I’m looking for facts more than opinions here so I put this in GQ, not IMHO or GD – and frankly I’d like to keep it that way. But the mods can move it if they like, natch.
I have never followed this this topic very closely but I did grow up as the Vietnam War was ending, so I’ve been alive and aware for as long as the whole POW-MIA flag issue has been around.
My sense was that soon after the VW there was a large grassroots contention – dare I say conspiracy theory – here in the USA that the North Vietnamese still held many American POWs which they refused to acknowledge or release. The POW-MIA flag was created to act as a reminder and rallying point for this contention.
Well, it’s been about 30 years later and the flags are still flying all over America. But to the best of my recollection there has never been anything (other than a body identified here or discovered there) that comes close to validating the theory behind those flags.
So, do people who rally under those flags still believe there are hordes of US servicemen in NV prison camps who have yet to be released? If so, is there solid evidence to back such a claim.
Or have those flags merely evolved into generic icons of tribute and rememberance for all fallen and unfound VW vets?
(If so, I think they should be retired or redesigned to be inclusive of the vets of all wars. But that’s just one Doper’s opinion.)
My grandfather thinks there are still POWs in Russia, not to mention Viet Nam. He’s very adamant about it and I’m not willing to debate the issue with him, but I gather that this belief is not based on evidence, but on a list of reasons why it’s plausible that they would have the ability and the motivation to continue to hold American GIs. But mostly I think it stems from, dare I say it, the emotional damage that was done to him by his experience as a WWII POW.
For his sake, I have a POW/MIA sticker, and my mom has a license plate frame on her car. We show them to honor those who sacrificed for their country, not because we think that there are POWs still being held today.
Whether there are still living VietNam war POWs or not, there are thousands of families whose military relatives never came home and were never accounted for. I wear an MIA bracelet because as long as one person knows a missing man’s name, he won’t be forgotten.
Oh, and I don’t believe the North Vietnamese made anything close to a full disclosure of the prisoners they had when the war ended. As to whether any of the unaccounted for POWs is still alive, who can say? Until they’re all accounted for (and that’ll never happen - there are unaccounted for MIA soldiers from WWI and WWII), it’s still a relevant issue in my eyes.
Oh, and Bradministrator, that Gulf War pilot’s name is Cmdr. Jeffrey Speicher - the first pilot shot down during the war. The wreckage of his F/A-18 was found a few years ago, and apparently evidence at the crash site contradicted the account the Iraqis gave on what happened to him.
I recently interviewed Admiral Stockdale, one of the more famous Vietnam POWs. To my surprise, he stated that he didn’t think that there were any American POWs still alive in Vietnam. he thought that the lifestyle (no medical care, bad food, lcak of resistance) would kill most captive Americans in the countryside> He also felt that there would be no upside, but a huge downside for the Vietnamese if an American was found.
As mentioned before, both of the OP alternatives are true – there are still people who believe there is ongoing deliberate hiding of past POW/MIAs, AND those that hold it as a symbol honoring those names never accounted for, who don’t even have the Wall. Which BTW doesn’t exclude the possibility that there may have been no living POW/MIAs post-1974 but that various governments (here and abroad) would rather not dig into what DID happen to the missing (e.g. death by mistreatment; bungling of rescue operations; friendly fire)
The flag/emblem can still be considered a call for a full accounting – anywhere that any American servicemen may have gone MIA. A sort of reminder that we’ve fallen short of our stated principle to “leave none behind”.
I do advisory work for a member of the PR Legislature and she keeps a POW/MIA flag alongside the PR and USA flags in her office.