"Apocalypse Known
Why do we continue to fly the Vietnam POW/MIA flag when all veterans of that war have been accounted for?
by Mark Oppenheimer
Not all flags are equal.
In front of every post office in the state of Connecticut hang at least two flags: the flag of the United States and the Vietnam POW/MIA flag. You probably know the POW/MIA flag, seen often on bumper stickers. It's a black silhouette of a man, with barbed wire and a guard tower in the background, above the legend, "You are not forgotten." This particular design is, in fact, recognized by a federal law.
And the display of the flag is required at certain places--like post offices, national cemeteries, and major military installations--on certain special days, like Independence Day, Flag Day, and Veterans Day. A federal law passed in 1998 and signed by President Clinton requires that this flag be flown.
At first, flying this flag may seem like a good idea; it honors veterans and reminds us of those who don't come home from war. But I hope I can persuade you that this flag is a more complicated symbol, one that we should question as well as honor.
I honor veterans. Veterans defended our country so that the rest of us could stay home and rest, peacefully, in the company of our families. Too many people (especially liberals) caricature the military, dismissing an institution that has been at the fore of racial integration and the promotion of social class mobility (even if I think the military's position on homosexuality is misguided).
But I believe that this flag may be the wrong way to honor veterans, for two reasons.
First, the issue of prisoners of war and missing-in-action soldiers is a partisan political tool, a leftover from Cold War, Reagan-era posturing. The hatred of communism--which I share--led many to conclude that Vietnam must still be harboring American soldiers. The Rambo movies, with their wacky conspiracy-mongering, didn't help.
This flag became a part of that battle, a battle waged even after after 1992, when a bipartisan Senate commission led by Sens. John Kerry and John McCain, found (in the words of its report) "no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia."
The committee--comprising conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats--took hundreds of depositions; questioned government officials, both American and Vietnamese, who had served in the war; and traveled to Vietnam and Laos to inspect prisons, interrogate officials, and read through records. And they found no evidence of POWs or MIAs.
I know that our government lies to its people, a lot. I respect anyone who is skeptical of power, and I am glad that veterans' groups forced our leaders to really grapple with this issue. And it's impossible ever to know the whole truth. But on this issue we've come about as close as we can. And now that we have re-established ties with Vietnam, and Americans travel there relatively freely, it is more unlikely than ever that soldiers are being held captive.
But to those of you who have weighed the evidence and sincerely believe that POWs remain, I say this: Those soldiers already have a flag. It's the American flag. The Stars and Stripes belongs to all of us. And the American flag is also the flag of Vietnam vets who made it home-- and Korea vets and World War II vets and veterans of the Gulf War, plus veterans of smaller excursions, like Panama and Grenada. It's the flag of Japanese-Americans interned during World War II and Southerners descended from Confederate soldiers. It's the flag of gay rifle-owners and Asian-American poetry slam champions.
(It's also the flag of today's soldiers, who--like Vietnam veterans--run the risk of being abandoned by their government. President Bush is paying them too little, forcing them to work too long, and lying to them about the reasons for his decisions. One way to honor Vietnam vets is to take seriously a lesson of that war: Even as we question our leaders, we must do right by our soldiers.)
So I would prefer to let the American flag stand for all of these difficult truths and emotions. Especially on federal property. The proliferation of symbols can be a bad thing: Seeing too many symbols makes us indifferent to them all. Imagine if every war's veterans had a flag on Federal Plaza, on Church Street in New Haven. All those flags would start to blend together into a big piece of public art, divorced from any original meaning.
Postmasters in Connecticut all fly the POW flag every day--much more often than the law requires. "We're in a war, we honor our veterans," says Postal Service spokesman Carl Walton. "We have a huge veteran work force, so it's as much a tribute to them as anything." Well, I honor those veterans, too--and I join in welcoming home our newest veterans, Connecticut's men and women serving in Iraq. And I believe that our public squares belong to those Gulf veterans, and all the other veterans, and all of us. And together, we have a flag.
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