Do you think Americans were still alive and POW's after the Vietnam War ended.

1. 88

   crazyhorsesghostposted 12 years ago

   Do you think Americans were still alive and POW's after the Vietnam War ended.
   
   There has been much debate about the MIA/POW issue about Americans left behind in Vietnam after the war ended. Do you think American's were left behind. Do you think their is the possibility that Americans are still alive in Vietnam or another Southeast Asian country. You have to keep in mind that there was at least one. He was Robert Garwood and he did not return to the United States until 1979. He was captured in 1965.
   
   What do you think the U.S. Government should have done about the POW/MIA issue.
   
   

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2. 60

   JohnMposted 12 years ago

   I fear that their may have been quite a few men left behind and a few like Robert Garwood chose to stay. But I really do believe some Americans may have been held prisoner there long after the war ended. If so it is one of America's greatest shames. Nixon also happened about this time and I think it may have made people forget the MIA's. But we should never forget.

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3. 60

   CherMyOpinionposted 12 years ago

   There are many that were left behind. Just like all other wars in the world. That's just common sense.

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4. 67

   Perspycaciousposted 12 years ago

   The Vietnam Peace Accords made no mention of possible American prisoners in Laos or Cambodia, thus there was no formal accunting for them.  We are recovering remains from crash sites, but many pilots were known to have bailed out and to have been alive on reaching the ground.  Was it really "the end of their stories"?

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5. 47

   Ericdierkerposted 11 years ago

   How sad. Of course we cannot break cleanly from a war. It just does not happen. Also the North Vietnamese regime was not all that stable. Of course they cut off all communication with the world for awhile. And of course there was absolutely no transparency for over a decade. A single general could easily have held captives for years without anyone finding out. For sure some mountain communes could have kept slaves and no one would have known. And anyone who has traveled there knows some stayed by choice, even POWs upon release. I had a room mate who was in the advance action to stop Pol Pot and the killing fields. He reported little "tribes" in the borderlands seeming Americans were part of a community isolated.
   
   We can look at failed American policy especially Roosevelt and Truman and our brotherhood with the French for the beginning of that legacy. Over 60 years later we can see free trade and an ally against the Chinese. But within my community the hatred here still runs deep in some circles, so much so that if they had a Northern Vietnamese communist in their midst they could easily keep him as a prisoner or outright kill him. Maybe my Amerasian son, will grow to see a true peace.

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