Angry POW-MIA families say the end of the embargo against Vietnam leaves them in limbo, without final answers about the fate of their missing fathers, sons, husbands and brothers.
"The families have always got the shaft," Dolores Alfond of the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen said Thursday.
"We got the shaft when the men were abandoned after 1973, and we've gotten the shaft today."
For 19 years, the economic embargo was viewed by many families as their last bargaining chip. Now, families fear Vietnam will have no incentive to release information on the 2,238 U.S. servicemen still listed as missing in Southeast Asia.
"Where's the integrity in our government? asked Barbara White, 46, of Huntsville, Ala. Her brother, Air Force Capt. Larry James, has been missing since 1973.
"We asked these soldiers to risk their lives, then when they get into trouble, then our country says, 'Too bad for you.' "
President Clinton met with POW-MIA families before making the announcement Thursday. But many still were angry, charging that Clinton caved in to businesses pressing the embargo's end.
"It goes without saying they put business before morality," says Bruce Adams of Laramie, Wyo., whose brother, Air Force Master Sgt. Steven Adams, has been missing since 1966.
