The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, and safety-first instead of duty-first…   -President Theodore Roosevelt    Prisoners of Politics    Those who in the present remember the Kennedy years as “Camelot” oftentimes forget that JFK expected to be impeached due to his inept handling of the Bay of Pigs, the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban missile crisis. In the first fiasco, the United States government trained twelve hundred Cuban freedom fighters, and planned and equipped their mission to establish a democratic government in Cuba. Most importantly, the U.S. pledged to destroy Castro’s air force before the freedom fighters landed in the Bay of Pigs, thereby preventing any bombing raids on the independence seekers. But in the crucial early hours of the invasion in April 1961, our American President personally withdrew our Air Force from the planned participation, preoccupied with being a peacemaker among his bickering advisors rather than being a decisive Commander-In-Chief. The freedom fighters pleaded by radio for U.S. air cover, but the promised American assistance never came, and these brave fighters were quickly overwhelmed. The U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba was a total disaster, and became the first of three humiliations President Kennedy was to suffer regarding our communist neighbor. It was also the first time an American president promised military assistance to a band of freedom fighters that sought to overturn tyranny in their native land, and then went back on his word. President Kennedy’s second humiliation was his failure to liberate the 1,179 freedom fighters that were captured by Castro’s regime. When Castro stated that Cuba might be willing to trade these prisoners of war (POW) in exchange for 500 bulldozers to help Cuban agricultural output, President Kennedy formed the “Tractors for Freedom Committee” to raise the $28 million dollars needed to purchase this equipment. Castro was presented with this offer and stated that the 500 bulldozers would be “indemnification” for the damage caused by the invasion. In Congress, a broad and bi-partisan attack began on the President’s plan out of concern that a dangerous precedent of bargaining with a dictator would be set. Democratic Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut stated, “Our national concern for the plight of the Cubans…should have been evidenced by effective help on the beachhead to enable their just revolution to succeed. By paying Castro’s price for a thousand good men, we give him the means to strengthen his enslavement of six million others. The American people will, for the first time to my knowledge, be making use of ransom and tribute as an instrument of policy.” The political storm increased further as the Committee was unable to ascertain if the bulldozers would be used for military rather than agricultural purposes; embarrassed, they withdrew their pledge to Castro and returned all the donations received. In May 1962, almost one year after the Tractors for Freedom plan ended, Castro put the Bay of Pigs prisoners on trial. All were found guilty and sentenced to thirty years of imprisonment or payment of fines ranging from $25,000 to $500,000, the total amount of which was $62 million. John Kennedy sought a second chance of freeing the Cuban freedom fighters and placed his brother, Robert, the United States attorney general, in charge of raising the money to get the prisoners released. A deal was reached with Castro: in return for the POW’s, America would provide Cuba with $53 million dollars worth of medicine, medical supplies, canned goods, and baby food. Using a mixture of persuasion as well as blackmail techniques to pressure pharmaceutical, medical and food companies, Robert Kennedy was able to get the supplies to Cuba in December 1962 and the Bay of Pigs prisoners were released. Although portrayed as a victory this was a humiliation for America for it was the first time an American president acquiesced to the demands of a dictator, and thus began the loss of our moral compass as a nation. Although at that time America was oblivious to the effects its actions had on the rest of the world, many were paying close attention, most notably the leaders of communist North Vietnam. In 1964 the Senate voted 88 to 2 in favor of allowing our military to provide assistance to our allies in southern Vietnam. In response the North Vietnamese formulated a plan based on what they had observed between Kennedy and Castro less than two years before. All northern Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were trained to capture American troops alive so they could be exchanged for economic aid at the end of the war. North Vietnam placed such importance on exchanging American POW’s for capital that it created a Committee of Inquiry to keep a daily record of the damage caused by the American military, to have an exact amount they would demand from the U.S. in return for our soldiers. "An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia" was written by former Congressman Bill Hendon and attorney Elizabeth Stewart, whose father Colonel Peter Stewart went Missing In Action (MIA) in Vietnam. It is the product of 25 years of research and includes the most recently declassified intelligence reports, documents, and satellite images. The book provides irrefutable evidence that there were hundreds, if not thousands, of our POW’s left behind in Vietnam and who have since been disregarded by the U.S. government. In 1988, an American satellite observed the twelve-foot tall letters “USA” dug out of the ground in a rice paddy in Laos, and right below was a highly classified Vietnam War-era escape and evasion (E&E) code. In 1992, a U.S. satellite surveying a prison in northern Vietnam saw the name of an MIA air force soldier and a legitimate E&E code dug in a field, and in the adjacent ground was a secret four-digit identifier of another MIA air force soldier. Even recently, between March 2005 and July 2006, the U.S. government received 63 additional reports of American POW’s seen in southeast Asia. The evidence, beginning in 1973 and continuing through today, that hundreds of our soldiers were left in Vietnam as POWs and still remain there is undeniable. But how did such a tragedy occur? During their peace talks, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger accepted the proposals put forth by North Vietnam, some of which were that all American soldiers would be withdrawn from the region, and the United States was to provide massive economic aid totaling $4.75 billion to the North Vietnamese. In return, North Vietnam pledged to return all U.S. POW’s that they and the Vietcong held. During Operation Homecoming in 1973, North Vietnam released a total of 577 American POW’s, however intelligence reports insisted that over one thousand of our prisoners were still being held in Vietnam. With the coming crisis of Watergate concern over our POW’s became a lower priority; the $4.75 billion was not approved by Congress, and there were no further negotiations for the release of our soldiers. To protect their political careers, American politicians forgot our soldiers, our principles as a nation, and our military’s history of never leaving a man behind. Thus our prisoners of war became prisoners of politics. The last time our government focused on our prisoners in Vietnam was in 1993 when the Senate POW/MIA Select Committee reviewed evidence from our intelligence agencies and satellites. Before the meeting, Senator John McCain insisted that the gathering should end before any evidence was brought forward. After the briefing the committee chairman, Senator John Kerry, ordered that all classified documents presented should be burned. One can only speculate as to the reasons for such questionable behavior of the two John’s; maybe the comforts of Washington have dulled their memories to the sacrifices of our troops and the involuntary servitude our POW’s have been forced to endure as politicians, lobbyists, and foreign entrepreneurs reap the benefits of politics and profit. By tolerating such an atrocity as leaving our men as POW’s for political or economic convenience, the very foundation of American character was changed from one founded upon principles to one dominated by expediency. Kennedy set a precedence which subsequent presidents followed to allow a material benefit priority over doing the right thing. Teddy Roosevelt stated, “The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, and safety-first instead of duty-first…” America, which has prided itself from its inception as being the Light of the World and in spite of its failings has endeavored to do right, with the Cuban hostage crisis began an erosion on the soul of her conscience by allowing a false prosperity, peace and safety at the price of keeping our American soldiers captive. But a hundred years after a Civil War caused by a compromise of our values in the form of slavery, Kennedy shifted us as a country to compromise our character for political gain and redefined our values as a nation as to how we would treat our soldiers; this stain on the America soul could one day prove to generate a sin on American society and its character as great as we had seen with slavery. On November 11, 2006, President George W. Bush met with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hanoi, which seeks to account for missing American soldiers from the Vietnam War. According to a Washington Post article written five days later, the President left the meeting without speaking publicly, aides stated that Bush “wants to focus not on Vietnam’s past but on its future,” and the current administration became the seventh presidential one which has dismissed the plight of our soldier prisoners. The future of a country is linked to what is presently believed about its past. Vietnam is one example of a Communist country which has yet to be held accountable for the atrocities committed under a totalitarian regime, atrocities which Vietnam continues to execute in keeping our prisoners of war. America lost its moral compass when we lost the will to ensure that none of our soldiers were left behind in Southeast Asia, and this moral compass cannot be found again until all our men are retrieved and finally, finally brought home. Dedicated to: …all POW soldiers who were ever held in Vietnam or other sympathetic communist countries, and especially to the POW’s who are currently enslaved: you will always be remembered. …the families of our soldiers who are MIA, who have had to live with the excruciating pain of never knowing what became of their loved ones. …and to the Vietnam War activists who have never stopped fighting for the safe return of their brothers. I have the honor of being next to you every year during the Ride to the Wall.