First viewed : 21 January 1987
This was a one-off documentary about the thorny issue of whether or not there were still prisoners of war being held in South East Asia. The programme focused mainly on Laos where a number of pilots flying aid to anti-communist forces in the so-called "Secret War" were shot down and captured by the Viet Cong's allies, the Pathet Lao. Most of the M.I.A.s unaccounted for seemed to be in this category. The accumulation of evidence seemed to be quite strong and even Henry Kissinger , interviewed for the programme, was careful not to entirely dismiss the possibility of surviving prisoners. The programme included an interview with a real-life Rambo figure planning incursions into remote areas of Laos from Thailand with the aid of motley remnants of the anti -communist force.
Presumably films like the second Rambo and a Chuck Norris film whose title escapes me ("Missing in Action"?) fed into the whole idea of US servicemen still being alive out there.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, I gather it all came to nothing?
Yes and there was a cottage industry of charlatans taking money from the families for bogus rescue missions.
ReplyDeleteI think for most people the Kerry Committee in the early nineties put the issue to bed.