Documents Relating to the Vietnam
War
Report of the
Senate Select Committee
on POW/MIA Affairs
Dedication [complete document at
above link]
To POWs
This report begins with three tributes,
the first to those Americans who have been imprisoned in any war. Each person
who has worn the uniform and fought the battle understands the nature of
sacrifice. And there is a sense in which anyone caught in a firefight, flying
through flak, patrolling the jungle while sensing ambush or working desperately
to perform triage in a make-shift hospital, is a prisoner of war. But we
owe a special debt of respect and gratitude to those who were captured and
yet still kept faith, even while deprived of their freedom, victimized by
brutal tortures, and forced to battle not only their captors, but the temptation
to yield to self-pity and despair.
In the words of former POW, Admiral James Stockdale:
Young Americans in Hanoi learned fast. They made no deals. (In the end) the
prisoner learns he can't be hurt and he can't be had as long as he tells
the truth and clings to that forgiving hand of the brothers who are becoming
his country, his family...
What does it all come down to? It does not come down to coping or supplication
or hatred or strength beyond the grasp of any normal person. It comes down
to comradeship, and it comes down to pride, dignity, an enduring sense of
self-worth and to that enigmatic mixture of conscience and egoism called
personal honor.
To The Families
America's POWs and servicemen have met
the test of personal honor, and so have the families of those still missing
from past American wars. For these families, the wounds of conflict have
been especially slow to heal. For them, there have been no joyous reunions,
nor even the solace of certainty ratified by a flag- draped casket and the
solemn sound of taps. There has been no grave to visit and often no peace
from gnawing doubt. For them, there has been only the search for answers
through years when they did not have active and visible support from their
own government to the present day when our ability to get real answers has
finally been enhanced. Their search for answers is truly understandable because
to them, POW/MIA is not merely an issue or a symbolic figure on a black and
white flag, it is a brother, a husband, a father or a son. These families,
too, deserve our nation's gratitude and to them, as to their loved ones,
we pay tribute.
To Those Who Remembered
We salute, as well, the veterans and
responsible activist groups who have never stopped pushing for answers. These
are the people who fought against the forgetting; who persisted in their
questioning; and whose concerns led directly to the creation of the Select
Committee. The Committee's investigation has validated their efforts, for
they had good reason to argue that the full story was not being told, to
suggest that there was more to learn and to insist that a renewed focus on
the issue would produce greater pressure and yield new results.
It is to these Americans, therefore, to the POWs who returned and to all
those who did not, to the families and veterans who kept the memory alive,
that we pay tribute, and to whom we have dedicated the work of this Committee,
including this final report.
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