Letter from a POW Sister to Senator Bob Dole Thanking Him for Speaking with the National League and for His Support

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s-leg_475_011_001_Redacted_tr.txt

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Extent (Dublin Core)

3 Pages

File Name (Dublin Core)

s-leg_475_011_001_redacted

Title (Dublin Core)

Letter from a POW Sister to Senator Bob Dole Thanking Him for Speaking with the National League and for His Support

Description (Dublin Core)

A letter from the sister of a prisoner of war to Senator Bob Dole to thank him for speaking with the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia.

Date (Dublin Core)

1971-10-01

Date Created (Dublin Core)

1971-10-01

Congress (Dublin Core)

92nd (1971-1973)

Topics (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueFamilies of prisoners of war

See all items with this valueVietnam War, 1961-1975--Missing in action--United States

See all items with this valuePrisoners of war--United States

See all items with this valueVietnam War, 1961-1975

Policy Area (Curation)

Armed Forces and National Security

Creator (Dublin Core)

Dole, Robert J., 1923-2021

Record Type (Dublin Core)

correspondence

Names (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueNational League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia

Rights (Dublin Core)

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

Language (Dublin Core)

eng

Collection Finding Aid (Dublin Core)

https://dolearchivecollections.ku.edu/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=23&q=

Physical Location (Dublin Core)

Collection 003, Box 475, Folder 11

Institution (Dublin Core)

Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Archival Collection (Dublin Core)

Robert J. Dole Senate Papers-Legislative Relations, 1969-1996

Full Text (Extract Text)

(Redacted)
Corpus Christi, Texas 78412
October 1, 1971

The Honorable Bob Dole
The United States Senate
Washington, D. C.

Dear Senator Dole:

As a member of the National League of Families I want to personally thank you for taking the time to speak to us last Monday morning.

To be very honest with you, when I went to Washington I was very skeptical and critical of our President's program of Vietnamazation. I also felt that very few truly cared about our POW/MIA's any more. My widowed mother and I have waited patiently now for 3 1/2 years for my MIA brother to come home. We could see no progress whatsoever.

Following your speech there was a question and answer period in which some of our League members asked you some very direct questions. One of the women asked you if we could get our prisoners back at the expense of the Saigon government, would you support it? You hesitated for a moment and then answered in a roundabout way that our prisoners are important but not the only consideration in Vietnam. You lost many friends in that answer. I myself was truly undecided as to my own feelings. It is hard to be objective when emotions are so much involved.

Later in the corridor many prossed around you asking more pointed questions, questions for which there are no answers at the present time. I observed you in the crowd and watched the expressions on your face and your reactions. You looked discouraged, hurt, and cornered. And then you said in obvious desperation, "Just don't forget who your friends are," as you pressed your way out of the crowd. In that moment my heart went out to you and your words rang in my ears all day.

I am writing this letter to tell you that I for one have not forgotten that you are and always have been one of the truest friends of the POW/MIA families. I haven't forgotten your efforts in May, 1969, to get congressmen to plan a heartwarming program for us in Washington. And now this year you were there again to give us your time when so many other congressmen didn't even know we were in town. If I disagreed with you 100 percent on the war I would still thank you abundantly for your concern and efforts to help.







Senator Dole, Page Two

When I went to Washington this week I did not in fact agree with you 100 percent or with our President. My feeling was that along with the withdrawal of our troops there should also be a return of POW/MIA's. And to be honest, I would much prefer to see more troops going to Vietnam and fighting this war to win than to even think of coming home yet.

But my feelings have changed now. And it was not your speech nor Mr. Leggett's, nor Mr. Laird or even President Nixon's that changed my mind. It was a two-hour meeting with Mr. Dolph Drogge that did more for my attitudes than anything or anyone else. He met with a few of us from Texas to give us the history of the Vietnamese people and to explain how the Vietnamese mind thinks. He was not "political" in his presentation nor did he draw conclusions for us. But with the facts he presented it became perfectly clear to me that you are right after all, that our President is right, that we have no other choice that is reasonable and for the good of Vietnam and our country.

It is amazing to me that such valuable information has been confined only to Washington, and even there it seems that many (most) congressmen are still ignorant of these basic background facts. There are thousands of thinking people across the nation who would respond to the President's program (indeed your program as well) if they could only hear what I heard from Mr. Drogge who is assisting the National Security Council. Is it at all possible that some way could be made to furnish our country with this information? It seems to me this would do more than anything else to heal the wounds and bring unity to the various factions that prevail.

I learned too, through reading the Hearings before the Subcommittee on National Security Policy and Scientific Developments of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1971, that you are absolutely correct when you told the National League families that we are being deceived by propaganda that setting a withdrawal date will release our prisoners. There is documented evidence that one of the goals of the Communists is to use the POW/MIA families to pressure our government to set such a date. I was startled to read this and to think that even I had even entertained such a thought in my own mind. And it is evident that such propaganda has successfully reached some of the families, and that they are being used right now by the very enemy they abhor. The men we are pleading for would be heartbroken to know this.








Senator Dole, Page Three

My point, Senator Dole, is that no one in Washington, including the President himself, was able to thoroughly convince me of this. It took a knowledge of history and the minds of the Vietnamese and also knowledge of what was revealed in the hearings on POW/MIA's. If it took that to convince me, a conservative Republican and a "hawk," then I think it will take no less to convince thousands of others. Do you have any suggestions for getting this information to the American public? Is there some way I can help?

I also want to reassure you that there are still some Americans around who dearly love their country and who understand the price that must be paid for freedom. I do want my brother home again. But we learned in Washington that his chances of being alive are very slim indeed. I wish the whole world could know that I count it a privilege to be the sister of a man who has perhaps given his very life for the freedom of the Vietnamese people and ultimately for our beloved country. As a child it was instilled in me that no man who is a man shrinks from fighting for his country and even giving his life if need be. I also learned early that freedom has its price. Our POW/MIA's are paying that price that hundreds of thousands before them paid so that we today might enjoy the blessings of this country.

In view of this, though I do want my brother home, I must say with you that there are several objectives in Vietnam, and the return of our POW/MIA's is one of them. I cannot ask for my brother back if it means that what we have fought for all these years goes down the drain. These goals projected mean the freedom of our country. If my brother's life is required to pay the price for freedom, then with tears and a willing heart I give him. And if my country were to ask tho same price of me, requiring my own Life, I would gladly give it. I just want you to be assured there are still some Americans that feel that way.

I'm sorry to take so much of your time with this lengthy letter. But I feel its contents are important and I trust you are encouraged. If my letter would encourage any other friends of the POW/MIA families, friends who have joined you in your efforts, please pass it on to them. Thank you again for your concern.

With appreciation,
(redacted)
(Mrs.) (Redacted)