It has been 33 years since the USA ended involvement in the Vietnam War. Vietnam is now a major trading partner of the USA, and trade with Vietnam is growing. So why do some people believe that Vietnam is keeping elderly American POWs in remote jungle camps?
The whole idea makes no sense to me.
Yet you see this flag displayed everywhere-why?
I think it’s more of a remembrance thing than a plea for their release, although I’m sure there’s some out there who might think there’s still some out there.
Maybe it was because they had to cover that hole in their sheetrock somehow and the Confederate battle flag was too controversial.
While I seriously doubt there are 70 year old PoWs still alive in North Vietnam, it wouldn’t astonish me at all to know that there were some killed 33 years ago rather than returned alive. From everything I’ve read the VC included some straight up bloody bastards (many of them admittedly had valid reason to hate the USA and its soldiers, but bastards still) who didn’t give a damn about the Geneva Convention and could have blown away helpless PoWs and never lost a minute of sleep. A lot of MIAs have wives/children/assorted family members who remember them [even a few parents]/and friends who are not so quick to forgive and forget. To quote Chris Rock, “Not saying I agree with them, but I understand”.
I agree that by now it’s more of a general MIA remembrance/account for everyone/leave none behind flag – there are quite a few unaccounted for yet.
One thing that surprised me was seeing it flying above the local post office the other day.
ISTM that private individuals should certainly be free to fly any banner they wish, but I would not expect the same of a public institution.
Does anyone know what - if any - relationship exists between POW/MIA groups and federal government institutions?
How did you manage to take the fact that Vietnam is now a major trading partner of the USA, and leap to the conclusion that therefore none of the POWs are now MIA?
They’re flying the flags because of someone who was listed as a MIA POW. They’re still missing; the flags are still flying. Whether or not we’re doing business with Vietnam has nothing at all to do with them still being missing.
There were tens of thousands of American troops listed as MIA at the end of WWII, where we controlled the battlefield afterwards. Ditto WWI.
There are MIAs after almost every war.
But the POW/MIA flag is about POWs that the Vietnamese supposedly held. Just look at the flag. And that’s a big fucking lie. Report after report has verified that the North Vietnamese didn’t retain some hidden cache of U.S. prisoners after we settled with them in 1973. Unfortunately, the Atlantic online archives only go back to 1995, because they summed up the assorted reports in a piece on the POW myth back around 1990.
It was basically a way for the wingnuts to refuse to admit defeat over Vietnam, AFAICT.
IIRC, legislation was passed awhile back requiring Federal buildings to fly the POW flag.
Was this really necessary? Nothing about the flag limits its application to Vietnam. You are aware that we have some people categorized as MIAs right now in Iraq, aren’t you?
Why is it necessary for you to turn everything into an insult?
Hmm. Never noticed. I’m in and out of federal buildings every day. I’ll have to check and will post my observations later on.
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My husband flies one. For us, it’s in remembrance of those who were held or lost and didn’t come back.
We were just in DC last month and they have a symbol next to the names of POWs and MIAs on the Wall. I think it’s a circle that can have an “x” marked into it if/when someone returns (I hope I remembered that right). So far, they have not altered a single symbol on the wall.
Technically the scope of the POW/MIA flag is limited to “southeast Asia,” I believe.
It’s remembrance plain and simple. I have a friend who is part of a council of veterans who talks with college groups and other veterans groups about the war in Vietnam and dealing with our current war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One thing he said that resonates loud and clear when asked if he feels a sense of community around verterans in the U.S.
There isn’t any.
Meaning (some) people who are not directly involved don’t want to know about what happened in Vietnam, and further they don’t even want to see anything about it.
I think remembrance is a way towards compassion. I hope anyway.
Don’t try to cast what I said as only applying to MIA. I referred to MIA POWs. And it is the government referring to them as such; not “wingnuts”. Here is a searchable database of Vietnam MIA/POWs. Notice that “PP” (= prisoner of war, apparently) is one of the possible Status options. I’m not searching through the whole thing to find if any are still listed as PP status, but it wouldn’t surprise me. If you think that the government does not have anyone still listed as a prisoner of war from Vietnam, knock yourself out.
But it still has nothing at all to do with the premise of the OP that POW/MIA flags shouldn’t still be flown, because Vietnam trades with the USA.
It was in fact about Vietnam. You’re welcome to attach other meanings to the POW/MIA flag, but it was about Vietnam.
???
No prob; I was separating the two out; the blurring of the two concepts isn’t helpful.
Might check out the report of the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Missing Persons in Southeast Asia, aka the Montgomery Commission. It concluded that the number of POWs being held by the Vietnamese was zero. As have subsequent reports.
They shouldn’t be flown because they are based on a lie.
How is it then, that the Library of Congress database I posted lists this guy still as Prisoner of War status? That’s just one, took me about a minute of searching to find and google up his background from the POWnetwork.
Two parts of the US government apparently can’t agree whether or not there should still be anybody listed as POW from the Vietnam era. It is certainly understandable that people who actually care about POW/MIA still fly the flag.
Convinced, but cannot prove, that had it not been for Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone, aided and abetted by those durn Hollywood libruls, there would not be any such “controversy”.
That’s not exactly an official government site you’ve got there. It doesn’t even look like an impartial site. It looks like an axe-to-grind site.
ETA: I see one of the main links off the main page is titled, “Facts about Hanoi Jane.”
Yep, real good cite you’ve got there.