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From: Lisa Kuczynski
T1: KuczynskiL@Alpha.Montclair.Edu
Date: 10/7/97
Time: 8:02:58 AM
Remote Name: 130.68.1.41
The reading of Franklin's book made me think of all of the movies that I have seen dealing with the issue of POW's/MIA's. I remember watching the "Rambo" and "Missing in Action movies wondering if there really were American soldiers still being held captive over in Vietnam. For years, I never really questioned the information. The Franklin book is very much an eye opener. In it, he tries to shake us of the myth that has been created by the US government in their efforts to manipulate the American people into supporting the extension of the war and the treatment of the Vietnamese thereafter. I was shocked at the lack of evidence there is to support the claims of the government. Think about how many lives could have been saved had the US government not wanted justification for their actions and were willing to go to any lengths to achieve their ends. I have seen so many of the POW/MIA stickers, pins, bracelets, flags,etc. I hadn't given thought to what this is doing to the families of those who were in the war. Franklin presents numerous accounts of ways in which the numbers were manipulated, reports were distorted, and people were mislead. The government placed people on the list that they knew were dead, because they didn't have the written statements from the Vietnamese government. Basically, our government can do anything it pleases and find ways of justifying it. I hadn't realized the intensity of the movement. Think of those families who have been told that their loved one could still be alive but living under the cruelest circumstances. There is no closure for these people. I didn't live through the war, I was born in 1975, but the effects of the war linger in this country. Just what is our government trying to accomplish with their actions? Franklin's argument is so compelling. Franklin makes it clear with his presentation of the evidence that there aren't any live POW's/MIA's. He points out the thousands of live Vietnam Veterans that have been pretty much ignored by the US government since thier return. What about their needs? What Franklin points out, and I was surprised to learn is that there are hundreds of thousands listed as MIA from previous wars, yet so much attention has been paid to just the small number from Vietnam. Another thing, no one seems to want to discuss the numbers on the opposite side. Our government continues to make extreme demands on the Vietnamese, yet we don't reciprocate. They have thousands unaccounted for. If they, according to our government, are responsible for providing the exact records of every single one of our men, aren't we also?