Senator Covered Up Evidence of P.O.W.'s Left Behind

[Nlighten1]

I'm sorry if this has been posted here before. Does anyone know anything about this?


http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0408/schanberg.php

enator John Kerry, a decorated battle veteran, was courageous as a navy lieutenant in the Vietnam War. But he was not so courageous more than two decades later, when he covered up voluminous evidence that a significant number of live American prisoners—perhaps hundreds—were never acknowledged or returned after the war-ending treaty was signed in January 1973.

The Massachusetts senator, now seeking the presidency, carried out this subterfuge a little over a decade ago— shredding documents, suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee's final report—when he was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on P.O.W./ M.I.A. Affairs.

Over the years, an abundance of evidence had come to light that the North Vietnamese, while returning 591 U.S. prisoners of war after the treaty signing, had held back many others as future bargaining chips for the $4 billion or more in war reparations that the Nixon administration had pledged. Hanoi didn't trust Washington to fulfill its pro-mise without pressure. Similarly, Washington didn't trust Hanoi to return all the prisoners and carry out all the treaty provisions. The mistrust on both sides was merited. Hanoi held back prisoners and the U.S. provided no reconstruction funds.

[Hav]

1. .

Yes, it got already posted here and discussed in long threads.

I'm not quite sure but I think it was much "assuming" and drawing conclusions from speculations on the part of the author.

[Nlighten1]

3. I need the rebuttle to this for another message board.

[Hav]

7. I'm sorry

Neither am I an expert on that issue nor do I have the search function.
You could try to find it or hope that someone more familiar with that matter helps you out.

One thing I remember though is that some people built up hope for families that their relatives are still alive in Vietnam there because of political reasons when these relatives were most likely already dead.But I don't want to speculate too much about that and hope that someone will contribute here as it seems an important thing to counter.

[maddezmom]

2. it' been posted, don't know the details

but looks like a hit peice to me. :shrug:

[Mountainman]

4. Very old news, you should get more sources for this story

As I remember, at some point in time you have to say whether POWs and MIAs still exist or not. I remember these times and it was highly unlikely that after 20 years that there were still POWs and MIAs. Many trips were made to Vietnam to look for them and none were found. Still there were those who would not give up hope of ever finding them and those folks did not want to repair relations with Vietnam.

I believe this story which was posted here a few weeks ago is slanted to make Kerry look bad when he did what any reasonable person would do at the time.

[papau]

5. McCain said fellow providing Villiage Voice details was "scum & liar"

Seems truth took a holiday at the Villiage Voice in its hurry to publish this crap.

[KittyWampus]

6. Is This Info Based On The GOP Potemkin Website Set Up By The Group

that went after McCain? The fake VietNam Vet site?

The Village Voice has seemed intent on smearing every Democrat that had a real chance of being elected.

[La_Serpiente]

8. Here was the thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=394203

On Edit: This is a delicate issue. Some people still refuse to accept the findings of the commission which both Kerry and McCain led. They were victims of personal attacks at that time. If they still disagree with you, then I suggest you give up on arguing with them. They may have had family members or friends who were involved in Vietnam and are probably very emotional over the whole ordeal.

The commission may not have been perfect in the eyes of some, but Kerry and McCain did their best to try and find the answers.