News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci
(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Vietnam War Museum Opens Amidst Controversy

Date: September 27, 1998

After three years of struggle and controversy, the Vietnam War museum in New Jersey finally opened.

Because of questions about the impact of the media, the anti-war movement and converseli differing views by academics, historians and veterans, every panel had to be rewritten before the dedication and opening.

"We found ourselves between the two extremes, between those who believe that the war was profoundly immoral ... and those who believe that the failure to pursue the war to military victory was evidence of moral failure, that the peace movement sold the nation down the drain," said committee member Michael Shafer, a Rutgers University professor.

Notably, the material on POWs and MIAs was singled out for revisionism. According to AP, "..text on prisoners of war was rewritten to eliminate language that Shafer said suggested a government conspiracy to hide evidence of MIAs and POWs."