[patience]

There seems to be enough interest in this topic, relating to An Enormous Crime, the book, that I decided to post this article. It does have to be read in its' entirety, on the website, to grasp all the detail. It does also have some bearing on the politics of today.
The title of the article is stated in the topic title, Would somebody please get it right.
The article starts with some misconceptions or wrong interpretations of what is referred to as the Senate Select Committee, McCain/ Kerry findings. The line in bold is what tends to be dismissed in the interpretation.

"Given the Committee's findings, the question arises as to whether it is fair to say that American POWs were knowingly abandoned in Southeast Asia after the war. The answer to that question is clearly no."

However, and it is a huge however, the paragraph continues....

"American officials did not have certain knowledge that any specific prisoner or prisoners were being left behind. But there remains the troubling question of whether the Americans who were expected to return but did not were, as a group, shunted aside and discounted by government and population alike. The answer to that question is essentially yes."

There. You have it. Men were left behind. Not intentionally, no one specific, not purposefully abandoned, but nonetheless, left behind.

The article goes on to say that there were numerous hearings and investigations before and after the SSC
but with no definitive answers.

Some may say it sounds like sour grapes. Family members, advocates, activists and veterans didn't get their desired result, so they bashed the Committee and its personnel.

Not true.

MANY, many people in the POW-MIA issue were thrilled with the SSC and its efforts. And, since the findings of the SSC clearly stated Americans were left behind, there was no argument from the POW-MIA Issue camp.

The problem was that so much was left undone, unanswered.

Look at it this way - if the SSC was the end all and be all of the POW-MIA issue... if the SSC was able to definitively answer the question 'what happened, where did he go' we would all happily go on our way and live our lives.

But it didn't. It couldn't.

As a result, we have continued to have Hearings on numerous aspects of the issue; Jackson-Vanik Amendment Hearings, Hearings on the Cuban Torture Program, WW II Pow Hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Military Personnel Subcommittee Hearings (Dornan), Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific (Ackerman), and now the huge momentum behind House Hearings on POW and MIAs known as H. Res 111 (King).

There follows some very critical input concerning Senators John Kerry McCain which would be better read from the article. I need to do some more research on that one.
Conclusion:

So, now that we have clarified the Kerry/McCain situation and why the POW-MIA Issue Community, for the most part, cannot embrace either man or the SSC Report as the final say, let us use the United States Government's own words to define the reason that family members, advocates, activists, citizens, veterans and others continue to fight for answers and truth about our unaccounted-for fathers, brothers, sons and friends.

It is not manic mumblings, an inability to accept reality or a means to bash the Government through an emotional issue. It is the following, words from our very own Gorvenrmnent and its serviant agnets and agencies:

I'll post only two of the "words from our government", as the committee's hearings covered all wars.

On WW II

"An undetermined number of American POWs liberated by Soviet forces during World War II from Nazi Germany POW camps, were NOT repatriated to the United Sates or otherwise accounted for by Soviet Authorities." Dr. Paul M. Cole, POW-MIA Issues, Vol. 1, 2 & 3 National Defense Research Institute, Rand, 1994

On the Vietnam War

"The intelligence indicates that the American Prisoners of War have been held continuously after Operation Homecoming and remain in captivity in Vietnam and Laos as late as 1989." Oral Intelligence Briefing before the Senate Select Committee on POWs-MIAs, April 8, 1992

[quote]
http://www.aiipowmia.com/inter28/in020308opedandi.html

[Matt Wiser]

Not to mention Korea: I've read accounts of up to 1,200 POWs being shipped from North Korea and China to the Soviet Union and not returned.

Too bad none of those responsible for this in SEA will ever see the inside of a courtroom, let alone a House or Senate Committee, to explain their actions to Congress, the media, and the families of those left behind.