>Carrol Cox:
>> ... The same racist feelings formed the ideological basis for
>> lynching and for believing in the MIA myth. ...
>
>In that case we ought to see explicit racist content in almost
>all POW/MIA mythography, as we do in almost all lynching
>mythography, and we don't -- at least not in the material I've
>come across.
I don't know if it's racism or anticommunism or both that motivate the belief in the POW myth, but some of the purveyors of the myth are clearly racist:
***** Sponsored by Political Research Associates 120 Beacon St., #202, Somerville, MA 02143-4304
RIGHT WOOS LEFT - 25
by Chip Berlet, Political Research Associates
True Gritz
One of the most visible attempts by rightists to recruit from the left involved the 1992 presidential candidacy of Bo Gritz. Gritz ran for president through a variety of local parties and groups, but his earliest candidacy this electoral round was under the banner of the fascist Populist Party. Even Readers Digest has called the Populist party a haven for neo-Nazis and ex-klansmen. The Populist Party was founded by Hitler apologist Willis Carto.
Bo Gritz is the point man in an effort to build a coalition of white supremacists, anti-Jewish bigots, neo-fascists, and paranoid gun nuts. At the same time Gritz has attracted a large audience of progressives with his anti-administration appeals.
Gritz promotes the ideas of the Christian Identity movement, although he claims he is not a follower of Identity. In a speech at Identity pastor Pete Peter's Colorado headquarters, Gritz acknowledged that Peters had helped publish and distribute his book Called to Serve, which is used to promote the Gritz presidential campaign.
Christian Identity is a religion that sees Jews as agents of Satan and considers African-Americans to be sub-human. Identity claims the United States is the real promised land and white Christians are the real children of Israel. Many proponents of Christian Identity seek to overthrow the "Zionist Occupational Government" in Washington, D.C. and establish an exclusively white Christian nation, or at least seize the states of the pacific northwest.
Gritz primarily seeks to build networks of support in reactionary and far-right circles. He made a presentation on "MIA/POW & Government Drug Dealers" at the Third Christian Heritage National Conference held in November of 1990 in Florida. Among other featured speakers were Bob Weems, Pete Peters, Col. Jack Mohr and other persons who promote Christian Identity. Also speaking were Eustace Mullins, who provided the "Total Conspiracy Update," and A.J. Barker, national chairman of the Populist Party....
<http://www.publiceye.org/rightwoo/Rwooz-24.htm> *****
Those so-called anti-authoritarians & conspiracy theorists who believe any criticism of the government is a good & plausible criticism (whether they are working-class or not) must be susceptible to the kind of propaganda that Bo Gritz & Co. have promulgated, even if the propaganda is colored by the good old idea of Yellow Peril that represents the Vietnamese as subhumans who are inscrutable & capable of devilish tortures which no right-thinking American would ever commit.
Yoshie