M.I.A. / P.O.W. CONSPIRACIES
The Vietnam War POW / MIA issue concerns the fate of United States servicemen who were reported as missing in action during the Vietnam War and associated theaters of operation in Southeast Asia. Following the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, 591 U.S. prisoners of war were returned during Operation Homecoming.
The U.S. listed about 1,350 Americans as prisoners of war or missing in action and roughly 1,200 Americans reported killed in action and body not recovered. Many of these were airmen who were shot down over North Vietnam or Laos. Investigations of these incidents have involved determining whether the men involved survived their shootdown, and if not efforts to recover their remains. POW / MIA activists played a role in pushing the U.S. government to improve its efforts in resolving the fates of the missing.
Considerable speculation and investigation has gone to a theory that a significant number of these men were captured as prisoners of war by Communist forces in the two countries and kept as live prisoners after the war's conclusion for the United States in 1973.
A vocal group of POW / MIA activists maintains that there has been a concerted conspiracy by the Vietnamese government and every American government since then to hide the existence of these prisoners. The U.S. government has steadfastly denied that prisoners were left behind or that any effort has been made to cover up their existence.
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