Vietnam II: A War Novel Episode 1 (V2) Read Online Free Page B

not release the French POWs immediately when they pulled out.  If we could prove that we could establish precedent.”  I told the two Daves in an attempt to strike up a conversation.
    “I heard that from some of the veterans I talked to as well.”  Ellington said.  “How many was it?”
    “The rumor is that there were 13 French POWs captured at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and they were not released until 16 years later.  I cannot verify the source of this claim so it seems rather dubious.”  I said.
    “It is.”  Dave Smith broke in.  “I called the French Embassy.  Their spokesman said that all French passengers were released in 1954 in an agreement with the North Vietnamese.”
    “What about other POWs?  The ones released during Operation Homecoming.  What did they have to say on the subject?”
    “I skimmed four biographies last night, no mentions of POWs left behind.”
    “Shut up.”
     
     

Technical Sergeant Tony Luciano
    Air Force Operations Intelligence Specialist
    San Antonio, Texas
     
    I interviewed retired Brigadier General Coker at Fort Sam Houston where he worked as a civilian.  He was at MACV during the heydays of the Vietnam War.  He was an advocate for searching for POWs in the late 1970’s after the fall of South Vietnam.
    “You have to understand this POW/MIA issue is unique to the Vietnam War.  Do you know how many American soldiers were unaccounted for after World War II?”
    “More than in Vietnam?”
    “A lot more.  78,751 American soldiers were missing or unaccounted for.  That is 20,000 more than the total number of American servicemen killed in Vietnam.  Same thing with the Korean War.  Only four years but it resulted in 8,177 MIAs.  Yet neither of these conflicts prompted widespread protests and demands for government inquiries.”
    “Why is Vietnam unique?”
    “Two possible explanations.  Part of the problem is, of course, because we lost the war.  We do not have immediate access to places where missing soldiers were last seen alive.” 
    “That’s one way of looking at it.  What about the second explanation?”
    “Well Operation Homecoming was used as a substitute for the victory parades that preceding wars had.  Without victory America needed something to symbolize closure.  After Operation Homecoming the MIA families felt that the country and the military in particular, were too quick to forget the war, and therefore also forgetting their sons and husbands.  What's more, the MIAs have become a matter of American honor.  Vietnam was the first war we lost.  With it went a lot of our prestige.  Their return would symbolize the restoration of that honor that was lost when we lost the war.”
    He hesitated and made a funny face.  I decided to dig a little further.
    “You think there is more to it?”
    “Turn off the recorder.”
    I did.
    “Now this is just between you and me.  If you put it on paper I will deny it.”
    “Understood sir.”
    “Far from forgetting these sons and brothers, the government has used them for political use over successive administrations.  Alternately suppressing the families' requests for information and helping them in publicizing their cause.  The results have been cruelly misleading for the families and American people.”
    “Initially, in 1966 President Johnson conducted secret negotiations regarding the POWs with the North Vietnamese government in Paris.  They believed it would be detrimental to the talks, as well as to the prisoners, to publicize the problem. Administration officials told the families of POWs and MIAs to keep quiet."
    “Then just a few years later President Nixon, aware of the families' growing frustration, decided to champion their cause.  The administration went public with the POW issue in hopes it would force the Vietnamese to follow the rules of the Geneva Convention.  POW and MIA families were featured at press conferences and demonstrations.  Nixon was behind the formation of the