M.I.A. or Mythmaking in America (Paperback)

by H. Bruce Franklin (Author)
Key Phrases: rescue movies, story tag, live sightings, United States, North Vietnam, National League of Families (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Franklin ( From the Movement: Toward Revolution ) discusses the wide-spread conviction that American prisoners of war are still being held in Indochina as "bargaining chips" and that the U.S. government is not doing enough to secure their release. Many fervent believers, he demonstrates, are certain the government is engaged in a conspiracy to conceal evidence of the existence of dozens, if not hundreds, of POWs in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Although not a shred of verifiable proof has surfaced, this pervasive myth, we're shown, has been continually reinforced in various ways that include POW-rescue movies such as Uncommon Valor, Missing in Action and the Rambo series, all of which depict idealistic American heroes snatching incarcerated GIs from the clutches of sadistic Oriental Communists. Franklin's argument that the Nixon administration concocted the POW/MIA issue to deflect public attention from the Vietnam war, while plausible, is not backed here by solid enough evidence. First serial to the Atlantic.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
A calm and thoughtful book on a firestorm of a subject, by Franklin (English and American Studies/Rutgers; War Stars, 1988, etc.). Are there any POWs in Vietnam now? Does it matter to those who have made political capital of the POW cause? Franklin observes that while the US blatantly violated the Paris Agreement ending the war, ``about the only proviso...scrupulously carried out...was Hanoi's implementation with respect to POWs.'' He points out that there were proportionately far more MIAs in WW II and Korea, and that the Viet Cong had nothing to gain in holding postwar prisoners. Franklin suggests we consider, in proportion to this handful of ``supposed victims,'' the devastation of an entire land, civilians included, by state-of-the-art weapons. Going to specific cases, he concludes that there are no POWs, and he undercuts the demonizing of North Vietnam with anecdotal evidence that Vietnamese, despite being bombed out of their homes, took captured airmen to safety and performed other kind acts. As in his earlier work, Franklin digs deep: Why is the POW/MIA flag, he wonders, the only one other than Old Glory ever to fly over the White House? Why does every state fly this flag at capitals, toll plazas, and rest areas, and mandate observance of National POW/MIA Recognition Day- -when a 1976 Congressional committee concluded that ``no Americans are still being held.'' Because, says Franklin, quoting David Cline, left for dead on a Vietnam battlefield, ``Americans want to believe that we were the good guys....'' And also because, the author adds, of the power of a myth, now embodied in such culture- heroes as Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone--''a story of ostensibly historic events...that...no matter how bizarre...appears as essential truth to its believers.'' Intelligent, provocative, and courageous. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press; Rep Exp edition (September 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813520010
• ISBN-13: 978-0813520018
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,034,405 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mythbuster about a despicable effort to deceive the American public, February 24, 2007

By	R. Goff (Pa.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I stumbled across this book while doing some research on Vietnam and found it to be fascinating. Franklin argues that the POW/MIA myth is a concoction of politicans, right-wing political activists, and hucksters who have kept the POW issue alive as an open wound and thus reframed the Vietnam War with Americans as the true victims. This myth has been kept alive by Hollywood films such as Missing in Action and Rambo and has done a disservice to Americans' attempt to understand the Vietnam War.

Having grown up in the post-Vietnam era, I was also fascinated by tales of POWs and the possibility that some may still be alive. As I got older, however, I came to suspect that this was largely a myth designed to deceive the American public once again about Vietnam. This book has confirmed by suspicion.

Franklin examines the "numbers game" of POW/MIAs and explodes the possibility that any are still alive or that the Vietnamese government has not fully accounted for POWs or had any reason to keep some secretly, while releasing others. Franklin also debunks many of the alleged "live sightings" and the conspiracy theories associated with alleged POWs.

Well worth the read.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shatters the Biggest False Myth of the Vietnam War, December 17, 2000

By A Customer

Franklin has done a great service for contemporaty America, and the collective memory of the Vietnam War in U.S. history. His book illustrates that maxim that truth is not only the first casualty of war, but often suffers long after a war has concluded.

His extensive research reveals that the post-Vietnam War POW/MIA "myth" (i.e. a misrepresentation of the truth) has been a cruel hoax propagated by right-wing politicians (Nixon, Kissinger, Robert Dornan, Ronald Reagan, Ross Perot, and a host of others) in an attempt to create a pseudo-history of the Vietnam War where the U.S. military become the "real" victims of this war, not the millions of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians whose country was destroyed.

As Franklin notes, "every responsible investigation conducted since the end of the war has reached the same conclusion: there is no credible evidence that live Americans [were] held against their will in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, or China" after the war." (p. 14) Franklin knowledgeably concludes his book by noting that "the last chapter of the Vietnam War cannot be written so long as millions of Americans remain possessed by the POW/MIA myth."

The lesson is clear. Beware of false politicians who manufacture bogus history while cruelly exploiting other peoples' tragedies to further their own warped and self-serving political agenda. H. Bruce Franklin's book more than lives up to John Lennon's Vietanm-era plea - "gimme some truth, just gimme some truth." You'll find it in this book.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is great, April 2, 2001

By A Customer

This book is really great, it's about a very important but little understood issue. It's full of factual documentation of all aspects of the MIA issue -- from how the counting was done, to the various political angles the issue took at various times throughout the war -- and is a great read, as well. It brought back a lot of memories of the bizarre things that went on then, and still do today.