Part of the lingering nightmare of Vietnam in American consciousness has been the silence and uncertainty about those who were imprisoned and those who did not return.

While every global war has resulted in these missing friends and loved ones (hence, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier), a general sense of a lack of resolution kept alive beliefs of Americans left behind in Southeast Asia decades after formal withdrawal, and made this a major political issue in 1990s campaigns. This was exacerbated by mass media portrayals like Rambo II (1985) and continual rumors of secret POW camps. Government investigations and technological cooperation with the Vietnamese government, anxious for increased recognition and investment, have generally alleviated the intense anxiety and distrust this issue once aroused. Pete Peterson, the first American ambassador to a united Vietnam, is himself a former POW; his office has worked actively with the Vietnamese government to find and repatriate the remains of roughly five servicemen every other month.