# What was the story on the Vietnam prisoner story @20 years ago.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-story-on-the-vietnam-prisoner-story-20-years-ago/420550>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 26, 2007, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-story-on-the-vietnam-prisoner-story-20-years-ago/420550 "2007-09-26T14:20:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-story-on-the-vietnam-prisoner-story-20-years-ago/420550/1 "2007-09-26T14:20:40Z")

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This was roughly 20 years ago. A photograph of a possible prisoner still being held in Vietnam surfaced. The person had a resemblance to (someone). I think some family members saw the photo and said it might be their MIA family member. The person in the photo was holding a sign that had some incomprehensible writing on it. Later, it turned out that the guy was a) not a prisoner, and b) he was an exotic bird smuggler(?).

Anyway, I haven’t been able to find the photo.

Anyone???

Also:

What was the back story on the photo and the weird writing?

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**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-story-on-the-vietnam-prisoner-story-20-years-ago/420550/2 "2007-09-26T15:43:31Z")

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According to [this,](http://www.miafacts.org/threeamigos.htm) a fake