I have just completed reading your article as printed in the Arizona Republic, dated December 28, 1997. I have a question and also question what I believe are errors concerning your information on my Senator, John McCain and the POW/MIA issue.

In the article you wrote that some veteran groups are raising the question “At what point should the United States say it has done everything possible to account for its missing and start winding down a campaign that has cost hundreds of millions of dollars?” I would like to know just what veteran group or groups are now advocating the abandonment of the men who have gone to war and have not yet returned? Do you know? It is a moral obligation, resting on the shoulders of this nation, to go forward until all ‘possible’ cases are resolved, that the “last known alive” have been accounted for. I just would like to know who wishes to abandon these men for the second time. In an issue so emotional as this one, I would prefer to see facts and not generalities. At what name of a fallen soldier or last known alive do we terminate the search? What family gets to pay again?

Also, in your article you noted that Senator John McCain “spent years as a POW and volunteered nothing but his name, rank and serial number during months of interrogation and torture. Once freed, he wrote a magazine article titled “You Get to Hate Them So Bad That It Gives You Strength.” Is not the article you are referring to entitled, “How the POWs Fought Back” printed in U.S. News & World Report, May 14, 1973? In this article Senator McCain freely admits he traded military information, a direct violation of the military Code of Conduct, for medical treatment which was denied his fellow POW Brothers. Senator McCain also took part in interviews with foreign correspondents in which he freely discusses; military tactics, casualties, personnel movements and personal information. Again, this is in direct violation of the military Code of Conduct. I have enclosed this article with several other pieces of documentation made available under the Freedom of Information Act. I think this documentation will validate that Senator McCain gave a little bit more voluntarily than his name, rank and serial number.

Ask Senator McCain about men like Capt. Humberto Versace, Capt. Donald Cook, U.S. Army military advisor Harold Bennett and Sgt. Kenneth Roraback and the list could go on. You see, these men believed in the military Code of Conduct, they lived it. They would not betray their country and it cost them their lives. Humberto “Rocky” Versace, Kenneth Roraback and Harold Bennett were executed under orders of Vo Van Kiet, Vietnam’s current Prime Minister, the owner of the hand that every American official shakes upon arriving in his country. The hand that freely accepts our tax dollars. Capt. Cook was awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously, for sharing his meager supply of food and scarce medicines with other U.S. prisoners who were more sick. He became legendary for his refusal to betray the military Code of Conduct. Senator McCain does not like to hear these names. Versace, Cook, Bennett and Roraback’s loyalty to their country and Brothers is a matter of record just as Senator McCain’s disloyalty is.

Your statement in the article “there has never been any credible evidence of Americans being held prisoners in Vietnam since McCain and other POWs were released in 1973…” again shows a less than sufficient understanding of the issue. One only needs to study the problem in depth to ascertain the truth. What was the “An Examination of U.S. Policy Toward POW/MIAs - By the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Republican Staff, May 23, 1991”, or the “Senate Select Committee on POW Affairs of 1993” all about then? Documentation, generated by our government, contradicting your statement. What happened to the 576 men lost within the confines of Laos and under the control of the Pathet Lao? Of the 587 men lost within the confines of Laos, 11 were repatriated at Operation Homecoming (10 Americans and 1 Canadian). These 11 were all under control of the North Vietnamese. Not one POW under the control the Pathet Lao was repatriated at Operation Homecoming. We would not negotiate with them and we did not get one man back. Just a little suspicious, would you say?

Yes, many would like to see this issue go away. Then the door to Vietnam’s cheap labor market can swing all the way open. America businesses are lining up and can’t wait for the windfall of profits. It’s not about PoW/MIAs, it is about political endeavors and corporate bottom lines. This American would also like closure, but not until all our Brothers that can be are home and the truth is known.

All I ask Mr. Lamb is to please do your homework before putting such misinformation in print. Many people believe the words that they read, especially in and from a prestigious newspaper such as yours. They do not delve beneath the surface to validate what they are reading, they take it at face value when represented with authority. It does a disservice to those who have paid for the truth.