Posted on 05/30/2007 5:12:16 AM PDT by kellynla
An Enormous Crime is nothing less than shocking. Based on thousands of pages of public and previously classified documents, it makes an utterly convincing case that when the American government withdrew its forces from Vietnam, it knowingly abandoned hundreds of POWs to their fate. The product of twenty-five years of research by former Congressman Bill Hendon and attorney Elizabeth A. Stewart, An Enormous Crime brilliantly exposes the reasons why these American soldiers and airmen were held back by the North Vietnamese at Operation Homecoming in 1973 and what these men have endured since.
Despite hundreds of postwar sightings and intelligence reports telling of Americans being held captive throughout Vietnam and Laos, Washington did nothing. And despite numerous secret military signals and codes sent from the desperate POWs themselves, the Pentagon did not act. Even in 1988, a U.S. spy satellite passing over Sam Neua Province, Laos, spotted the twelve-foot-tall letters USA and immediately beneath them a huge, highly classified Vietnam War-era USAF/USN Escape & Evasion code in a rice paddy in a narrow mountain valley. The letters USA appeared to have been dug out of the ground, while the code appeared to have been fashioned from rice straw.
Tragically, the brave men who constructed these codes have not yet come home. Nor have any of the other American POWs who the postwar intelligence shows have laid down similar codes, secret messages, and secret authenticators in rice paddies and fields and garden plots and along trails in both Laos and Vietnam.
An Enormous Crime is based on open-source documents and reports, and thousands of declassified intelligence reports and satellite imagery, as well as author interviews and personal experience. It is a singular work, telling a story unlike any other in our modern history: ugly, harrowing, and true.
From the Bay of Pigs, where John and Robert Kennedy struck a deal with Fidel Castro that led to freedom for the Bay of Pigs prisoners, to the Paris Peace Accords, in which the authors argue Kissinger and Nixon sold American soldiers down the river for political gain, to a continued reluctance to revisit the possibility of reclaiming any men who might still survive, we have a story untold for decades. And with An Enormous Crime we have for the first time a comprehensive history of Americas leaders in their worst hour; of life-and-death decision making based on politics, not intelligence; and of men lost to their families and the country they serve, betrayed by their own leaders.
“GWB promised them that he would read the book!”
well “reading” about the war is as close as he ever got.
what we need is some ACTION!
Viet Nam has normal trade relations with the United States thanks to GWB and congress...how ‘bout it?
Can we get an accounting of these men or what, President Bush!!!
“Kerry and McCain were instrumental in the POW coverup.”
whatever...I am trying to get public awareness of the issue of POW’s and MIA’s who have never been accounted for and an ACCOUNTING NOW!
I remember these hearings well. The title of this book perfectly describes what took place and continues to take place.
That is indeed a troubling read.
“you would think the MSM would be all over it.”
don’t forget that the “MSM” is full of draft dodgers and anti-war slime who couldn’t care less about POW’s...
Remember the Viet Nam war was lost in America not Viet Nam.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
True, but these days they would do almost anything to embarrass the GOP leadership. I'm surprised this hasn't been done yet. Of course this is a new book, and the story just broke on "Coast to Coast" this weekend. We'll see.
Your point being? Contact our elected representatives?
Senator John McCain? Senator Kerry?
Should the public not be kept aware of the great damage and obstruction men like these have done to campaigns just like the one you are suggesting? Good Luck with your suggestion to rise above it all. Nothing much will happen until we get a better set of elected reps.
hey look, I didn’t post this thread to get in a pissing contest with you or anyone else, thank you...I posted it so folks would know that there is a very good possibility that there are STILL POW’S ALIVE in southeast! And raise awareness in hopes that people will contact their representatives and DEMAND an accounting!
gezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....if you have a problem with what I have done here, then go elsewhere!
And as a SEA veteran and former intel type, I am well aware that POW’s/MIA have suffered and may continue to do so.
I feel like people need to be aware which elected reps in our govt have failed and betrayed these men, obstructed efforts like you are trying to spearhead, and virtually successfully buried these men alive.
So please no more spamming or hectoring.
Buh Bye.
good bye
Heard the Coast presentation. The link to Castro was surprising. Also, the news on the hour following the show was about the tourist resort being built at China Beach—world class. How long can they keep the POWs hidden with tourists all over the country?
“Heard the Coast presentation. The link to Castro was surprising?”
I didn’t hear the program. What was the Castro link?
ping
Castro held some Bay of Pigs POWs back for negotiation purposes and suggested N Vietnam do the same. Nixon promised $4.75 billion to N Vietnam for reconstruction if they would turn over the POW hostages, but that fell through because of the impeachment—deal was broken (those who celebrated the impeachment probably don’t know about this part) and the hostage POWs sit wherever they are 30 years later.
Oh, okay. Thanks for the info.
I didn’t hear the radio program.
bttt
Umm, why would RR agree to cover up something like this?
vile Slander against our vice president.
Have you read the book, and examined all the evidence?
I am merely telling what the book and the radio interview included. If it turns out to be slander, the writers and publishers can be held accountable. Menwhile, why haven't our government leaders addressed these mountains of evidence? Why did they feel the need to shred documents that would have proven the whereabouts of the missing POWs?
I'm as patriotic as anyone else, but government officials should never lie to us, no matter what label of their party.
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