Why were POWS left in Vietnam ?

Question

I have been reading various articles on why POWS were left in Vietnam. Some reasons state that United States goverment was to pay 4.5 billion to help rebuild in exchange for pows, and the reniged.. Other sites said the goverment simply didnt care etc.

So why were the pows left?

Answer 1

The pows were left because the government did not care is the right answer. A few POW refused to come home and had aligned themselves with communism as some did in Korea. But undoubtedly most were sent to salve camps for labor, and died there.

However Vietnam is not the only war in which POW were wrote off. During WW2 The Germans were holding about 50,000 American POW in Eastern Europe. These were turned over to the Soviet Union after the Germans surrendered. Most all of these were turned over to Soviet Slave camps for labour and never heard of again.

After the Soviet Union collapsed a few iof them were located in Russian, married and had families there . I don't know What became of the 50,000 or so Americam pow who were interned by the soviets after the war. Our governemt never pushed the issue witht he Soviets, Carter, Reagan, Ford, Clinton,Nixon, johnson, Kennedy, Trueman, all knew of and never attempted to simply demand the Soviets release them, I think it was because they knew most of them either died in labor camps, mines, or were outright murdered.
It's nearly impossible to get information on these troops as the governemt closed the door on them before WW2 ended and donated Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union.

Answer 2

Nixon was forced by anti-war public opinion to end the Vietnam war. A peace treaty was signed in Jan 1973 with the provision that the United States would de-mine the Harbors and Rivers that were mined as a result of Nixon's strategy to force the North Vietnamese to the peace table. The American POWs held at the time were to be released in exchange for the clearing of these mines. Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 (HMH-463) and the Navy's Helicopter Mine Squadron 12 (HM-12) as part of Task Force 78 executing Operation End Sweep under RAdm McCauley cleared the mines from Feb 1973 to July 1973 from Haiphong Channel, Haiphong Harbor, Hon Gai, Vinh, and Cam Pha. The POWs, all that we knew about, were released as a result. It is thought, however, that the North Vietnamese held back some POWs as a future bargaining chip - but is only speculation not backed up by any non-classified evidence.

HMH-463 would return in April 1975 to help evacuate Saigon and Pnomh Penh in Operations Frequent Wind and Eagle Pull after the North Vietnamese violdated the Peace accords and invaded the South and took over as a US Democratic Congress refused to allow Gerald Ford to assist militarily. That is how we lost Vietnam.

Answer 3

Because the Sons of B****** in Washington just wrote them off. That is why I have such contempt for politicians, in general. They start the wars, they don't fight them, and then the leave American military personnel to rot. They did this in Korea, too.

That is why I have no use for John McCain. Of all the former POWs, he is the only one I have ever seen that has tried to stop any kind of investigation into the MIAs from Viet Nam. There is speculation that when the North Viet Namese found out who he was, they separated him from the rest of the POWs. He was supposedly given preferential treatment. I suspect that Viet Nam has something that they are holding over his head - like photographs of him with women. He is always friendly to politicians from Viet Nam, and he has been rude to the families of MIAs. I think that John McCain is the real "Manchurian Candidate".

Answer 4

Take a look at the rank of returned POWs and see if you can figure out what North Vietnam's POW policies were throughout the conflict.

Point blank,, if you had no value as a prisoner, you would not be a prisoner.

Answer 5

There were several unaccounted for POWs. Men who were confined with others, spoken to, pictured by the Red Cross but who were not in the returning POW's. The NVA has never explained what happened to the, The speculation was they turned traitor; died; married or was sent to Russia. God Bless You and Our Southern people.

Answer 6

there has never been any evidence that american pows were left alive after the us withdrawal from vietnam. this is an erroneous reading of the facts based on mia reports and sensationalized media stories from the 1980s. even if there had been, the nv government would have everything to lose and nothing to gain by continuing to hold them prisoner

Answer 7

Because the communist regime of North Vietnam was a bunch of lying bastards, and the Democrats fell for their crap when they claimed they'd repatriated all the POWs.

Hmmm, seems the Dems couldn't understand intelligence reports even 30 years ago. Don't understand how they can think they got so much smarter since then . . .

Answer 8

Multihanded: i exploit both fingers for various of projects. case in factor, I write with my right hand yet continuously force with my left. I want the right and multihandedness manifests in about 30% of the overall inhabitants. real ambidexterous human beings (do each thing both properly with both hand) are uncommon and in common words about a million% of the overall inhabitants. Left exceeded all and diverse is about 10% woman, 12% male interior the overall inhabitants. one among our daughters is a leftie (no longer a southpaw) with some multihanded dispositions (writes jointly with her left, makes use of scissors jointly with her right) and the different is like me. Hubby is a one hundred% rightie. We in basic terms regarded all of this up the different day considering we were curious :D.

Answer 9

Outside of bad movies, there is no evidence that POWs were left behind.

Answer 10

I for one truly hope that none where left behind...........but more than likely IMO it was where they either died or was killed prior to the handover...........