The POW/MIA flag came out during the Reagan Administration as part of another conspiracy theory: that the US left behind troops in Vietnam who were STILL ALIVE!!!!
The Vietnam myth that gave us all those ‘Rambo’ movies
After the war, the POW/MIA issue became what writer Rick Perlstein described as “the right-wing variant of the Watergate-induced dread about whether anyone in Washington could be trusted.” It wasn’t just that American prisoners were being held throughout Southeast Asia; the most ardent devotees of the conspiracy theory believed the federal government was actively suppressing information about their existence. For those who wanted to believe, information was aplenty; in Southeast Asia, an entire industry emerged to sell false information about POWs to gullible Americans.
Like the unknown soldier on the POW/MIA flag, Rambo has a real-life analog: former Green Beret and Special Forces operative James Gordon “Bo” Gritz, one of the POW/MIA issue’s most passionate zealots (and also the inspiration for another action hero, Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith of TV’s The A-Team). Because of his numerous missions into Southeast Asia in search of American POWs, Gritz was called before Congress in 1983 to provide evidence of their existence, to which he responded: “I have the same evidence, sir, that might be presented by a clergyman to convince you that God exists.” Gritz genuinely seemed to believe he had been called by God to shepherd these poor soldiers, supposedly abandoned by their cruel government, back to the flock.
In 1982, armed with $30,000 from Clint Eastwood and $10,00 from William Shatner (in exchange for the rights to Gritz’s life), Gritz assembled a team of mercenaries to cross over from Thailand into Laos in search of American POWs. Gritz allegedly asked Eastwood to seek the approval of his close personal friend Ronald Reagan; when Gritz and his team arrived in Thailand, they found a telegram from an associate, who claimed that Reagan promised to “start World War III to get the rest out” if the team found evidence of just one POW. It’s unknown whether or not Reagan ever really said those words, but it was enough for Gritz, who forged ahead into Laos and, unsurprisingly, got his ass handed to him. H. Bruce Franklin writes:
“Almost as soon as they arrived in Laos they were ambushed, routed, and forced to flee as fast as they could back to Thailand. The ambushers, contrary to their initial assumptions, were not even treacherous Communists but a rival anti-Communist Laotian group whom Gritz’s men had offended in Thailand and to whom Gritz, ironically enough, reportedly had to pay $17,500 ransom to recover a capured American teammate. The raiders of course encountered no POWs.”
https://theoutline.com/post/7984/rambo-last-blood-vietnam-bo-gritz-sylvester-stallone
= new reply since forum marked as read
