I have been told that presidents don't lie, Joint Chiefs don't lie, congressmen and senators don't lie. I guess only working-class tax slaves lie.
I happened to mention the POWs left in Vietnam issue to a friend on the West Coast recently. This is his reply:
"My Name is XXXXXX. I was an HM3 (Hospital man 3rd class petty officer) aboard the aircraft carrier Ranger CV-61. We were cruising up and down the coast of unified Vietnam a little over the horizon from land one day off the former South Vietnam. We ran into a huge debris field of shattered small boats, people clinging to wreckage and general floating mayhem in the water. We rescued at least a couple of hundred men women and children over the course of a couple of days. I was present for the whole thing, and, as a result of my own actions, was promoted by "field" promotion at sea from 3rd class petty officer to 2nd class petty officer.
"By small boat and by helicopter, groups of Vietnamese were brought in, given food, water, medical care and made to feel safe and outside the reach of the pirates and Communist small boat patrols that had intercepted their mass attempt to flee Vietnam in boats (boat people). They had first robbed them of any valuables, raped the women and then, in parting, opened fire on them, shooting boats with small arms fire ramming the larger wooden boats and just having a great old-fashioned type of massacre. Over and over in front of me, English-speaking Vietnamese were asked if they had seen any Americans after the war had ended for us. Every single time I was present for the initial de-briefing of older men, younger men, women and girls, all of them in small groups and singly, answered the same. I heard it with my own ears and saw them with my own eyes.
"These people had no reason to lie. I heard them report seeing American prisoners in the back of transport trucks, in road work gangs, on the coast made to work on coast roads, etc., etc. It was dismaying to the extreme to the point that when I was discharged in 1982, I wrote a really nice detailed letter with names, dates, ranks and everything to the head of Veteran affairs at the time thinking, 'man oh man, I really am going to blow the lid off of this whole POW-MIA thing!'
"Ha! No response, ever!
"I know for a fact that American POWs were left behind in Vietnam, and anyone who says otherwise is not informed correctly. I finished my active duty with the Marine Corps as a field corpsman, and I actually had a lot of respect for the Marine corps history and NCO leadership, but this persistent blind patriotism by 'some' Marines is getting dangerously tired and needs to stop. The Marine Corps, along with the entire American citizenry, has been betrayed by - you know it - the U.S. government. P.S One of the favorite drinking songs of real Marines was Barry Sadlers' 'Barracks Trooper.' Enough said!"
