Admin Note:
We found this on a site dedicated to the POW/MIA issues. Please click the link at left to Greasyonline. They present a great deal of information about the issues.

This letter is from Maj. Mark Smith a returned POW that was captured with 33 holes in his body, a lung destroyed and his back broken. He was released a year later from Cambodia. We still cannot get his DSC upgraded to Congressional Metal of Honor. He never received the honor because everyone thought he was dead. He is alive and a true hero. He is my friend. I have been with him in Thailand and he is very respected over there and here among those that respect the truth.

Danny "Greasy" Belcher
President Rolling Thunder KY Chapter 3
Infantry Sgt. Vietnam 68-69
D Troop, 7th Sqdn., 1st Air Cav

Monday, April 08, 2002
An Open Letter From Major Mark Smith

Before one challenges what any POW has to say, perhaps you should look at the whole story and the blatant myths, which have arisen from the POW experience.

Myth Number 1: "Only the pilots in the North were tortured."

Truth: The vast number of POW who died in captivity from deprivation, brutality and outright execution perished in jungle camps and far outstrips anything experienced in North Vietnam. Death is very final.

Myth Number 2: "Only the highly educated, disciplined pilots dealt with the POW experience in an honorable manner."

Truth: Of the thousands of hours of blatant Anti-American propaganda recorded from the “Voice of Vietnam” in Hanoi, the vast majority of persons participating in them were pilots.

Myth Number 3: "The food in North Vietnam was barely edible and the Southern POWs got things from the jungle."

Truth: The Jungle POWs never saw bread or soup, pumpkin or not, and the question was rarely the quality, but instead the lack of food period. As one pilot told me in Washington; "The food was so bad and boring you could barely eat it." "Bad and boring" would have been welcome in the South.

Myth Number 4: "Medical care was very crude in Hanoi."

Truth: A number of Northern POWs were treated in actual hospitals, with real doctors, nurses and equipment. Our hospitals were a cage or a hole in the ground.

Myth Number 5: (There is no excuse for this one.) "We were in danger of being bombed by our own planes in North Vietnam. In the South this was not such a threat."

Truth: From 1968-72, there was little or no bombing in the North. The war was being fought in the "South." Of those POWs wounded and/or killed by American action, the vast majority, if not all, was in the "South".

Myth Number 6: "There can be no MIAs still alive because we knew everyone in the system."

Truth: This self-serving fabrication goes to the very heart of the MIA issue. The only POWs from the South, known to the POWs from the North, were those who made propaganda. As one pilot told me after our return; "Well, I never heard your name in the system."My answer; "Thanks for the vote of confidence in my adherence to the Code of Conduct."

Myth Number 7: "We all made propaganda and we all broke." (Used when defending one of the brethren.)

Truth: "We all" did not break and make propaganda. The terrible thing about this lie is that it truly impugns the character of those brave pilots who did resist. This has evolved into an excuse for those who continued to be regular "talking heads" on the radio, long after torture ceased in most of North Vietnam. They may have been promised absolution to "cross back" from Admiral Stockdale, but they will receive none from me.

Myth Number 8: "We were all members of the 4th Allied POW Wing and Admiral James Bond Stockdale was the SRO."

Truth: Many of us were members of no "Wing" and only knew Admiral Stockdale’ s name from propaganda he was forced to make. Further, the Senior Ranking POW was Air Force General John Peter Flynn. There was no debate when we came home about this and until he became ill, he led every reunion and was recognized by the President of the United States as the SRO.

Myth Number 9: "We always tried to get people to recognize Jim Thompson as America’s longest held POW."

Truth: The cruelest myth of all. Blistering letters were sent to the POW leadership by many Army, POWs every time a publication reported Ev Alvarez as the longest held. This myth could have been dispelled in 1973, and never was. After all, Jim Thompson was not a "highly educated pilot." He was a little known Special Forces Officer. You also for years never heard of his heroic escapes from the enemy, including one in North Vietnam with Lou Meyer. This would blow the other myth that escape from the North was out of the question. Talk to Col. Dramesi who wrote "Code of Honor." He was a pilot, and when asked what the greatest impediment to escape was, he said; "Our leadership."

Myth Number 10: "We all knew Robert Garwood was a traitor and collaborator."

Truth: The Northern POWs, who have spoken the most about Garwood never heard of him in North Vietnam. He also never made propaganda on the radio. Some of them probably could have heard about him, but Garwood’s chief accuser did not include that information in his daily broadcasts over the camp radio in North Vietnam. This was an Army Officer and Flight Surgeon by the way. Should anyone truly wish to know about what was or was not passed to the so called, "Peace Groups" who visited North Vietnam, suggest they contact Valerie Kushner, the Flight Surgeon’s wife. She was their Chief family member ally, every step of the way. Her main concern was that something could happen to old Floyd’s hands in captivity and he wouldn’t be able to earn his living as a surgeon upon his return. Most of us had more to worry about than our hands. Life itself was in the balance. In any less controversial war, Kushner and his wife would have been charged with crimes against the Nation. You read enemy hogwash over the radio every day as a volunteer, and you are a collaborator, son.

Recently, there has been an e-mail passed around that says Jane Fonda gave notes "palmed" to her by POWs, back to their captors in the North, this may or may not be true. I was not there. But, I am one of the few POWs to ever seek her and Tom Hayden out and confront them upon our return. Had she, Tom, Cora Weiss, Ramsey Clark or Dave Dillinger to name but a few, ever been passed anything on their frequent trips to North Vietnam, I am sure they would have given it to the enemy. The day I challenged them at the Hollywood Press Club, Hayden was wearing an NVA Uniform Jacket with a little "Red  Star" on the pocket, awarded to him by the enemy. They had just labeled all POWs who claimed to have been tortured as "liars".

The sad thing about all of the above is that most of these men did their best in a terrible situation. Frankly, some of the biggest talkers would have had their butts beat at the bath point in our camp if they used some of the excuses they have used to justify their actions in North Vietnam. "I needed medical attention." "I just wanted to get my name out." Etc. I heard "highly educated and disciplined" pilots get shot down in the morning and be whining on the radio by evening.

What branch they came from, how high their education, if they flew airplanes, or even what their family name was had little to do with the content of their spirit. You want to talk to heroes from North Vietnam? Talk to the two Thompsons, Jim and Dennis. They were what the term was coined to depict. They are Special Forces.

You want to talk to the longest held American POW? Talk to Jim Thompson. You want to talk to the longest held POW of all? Talk to Colonel Chaicharn Harnavee of the Royal Thai Army Special Forces, Retired. He can be reached through Chapter 3 of the Special Forces Association in Bangkok. He was awarded the Silver Star by the Secretary of Defense and his portrait hangs in the Pentagon.

The childish debate among those who were not in those camps, and the unprofessional gossip on who is credible and who is not from those camps is insane. You do not know what you are talking about. We returned POWs would like to speak with one voice. The reason we cannot achieve this is very simple. Some of us believe the value of the experience to future generations of warriors can only come from absolute truth. The shading of the truth to cover some, and crucify others, to create a carefully constructed myth of absolute honor and integrity, is dishonorable on it’s face. It is a thin veneer of arrogance, which covers some of the weakest personalities on earth. We worry much about our "legacy" and I damn sure hope this is not it.

Those who spent years in actual combat have a much better read on the true situation than any returned POW. The environment of the camps was constructed by the enemy to deny information of a truthful nature. What POWS did learn to do in the camps was to gossip. This ability was not lost on our return. Like the hens of the sewing circle, much can be discarded as self-serving.

Should anyone care to discuss these things personally, I will be at the reunion in June. I believe the Code of Conduct worked and meant exactly what it said.

Lastly, there is no group of returned POWs that had the market cornered on resistance, MIAs or honor. Self-serving myths serve neither, Nation, or history, only individual and collective aspirations.


Mark A. Smith
Major, USA, Retired