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Reagan admitted POW's left behind
Newsmax
| July 1, 2002
| Carl Limbacher
Posted on 07/01/2002 8:08:55 AM PDT by JDoutrider
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff For the story behind the story...
Monday, July 1, 2002 9:15 AM EST
Reagan Admitted Hundreds of POW's Left Behind
A top aide to President Reagan who is today a member of Congress told NewsMax that Reagan admitted to him that hundreds of American POWs were left behind in Vietnam and were still alive as late as 1988.
The former Reagan aide recounted to NewsMax his last private meeting with the president in the Oval Office.
When the aide said he was concerned about the possibility that American GIs were left behind after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam, Reagan responded: "We know that there are hundreds of POWs still alive. But these guys are leading very different lives, they have local wives, and we just don't want to shed light on them at this point."
The former aide said he was shocked by Reagan's comments, and it was clear to him that Reagan had been snookered by aides who had convinced him that for some reason the POWs didn't want to return to the U.S.
The congressman said it is widely believed that Vietnam keeps dozens, if not hundreds, of American POWs as leverage to insure that the U.S. lives up to pledges it made.
At the conclusion of the war in Vietnam, the U.S. agreed to pay billions in aid to North Vietnam to rebuild.
The money was never paid because Vietnam re-started hostilities, but the Vietnamese still have made claim to the money.
TOPICS: Announcements
KEYWORDS: pows; reagan
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To: JDoutrider
While he was in office he was, to me, the perfect President.
Out of office he did some things on 2nd Amendment that even son Michael knows were wrong.
I cannot ever give a pass to leaving our boys behind, never.
41
posted on
07/01/2002 6:51:39 PM PDT
by
mv1
To: Boonie Rat
I wonder what the response of our current troops would be if they read this thread?
42
posted on
07/01/2002 9:52:32 PM PDT
by
B4Ranch
To: NC_Libertarian
This passage is interesting, in that it lines up with Washington's disenchantment with the British rule in the Colonies in the period following the French and Indian War.
I read a really detailed page on G. Washington, where he was not only getting fed up with the taxing abuses, but also on another point. Up until, during the war (above), and before the Revolution, he had been a loyal British Colonial officer. He had sought military glory with the rulers and governors. But he had gotten discouraged, and angered with the way the British high military officers treated the colonial military officers.
I hadn't been aware of this part of his 'beef' with G. Britain! This was interesting! I can see why he made this quote in your post! This was from his own experience, as a young British, colonial officer. They had decided to send their high officers to fight the French and the Indians, instead of letting local colonial officers like himself, lead the forces.
Of course, General Braddock was impressed with Washington's leadership and experience in the conflict so far, and chose him as his aide-de-camp at one point. Of course, most of us know how the rest of the story went.
Washington knew how fighting was done in the forest regions, and Braddock didn't. So a large number of his forces were lost.
43
posted on
07/02/2002 12:29:36 AM PDT
by
dsutah
To: JDoutrider
Kissinger promised billions in aid to (North) Viet Nam as part of our exit strategy. We never paid it. Instead, Kissinger sent Bud McFarland who I believe was with State Department at the time over with a C-5 full of medical and humanitarian supplies. I have always believed that in that context the "abandoned POW theory" was very credible. They held them as security against a promise that never materialized. As time passed and the bureaucracy's immune system moved to protect itself, it just became easier for the government to "let it go" than address it.
I also heard an interview with a very believable Army Captain once on a TV talk show. He claimed that he was sent to verify the existence of POW's in Viet Nam during the 80's (Regan administratin). He was dispatched from Korea and told to check a particular detention area, covert insertion. He said he did what anyone with a brain would do and checked a different one than he was told to. He and the guy with him actually laid eyes on what he believed to be US POW's. He was directly connected to "the White House" and was told to disengage. He did so expecting that there would be subsequent action, but there never was. I remember concluding at the time that his White House interface would have been McFarlane at the time...
To: ladyinred
Maybe this story is a smear-job on the unnamed Congressman, with Reagan as collateral damage to boot.
45
posted on
07/02/2002 5:13:34 AM PDT
by
1rudeboy
To: Boonie Rat
"At the close of the war, when nixon and kissinger were saying "all American POWs" are home, an NSA analyst named Mooney was tracking over 500 LIVE POWS. Mooney testified before congress regarding this. I have a copy of the Congressional report that ADMITTED live POWs were left in captivity. My fervent prayer is that nixon is in a very hot place awaiting kissinger."
There was a intelligence report of a letter dated in 1983 from SECSTATES Office to the Vietnamese Government at that time asking for a last ditch effort for release of live POWs. It was reported that this letter was in NSA's classified vaults. Whether this article is true or not knowing the source (NewsMax) and if NewsMax has this information it has a moral obligation to discuss it with DOD's Office of POWs as well as the Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Chairmen.
But, knowing the press, if this story was true, this would be a block buster and to good to hold the sources back. I have my doubts.
To: JDoutrider
......about 1700 American servicemen deserted "in country" in Vietnam....some were involved in criminal activities and stayed behind of their own choosing at war's end (think: Christopher Walken in 'Deerhunter').....others made their way home thru Asia and Europe.....others were believed to have been executed by the NVA upon detection after the fall of Saigon.....these American deserters are believed by some to be the basis of some of the "sightings" that came to the attention of the POW/MIA community desperate for hope in the 70's and 80s.....it's a little known and very sad chapter of the war.....
Stonewalls
To: Exton1
Only 50 Missing are possible? Sorry...you are way mistaken.
Your theory fo a vaporizing pilot becausde of a load of jet fuel is off as well (most shooy dwons occur when the fuel left is just enough to get that aircraft back to base).
If you do your homework again (and I can help you with that since each and every day I posdt the Missong for all years for that day on the calendar), you'll note that there indeed are NO Missong...out government simply declared them all dead (KIA/BNR...Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered) in 1973 just to close the books.
48
posted on
07/02/2002 9:53:06 PM PDT
by
NMFXSTC
To: STONEWALLS
STONEWALLS...can you/will you cite a resource foryour 1700 figure...a reference? I follow this issue on a dialy basis and have never seen anything close to that number...good Lord. man...that's a battalion!
49
posted on
07/02/2002 10:00:18 PM PDT
by
NMFXSTC
To: JDoutrider
Reagan can't speak for himself, so this junk comes out.
Next expect that it will be said Reagan was a homosexual.
50
posted on
07/02/2002 10:13:41 PM PDT
by
A CA Guy
To: STONEWALLS
STONEWALLS...can you/will you cite a resource foryour 1700 figure...a reference? I follow this issue on a dialy basis and have never seen anything close to that number...good Lord. man...that's a battalion!
51
posted on
07/02/2002 11:35:40 PM PDT
by
NMFXSTC
To: Boonie Rat
i SURE have long felt there were plenty left behind. I don't trust any of them to be entirely candid for a long list of reasons. Reagan COULD sometimes be tooo trusting of what he was told, IMHO.
If someone made a patriotic sounding case for the status quo, I can IMAGINE Reagan accepting it. If someone made a quasi threatening case he may have decided it was one battle he didn't need to fight with too little prospect for wining it.
52
posted on
07/02/2002 11:44:36 PM PDT
by
Quix
To: JDoutrider
Sorry, but this is "put up or shut up" material. Either the "unnamed source" comes out publicly, and provides some sort of corroboration, even circumstantial, our only choice is to believe this story is complete fiction.
53
posted on
07/02/2002 11:47:49 PM PDT
by
Timesink
To: NMFXSTC
What is not taken into account is the "Black Ops" POW/MIA. At one point I'd heard the number 4000 in addition to what's acknowledged. Places like Site 85, Air America Ops, etc., so called "off the books" stuff.
Boonie Rat
MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66
To: NMFXSTC
"STONEWALLS...can you/will you cite a resource foryour 1700 figure...a reference? I follow this issue on a dialy basis and have never seen anything close to that number...good Lord. man...that's a battalion! "
.....Yes, I was startled by it myself!....I read it in a book that came out a couple of years ago called "Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War"....the authors took this figure from Pentagon records.....it's an interesting book BTW and I got it from our local library....also I remember that when Saigon fell, Time magazine quoted the Army as believing that there were approx. 1000 deserters hiding out in the Cholon district....they had embraced a criminal lifestyle and some were believed to have married and started families.....there was great opportunity for corruption in Vietnam.....I once had a sergeant who was driving a duece and a half full of cigarettes....he was offered $10,000 cash to pull the truck into an alley, leave the engine running and walk away from it.......he declined, but was told the offer was good any time he wanted to take it up.....cigarettes, whiskey and PX supplies (watches, cameras,transistor radios ect) all offered lucretive crimes of opportunty for disaffected GIs.....thanks for your inquiry.....Stonewalls
To: ClearCase_guy
Given the story of CA governor Reagan's entertaining returning vets, this story sounds off the wall.
To: 300winmag; Boonie Rat; bushpilot; snopercod; sneakypete
The Radiation Laboratory at M.I.T., World War II.
Look Down R.A.D.A.R.
A plan position indicator scope image of Cape Cod as seen with the exper imental airborne search and bombing radar known as X-band ASV developed at the RadLab. From this 1942 picture, the exact shape of Cape Cod was known for the first time.
This 1944 K-band scope image of New York City provided greater detail and sharper resolution than previous radar pictures.
To: 300winmag; Boonie Rat; bushpilot; snopercod; sneakypete
To: backhoe
Bump - R'57, R'58.
To: First_Salute
I recognize Sandy Hook...
60
posted on
07/06/2002 11:31:39 AM PDT
by
backhoe
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