I have not seen the film of the POW/MIA movement but it occurred to me
long ago that the movement was very much in keeping with the imperialist
mentality that had been internalized by the American people and which
led the US to invade Vietnam in the first place. To put the attitude of
the POW/MIA movement in perspective, can one imagine what would have
been the response of the British to a group of German wives whose
husbands had been in the Luftwaffe or Wehrmacht who came to England
after the WW 2 demanding to know what had happened to their husbands?
They would have been dumped in the channel.
Not at any time in the many articles that I read concerning the POW/MIAs
did I see any expression of concern on their part for what the US had
done to Vietnam in which their husbands had been instrumental, nor any
word of concern for the many more missing Vietnamese who, as Paul
Lauter, points out, are still unaccounted for.
Jeff Blankfort
> Paul Lauter wrote:
SNIP
The American line now in Vietnam,
> articulated by the ambassador among others, is that it's time to move on.
> But it remains the case that it is the Vietnamese who are still searching
> for the remains of THEIR relatives--not to speak of more recent victims of
> mines and defoliants.
SNIP
>
Virginia Laffey wrote:
> Hello,
> I am a lurker to this list, and am in the process of writing my dissertation
> on the Vietnam War "home front" from the perspective of the wives, mothers and
> girlfriends of the American soldiers serving in Vietnam. I feel compelled to
> write in defense of Phillip Daniels' excellent documentary of the POW/MIA
> movement, "Among the Missing". This is the first in a series of films which
> examines the POW/MIA movement, from its founding by military wives tired of
> feeling isolated, helpless and censored by the government's "keep quiet"
> policy regarding POW/MIAs during the Vietnam War.
SNIP
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