I'm going to stick my neck out and probably invite the wrath of every Vietnam era veteran who peruses this forum, but I feel the need to bring up a very sensitive subject for your comments, one that's been on my mind since that war ended, and which refuses to go away: the prisoner of war issue. It cannot be denied that the N Vietnamese kept American POWs in appalling conditions, and exploited them shamelessly for political purposes. Likewise, it is a matter of record that those POWs were brutally mistreated and viciously tortured both in an attempt to break them psychologically and to intimidate them into betraying their country by making political statements favorable to their captors. It is also a matter of record that our POWs responded to these abuses with great courage, and often, by sacrificing their health or their lives. Having said that, the American response to this shameful treatment has also been characterized by political exploitation and cynical posturing.

After the war ended, and the prisoners were returned, the story persisted that some American servicemen were still being held by the Vietnamese. I do not fault the veteran's organizations and families which struggled to keep this issue in the public eye, that is certainly to be expected, but I do accuse those who hijacked this honest sentiment and attempted to turn it to political advantage. I am not speaking of any organized political party here, neither mainstream Republicans nor Democrats had anything to gain by keeping an inflammatory issue in the public eye which they could do nothing about. I am pointing my finger at those who continued bringing it up primarily as a means of discrediting those who didn't support their other political agendas.

The fact that many GIs were missing during the war, and that some of these were known to have been taken prisoner, was seized on as evidence that large numbers of prisoners were still in enemy hands long after the war ended and prisoners exchanged. There is simply no evidence of this, although I concede that if there was it would certainly be in the interest, and within the capability, of their captors to keep it hidden. But the fact remains, no evidence has turned up after thirty years, many remains have been recovered (with Vietnamese cooperation) and forensically studied, and even such impeccable witnesses as Senator McCain do not believe that other prisoners are still in Communist hands. In fact, I submit that not only is there no reason for the Vietnamese to keep these prisoners, it is in their best interest today that this issue be settled once and for all; they seek better relations with the USA and hold no more grudges against us than they do with the Chinese, Japanese or the French.

Men who were taken prisoner and have never been repatriated most likely died in in captivity, probably as a result of their combat wounds or the harsh treatment they received (and I do not rule out deliberate execution). Some were probably killed by US military action; it would not be the first time that enemy units and facilities holding prisoners came under attack by the forces of the other side with great loss of life and destruction of all evidence by the weapons of modern war. I doubt that the VC or the NVA were as conscientous about keeping detailed records as we were. Most important, it makes no logical sense, from the Vietnamese point of view, to hold these men alive as captives. Their very existence would now be an embarassment to them, and prisoners have no political or propaganda value if you dare not admit you are holding them. In fact, if there were any POWs still in Vietnamese hands, it would have been in their interest to have executed them long ago, and hidden the remains where they would not be likely to be found. I am not claiming here that the Vietnamese were noble and chivalrous opponents, it is precisely because they were not that it is extremely unlikely that any of these men survive alive, if they ever existed at all. They would be incriminating evidence, to be disposed of as quickly as possible. Unlike the Islamic terrorists which execute their captives and proudly proclaim and publicize the executions for political purposes, there is no political purpose of the Vietnamese that would be served by letting the world find out they were holding Americans, or that they had murdered any of them.

The use of the POWs as a domestic political issue, particularly since the McCain mission, seems to have subsided recently, but it was used as a bludgeon for many years against uncooperative politicians of both sides of the political aisle. No one dared bring up the points I mentioned above for fear of being accused of "letting our boys down".