Ross Perot was all over this.
Let’s say some POW’s were left behind and the US knew about it. What I find interesting is the article appears to to indict the gov’t [and McCain] for not going public about the POW status, while not answering some begged questions: why? Perhaps keeping quiet was the best of unattractive alternatives?
If news was released, would it have driven up the ‘price’ for the captives to a level that couldn’t be paid? Would it have encouraged more hostile gov’ts to hold US citizens for ransom, a la Iran hostage situation? [thanks Carter] Would global political pressure for not returning the POW’s after the war pressured Laos to simply kill them to ‘hide’ the evidence that they held on to captives?
So you see, to me, even if the ‘cover up’ is true, there are far more questions than answers. It is inconceivable that a man who decided to stay longer than needed and offered fellow prisoners signs of encouragement to help keep up their spirits, does a ‘cover up’ POW’s for fun or vanity. Therefore, I think it reasonable to suspect there were mitigating circumstances that remain unknown and perhaps will remain so.