Historical Highlight for June 25, 2023

Historical Highlight for June 25, 2023 ��� ���The League of Wives & Families���

Here’s a short historical fact from the history of the Vietnam war and the POW experience shared in the new ‘Captured by Love’ book. In each of these nuggets of history are personal and professional lessons that can be applied today:

 

���As the years dragged on with almost no information about their men, the POW/MIA wives and families became impatient, then angry, and then motivated to take action. They felt that their men were being put on the back burner, with no concern at all being expressed by our government that the North Vietnamese were violating the Geneva Conventions, which require humane treatment of POWs and release of the names of captives. Most families were living in a horrible limbo, not knowing if their husband, son, or friend were dead or alive.

In late 1968, Sybil Stockdale, the wife of Commander James Bond Stockdale, the senior Naval POW, began to express her concerns. She began to connect with other POW/MIA wives in Southern California. Also, she reached out to her military contacts in D.C. and questioned the policy of keeping quiet. Soon, she connected with wives in other Naval aviation communities across the country.

It began as the League of Wives, but very soon families of POW/MIAs joined in. Their efforts grew rapidly, and in June 1970 the organization was chartered as the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. The League was a humanitarian cause and not in any way funded by the government. With the strong efforts by the League and many organizations supporting their cause, they were able to bring great pressure on Hanoi through millions of letters sent to Hanoi and their envoys at the Paris negotiations. (For more, see the books League of Wives by Heath Lee.)

Thirteen of the wives in this book were involved with the League, and two of them were National Chairpersons. And three of the POWs here were not married but had family members involved in the League.

Ultimately, this amazing organization, mostly women, changed the policies of two nations: the US Government (got them to speak up and pressure our communist captors) and the North Vietnam Communists (got them to stop the torture and improve our treatment). Their courageous leadership and teamwork changed our lives forever.���

 

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