Negotiating With The Taliban.

[Barrister]

(also, were there actually any POW left in vietnam? I know there were lots of MIAs, but were there actually any POWS?)

I'm thinking here, if there were any POWs left in Vietnam after the war, and the US didn't want to pay for them, or admit to any kind of war crimes in Vietnam (the theory usually used in movies like Norris&Rambo), then why keep them?  It costs money to keep a POW camp open, so why not liquidate them?

Vietnam never acknowledged any remaining POWs.  They were all returned after the Paris Peace Accord in '73.  However there were still a couple of thousand Americans listed as MIA, so their families kept agitating to try and find out what happened (and carried the faint hope they might still be alive).

No American POWs after 1973 were ever identified.

[The Brain]

Did the US ever try to return McCain?

[mongers]

(also, were there actually any POW left in vietnam? I know there were lots of MIAs, but were there actually any POWS?)

I'm thinking here, if there were any POWs left in Vietnam after the war, and the US didn't want to pay for them, or admit to any kind of war crimes in Vietnam (the theory usually used in movies like Norris&Rambo), then why keep them?  It costs money to keep a POW camp open, so why not liquidate them?

You're 'over-thinking'.

[derspiess]

I'm thinking here, if there were any POWs left in Vietnam after the war, and the US didn't want to pay for them, or admit to any kind of war crimes in Vietnam (the theory usually used in movies like Norris&Rambo), then why keep them?  It costs money to keep a POW camp open, so why not liquidate them?

They'd still be a bargaining chip, and it would be kind of bad PR if anyone found out.

[viper37]

No American POWs after 1973 were ever identified.

I know that, I read the Wiki article

What I'm saying, is if you believe that Vietnam is keeping POWs, sorta like in Rambo and Chuck Norris' movies, what is the reasoning behind them keeping POWs?
The conspiracy theory is that the US govt abandonned these people because they didn't want to pay for their release.
if you keep hostages in exchange of payment and you,re told to fuck off, why would you keep them as prisoners if they are worthless, and a possible source of embarassement in the future?

[CountDeMoney]

There is no reason for them to have kept them.  A lot died in captivity, due to injury, illness or mistreatment and the Communists were either unwilling or unable to come clean or verify it.  It's not like they were running a centralized prisoner program, particularly on the local level.

There were a lot of draftees that simply made themselves disappear.  Or worse.  Had an instructor in college that showed us his slides of his time in Vietnam, picked out a couple guys in them where all that could be said was "Yeah, we were on a patrol one day and they just disappeared in the jungle, never did find them."

[Ed Anger]

Can we hand over the guy's bearded, hippie father? I don't care for his hippie shit.

[mongers]

There is no reason for them to have kept them.  A lot died in captivity, due to injury, illness or mistreatment and the Communists were either unwilling or unable to come clean or verify it.  It's not like they were running a centralized prisoner program, particularly on the local level.

There were a lot of draftees that simply made themselves disappear.  Or worse.  Had an instructor in college that showed us his slides of his time in Vietnam, picked out a couple guys in them where all that could be said was "Yeah, we were on a patrol one day and they just disappeared in the jungle, never did find them."

On the frieze inside the rotunda are inscribed in English these words:-

1939 - 1945

HERE ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF TWENTY-SEVEN THOUSAND

SOLDIERS OF MANY RACES UNITED IN SERVICE TO THE BRITISH CROWN

WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN BURMA AND ASSAM BUT TO WHOM THE

FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED THE CUSTOMARY RITES ACCORDED

TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH

http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/100/RANGOON%20MEMORIAL

[CountDeMoney]

Can we hand over the guy's bearded, hippie father? I don't care for his hippie shit.

Oh sure, you've got a problem with him, but if his ass was wrestling gold-mining alligators in a pawn shop in Alaska on TLC you'd have his fucking merchandised lawn gnome.

[Barrister]

Can we hand over the guy's bearded, hippie father? I don't care for his hippie shit.

Oh sure, you've got a problem with him, but if his ass was wrestling gold-mining alligators in a pawn shop in Alaska on TLC you'd have his fucking merchandised lawn gnome.

I want to watch that show.

[derspiess]

What I'm saying, is if you believe that Vietnam is keeping POWs, sorta like in Rambo and Chuck Norris' movies, what is the reasoning behind them keeping POWs?

I think the reasoning was that the Vietnamese were America-hating communist assholes that kept the POWs out of spite.

[Valmy]

To brainwash them so they become Commies and undermine Amurican Capitalism and the Free World(tm) of course :evilcommie:

[Valmy]

What I'm saying, is if you believe that Vietnam is keeping POWs, sorta like in Rambo and Chuck Norris' movies, what is the reasoning behind them keeping POWs?

I think the reasoning was that the Vietnamese were America-hating communist assholes that kept the POWs out of spite.

[Viking]

What I'm saying, is if you believe that Vietnam is keeping POWs, sorta like in Rambo and Chuck Norris' movies, what is the reasoning behind them keeping POWs?

I think the reasoning was that the Vietnamese were America-hating communist assholes that kept the POWs out of spite.

That's not reasoning, thats confirmation bias. The Vietnamese did at some point stop behaving like uncivilized scum. The North Korens still do.

[Valmy]

Conspiracy theory nuts thrive on confirmation bias.  It is their lifeblood.