China or the Soviet Union.

That's for another time, but they were left behind with the connivance of Eisenhower, and their plight has been ignored by every administration since. Again, Americans acting under the orders of their government, were knowingly abandoned.

Absolutely hard to believe. I thought those claims were extremist BS, it wouldn't have happened. Not wanting to experience "contempt prior to investigation" I researched the matter, and it's absolutely true. A part of me died when I realized my country would do that. Maybe I was just naive.

Arf