Vietnam's Missing In Action - Still POW's - Or - Just Another Conspiracy Theory?

Over the Memorial Day weekend a book was released, claiming that hundreds of soldiers were left in Vietnam at the end of the war knowingly abandoned by the U.S. government, with the possibility that some may still be alive. The book An Enormous Crime, written by a former US Senator, Bill Hendon (NC; 1981 - 1983; 1985 - 1987) and an attorney, Elizabeth Stewart, depicts accountings of sightings of American soldiers and boasts on its cover a spy satellite image of a rice field in Laos with five foot letters "USA" with an army code beside it known only to U.S. pilots, leading to the belief that one or more soldiers are waiting, hoping to be rescued.

When I heard about this book and its claims for the first time last night on the radio, I decided to look more into this story, because I'm all about conspiracies inside our government and this one just seems huge!

In my investigation I stumbled upon another site, MIA facts.com, claiming that in fact, Bill Hendon himself is a phony and is simply spreading this conspiracy with a few others as a means for publicity and monetary gain. By 1986, he had apparently raised over $2.4 million, as a sort of reward fund waiting for whoever returned or found the missing POW's. I hope he put it in a mutual fund, because today that would be a lot of reward money. If I was a guard of these American prisoners in Vietnam, and I saw that, I'd let them all go in a heartbeat.

Furthering his cause, Hendon teamed up with Congressman John LeBoutillier, who apparently is full of himself. I found an article about him here. Apparently, Hendon was overheard telling LeBoutillier to stick with him and they were going to make a book and movie out of this. Not someone, who I would team up with, if I wanted credibility. Nonetheless, to support the release of the book here is a letter from Congressman LeBoutilier dated April 13, 2007.

I will let you read the links and decide for yourself. Either there really is a government conspiracy comparable to the Watergate scandal, which would explain the negative verbage about these guys, in an attempt to undermine their mission or, they really are all about greed and politics and maybe a little pride thrown into the mix. It really would make for one hell of a John Grisham novel/movie though. My only request would be that Matthew McConaughey get the lead.

I guess the only appropriate conclusion is to pay tribute to the U.S. soldiers through history up to now. Thanks for all you have sacrificed and continue sacrificing now to serve our country, despite who is calling the shots.