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Some U.S. officials, including Garnett Bell, head of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA Affairs in Hanoi, have speculated that as many as 10 Americans could have been left behind in 1973, though he added that he believed they died at the hands of their captors. That possibility, unsettling in its own right, is a far cry from the outlandish claims by some members of the MIA industry. Millions of dollars are raked in every year through mailings from organizations that plead for contributions by raising the specter of large numbers of Americans being held in secret prison camps, waiting for rescuers who are being held back only by a lack of funds. Not one of these efforts has succeeded in bringing forward credible evidence of surviving POWs, much less a flesh-and-blood American prisoner. What they have produced in abundance is wild conspiracy theories backed by so-called proof that is generally feeble and often false.
Photographs that supposedly depict Americans in captivity have a special role in the MIA industry because they make the most direct appeal to both reason and the emotions. But many of the most widely circulated pictures have been retouched or misrepresented. Over the past few years, for example, several pictures purporting to show imprisoned Americans have emerged from Kampuchea. They turned out to be altered images of Soviet citizens clipped from old magazines.
Sometimes the actions of grieving relatives can inadvertently assist scam artists in Indochina. Over the years, a number of MIA families have arranged for printed flyers to be distributed across Southeast Asia seeking information about their missing loved ones. Those provide pictures and personal information that unscrupulous operators use in the manufacture of phony dog tags and doctored photographs.
The exodus of Vietnamese boat people that began in 1975 brought a surge in tales of POW sightings, some of them apparently inspired by the mistaken belief that anyone offering such stories to immigration officials would be put on a quick path to the U.S. For similar reasons, a macabre trade in bones said to be the skeletons of American servicemen became a growth industry in Vietnam: the going price for a box of purported remains ranges from $1,000 to $5,000. Most of them turn out to be animal bones or the skeletons of Vietnamese.
Meanwhile, a number of MIA organizations in the U.S. keep the issue alive by spreading unsupported allegations about supposedly missing Americans. While they may not manufacture false leads themselves, some have been known to make outrageous claims. Among them:
John LeBoutillier III, a former Republican Congressman, heads Skyhook II. The group sends anguished fund-raising letters detailing the conditions it claims are being endured by scores of POWs in Asian slave-labor camps.
Billy Hendon, also a former Republican Congressman, currently heads the POW Policy Center. For several years, the group has offered -- over U.S. government objections -- a $2.5 million reward to anyone in the region who can deliver a live American POW to safety. This effort has so far produced no results.