"The Vietnam War was a 'righteous' war, says Linh Duy Vo, and Americans should be proud of their part. It was a battle, and the battle may have been lost, but a war was won because communism has fallen in world politics." --The Los Angeles Times Magazine, "20 Years After the Fall" by Lily Dizon, June 11, 1995
Message in a Photo
Longer than a quarter of a century
The Communists in Hanoi have inadvertently kept the hidden truth:
The photo of our beloved American prisoner of war.
It took twenty-five years after the fall of Saigon
For papa-san John McCain
To come back to his old diabolic Hoa Lo Prison
To point out to the world and to the press
Hanoi's treasured picture:
An American POW stands tall, in line,
Scratching his chin with his middle finger.
"That middle finger said it all," said McCain
From Hanoi Hilton to America, with love...
Linh Duy Vo
April 26, 2000 ©
Poet's Note: I would nominate this photo for the Pulitzer Prize.
It has a similar impact "The Girl in the Photograph"
by 1973 Pulitzer Prize winner Nick Ut, AP.
© Copyright by Linh Duy Vo. All rights reserved.