[Peace-discuss] Cockburn on Vietnam POWs

[C. G. Estabrook]

Schanberg's charges are about things done in the Nixon administration - early 
'70s - not in the Reagan administration, a decade later. Even if his charges are 
true, most of the abandoned hostages may not have survived the Nixon administration.


On 5/29/10 10:03 PM, E.Wayne Johnson wrote:
> The Vietnamese generally speak pretty good English and there were lots of
> foreigners in Vietnam when I was there 10 years ago. I suppose there are a
> lot more there now. There are a lot of foreign companies doing business in
> Vietnam and lots of tourists about. Conspiracy theories need darkness to grow
> in. There's quite a bit of light shining into Vietnam. Someone would come
> back from there with a bone or a scrap of cloth or something. Some dust with
> thermite particles in it. McCain supplies a lot of darkness to the recipe. I
> dont like McCain. He's not a nice guy, and his handlers are not nice people.
> Watching his supporters in action in St. Paul was truly surrealistic. The
> POW/MIA people hate McCain and they never give up. But they werent able to
> get much traction in the previous struggle against McCain, and people are
> likely to care less about it now. McCain is worried about losing this primary
> and the GOP has sent in top henchmen to help him. He still has a lot of
> support in Arizona and it wont be easy to take him out. McCain's head on a
> stake would be a major trophy for the TeaPartiers, but the One Party System
> will pull out the stops to help McCain.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- *From:* David Green
> <mailto:davegreen84 at yahoo.com> *To:* C. G. Estabrook
> <mailto:galliher at illinois.edu> *Cc:* Peace Discuss
> <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> *Sent:* Sunday, May 30, 2010 4:08
> AM *Subject:* Re: [Peace-discuss] Cockburn on Vietnam POWs
>
> I'll look at the evidence with an open mind. Franklin's books include
> /M.I.A., Or, Mythmaking in America/ and /Vietnam and Other American
> Fantasies./ I've only read the latter. At the very least, it's hard to
> understand the "cover-up", since the Reagan administration was on board with
> the whole POW/MIA exercise, as Franklin shows. As is often true in these
> cases, the conspiracy shoe may end up on the foot of the accusers--those who
> quite successfully promoted the POW/MIA mythology that resulted in the flag
> that waves by law at the the post office (if it still does). //
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu> *To:* David Green
> <davegreen84 at yahoo.com> *Cc:* Peace Discuss
> <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> *Sent:* Sat, May 29, 2010 1:22:28 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Peace-discuss] Cockburn on Vietnam POWs
>
> I admit that Schanberg has been a dutiful imperial scribe. Here's Chomsky on
> him more than 15 years ago:
>
> "...the press wasn't reporting what it knew. Until this day, we don't know a
> lot about the secret bombing of Cambodia, for a very simple reason -
> journalists like Sidney Schanberg, who is supposed to be 'the conscience of
> the press,' were sitting in Phonm Penh, refusing to interview the million and
> half refugees who were literally across the street. That's why we don't know
> about the secret war. It's not because of government lying..."
>
> I do however remind you of what we've called "The Incompleteness Principle"
> on News from Neptune: "No one can be wrong all the time."
>
>
> On 5/29/10 1:10 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>> My memory is that Franklin (an acute, leftist literary critic)
> analyzed
>> the motives, during the Reagan years, for believing in POWs-MIAs left
>> behind: he saw at as part of the attempt to reverse the pervasive "Vietnam
>> Syndrome."
>>
>> But it's always important to distinguish the motives for holding a belief
>> from the evidence for that belief. It's better to see what evidence
>> Schanberg has than to ignore it. --CGE
>>
>>
>> On 5/29/10 10:46 AM, David Green wrote:
>>> For the record, AC is right about the USS Liberty, very very
> very likely
>>> wrong about Vietnam POWs. A pretty shocking support for the POW
>>> conspiracy theory. H. Bruce Franklin has been all over this for
> years.
>>> http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05282010.html
>>> http://www.thenation.com/article/powmias-amp-john-mccain DG
>>
>
>
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