M.I.A., Or, Mythmaking in America

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. (Mar.)