Recap

Left in Vietnam

Appearing during the first three hours, former NC congressman Bill Hendon and attorney Elizabeth Stewart, the authors of An Enormous Crime, discussed the evidence for a sizable group of American POWs being left behind in Vietnam. Hendon said that after the war, a deal was cut to pay billions to North Vietnam for rebuilding their country and returning the remaining POWs. But as the Watergate scandal broke, Nixon and Kissinger reneged on the arrangement, and around 700 prisoners were kept in Vietnam.

Stewart said she has worked for 20 years in Washington DC to uncover the truth about the POWs, and there has been much intelligence that has referenced the missing soldiers. Specifically, Hendon noted spy satellite photographs, one of which (see below) showed "USA" spelled out in 12 ft. tall letters in a rice field, along with a 24 ft. tall "Walking K" – an "escape and evasion" code only known to US pilots in N. Laos.

Hendon commented that in the early 80's, Reagan tried to get the POWs back, but advisors talked him out of it. By 1992, an investigation chaired by McCain and Kerry concluded there were no American refugees left in Vietnam. Stewart and Hendon believe there could be as many as 500-600 POWs still alive there, and that the US government is engaged in a cover-up of the evidence for their existence.

The last hour of the program featured Open Lines.

Related Articles

 

Pictured is a satellite image taken over Viet Nam in 1988. It is featured on the cover of the book An Enormous Crime.