There were no POWs left in Vietnam. None. Zero.

The Vietnamese government has been generously helpful in searching for MIAs.

there was any claim of missing POWs.

Perhaps you have to be old enough to remember that this POW-MIA crap was started as part of the rightwing revision of the history of the Vietnam War as the war came to its disastrous end. it was a deliberate myth building campaign, and quite a successful one, that got those ridiculous black flags for the fictional POWs flying in every town. When it is pointed out that there aren't now and weren't ever any missing POWs after the war ended, mumbling about MIAs or "not that war" starts to occur. No really, it was THAT war.

and identifying remains from past conflicts. That the Pentagon uses the term "POW" shouldn't be controversial.

Their were many Americans known to be alive and well when captured but never returned. The Vietnamese did not return the last of their French POWs until the early 60s.

I was an Air Force gofer for the John Kerry delegation that was appointed by Bush I to investigate POWs/MIA. We went to Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi (the prison Americans were kept in) in November, 1992 and the Vietnamese were not helpful at all.

Now through the passage of time, when any POW would be dead anyway, the Vietnamese have been helpful in retrieving some MIA remains. It is in their interests now since the American business community has arrived.



Entrance to Hoa Lo Prison, Hanoi, November, 1992.

Enough already.