After enduring a traumatic childhood and two years in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, Tom Faunce made an oath to spend the rest of his life helping those in need. Four decades later, he discovers a mysterious man in Southeast Asia claiming to be an American Special Forces soldier listed as 'Killed In Action.' Working against government forces trying to cover up the story, Tom struggles to prove the lost soldier's identity and reunite him with his family.

A new documentary called Unclaimed claims to introduce the world to former Army Sergeant John Robertson, lost over Vietnam in 1968 and left behind for over four decades.

The Toronto Star reports:

Special Forces Green Beret Master Sgt. John Hartley Robertson had forgotten how to speak English over the 44 years since he was left behind in the Vietnam War. But he never forgot that he was a father, husband and an American soldier, born in Alabama, shot down over Laos in a 1968 classified mission.

Had Hollywood told the story of the discovery of a long-forgotten soldier, found miraculously still alive in Vietnam after surviving a horrific helicopter attack and crash, it would have involved a dramatic and dangerous jungle rescue followed by a homecoming parade.

Instead, in Emmy-winning Edmonton filmmaker Michael Jorgensen’s documentary Unclaimed, we meet a slightly stooped, wiry 76-year-old man living in a remote village in south-central Vietnam who trembles with frustration or pounds his forehead when he is unable to remember his birthday or his American children’s names. He is only able to speak Vietnamese.

Unclaimed has its world premiere at Toronto’s 20th Hot Docs festival on April 30.

Robertson says he was confined to a bamboo cage in the jungle by North Vietnamese captors and, accused of being a CIA spy, was tortured for a year. Confused and badly injured, he was released and married the Vietnamese nurse who helped care for him. He assumed the name of her dead husband. They had children.

The filmmaker struggled with roadblocks along the way from the military -- especially when it came to contacting Robertson’s family -- to be convinced that, as one high-placed government source told him, “It’s not that the Vietnamese won’t let him (Robertson) go; it’s that our government doesn’t want him.”

There is also a video interview with Michael Jorgensen on the Toronto Star's website, here,

In a web-extended version of his broadcast essay, Bill Moyers gives examples of how indiscriminate killing by our military forces not only cuts down innocent bystanders, but drives “their enraged families and friends straight into the arms of the very terrorists we’re trying to eradicate.” Moyers says the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, and President Obama’s prolific use of drones all share a “blind faith in technology, combined with a sense of infallible righteousness.”

I'm Bill Moyers. This week, the New York Times published a chilling account of how indiscriminate killing remains bad policy even today. This time, it's done not by young G.I.'s in the field but by anonymous puppeteers guiding drones by remote control against targets thousands of miles away, often killing the innocent and driving their enraged families and friends straight into the arms of the very terrorists we’re trying to eradicate.

The Times told of a Muslim cleric in Yemen named Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber, standing in a village mosque denouncing Al Qaeda. It was a brave thing to do -- a respected tribal figure, arguing against terrorism. But two days later, when he and a police officer cousin agreed to meet with three Al Qaeda members to continue the argument, all five men -- friend and foe -- were incinerated by an American drone attack.

The killings infuriated the village and prompted rumors of an upwelling of support in the town for Al Qaeda, because, the Times reported, "such a move is seen as the only way to retaliate against the United States.” Our blind faith in technology combined with a sense of infallible righteousness continues unabated. It brought us to grief in Vietnam and Iraq and may do so again with President Obama's cold-blooded use of drones and his seeming indifference to so-called "collateral damage," otherwise known as innocent bystanders. By the standards of slaughter in Vietnam the deaths by drone are hardly a blip on the consciousness of official Washington.

But we have to wonder if each one -- a young boy gathering wood at dawn, unsuspecting of his imminent annihilation, the student picking up the wrong hitchhikers, that tribal elder standing up against fanatics -- doesn't give rise to second thoughts by those judges who prematurely handed our president the Nobel Prize for Peace. Better they had kept it on the shelf in hopeful waiting, untarnished.

[Via]

I don't think Senator John Kerry's expert diplomacy skills were ever in question, but if anyone did have any doubts, they were certainly laid to rest after his response to a protester during his confirmation hearing earlier Thursday.

As the former Democratic presidential candidate was finishing his prepared statements, a young woman began to scream. “You’re killing thousands of people in the Middle East who are not a threat to us! When is it going to be enough? I’m tired of my friends in the Middle East dying!” She was immediately escorted out of the room by security.

Kerry responded by recalling how he came to D.C. as a Vietnam War veteran and anti-war activist to testify before Congress in 1971.

“Well, you know, I’ll tell you, Mr. Chairman,” he said. “When I first came to Washington and testified, I obviously was testifying as part of the group of people who came here to have their voices heard. And that is above all what this place is about.”

Kerry continued: “So I respect, I think, the woman who was voicing her concerns about that part of the world, and maybe one of you have traveled there. Some of you were there recently. Senator McCain, you were just there, you were in a refugee camp, and I know you heard this kind of thing. People measure what we do. And in a way that’s a good exclamation point to my testimony.”

Kerry, President Obama’s nominee for secretary of state spoke in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he has chaired for the past four years, to praise by both Republicans and Democrats. He urged Congress to focus on the country’s fiscal state. “Foreign policy is economic policy,” he said. Kerry is expected to be voted in by the committee as soon as Monday or Tuesday. “I look at you, in being nominated for this, as someone who has almost led their entire life, if you will, for this moment, being able to serve in this capacity,” said the panel's top Republican, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.

America has been at war for over a decade now, with millions of soldiers having seen death and dying up close in Afghanistan and Iraq. But most Americans, watching comfortably on their TVs and computers, witness mostly to statistics, stump speeches, and “expert” rhetoric, don’t get what’s really going on there. Bill talks to Karl Marlantes — a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran, Rhodes Scholar, author, and PTSD survivor — about what we on the insulated outside need to understand about the minds and hearts of our modern warriors. Marlantes shares with Bill intimate stories about how his battlefield experiences both shaped and nearly destroyed him, even after returning to civilian life.

“’Thou shalt not kill’ is a tenet you just do not violate, and so all your young life, that’s drilled into your head. And then suddenly, you’re 18 or 19 and they’re saying, ‘Go get ‘em and kill for your country.’ And then you come back and it’s like, ‘Well, thou shalt not kill’ again. Believe me, that’s a difficult thing to deal with,” Marlantes tells Bill. “You take a young man and put him in the role of God, where he is asked to take a life — that’s something no 19-year-old is able to handle.”

Full transcript after the jump...

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Edward Meagher joined the United States Air Force in 1966. He volunteered to go to Vietnam and spent well over 2.5 years overseas.

Today, Edward has the privilege of working with veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan:

President Obama's message has been very clear. You stood up for us; we will stand tall for you. He's ended the war with honor, and he's brought them home, and he's doing the same thing in Afghanistan. He understands at a real gut level what these folks have been through.

President Obama has taken a wide view of taking care of veterans who have come back from their service. He's really addressing all their issues: the medical issues, the transition issues, educational benefits, jobs. They have to have access to jobs. They have to have job training. He's put real programs in place -- programs that work.

Michael Moore talks with Rachel Maddow about the people and politics of Michigan and why it's so surprising that Mitt Romney is having difficulty polling well there.

Michigan has been cast as a must-win for Romney, however, he is lagging behind GOP candidate Rick Santorum in recent polls. Romney has also been ridiculed for a speech where he declared his love for the trees, lakes and cars in Michigan, and then there was the commercial showing him driving around Detroit in a car manufactured in Canada.

Even Moore, a fellow Michigan native, empathized a bit with the candidate on Monday night. "The poor guy -- I just start to feel sorry for him on some level -- not too much," he told Maddow.

Moore praised Romney's parents,the former Governor George Romney and his wife - a former Senator - Lenore,"Mitt's father George Romney supported the civil rights movement. When he was the CEO of American Motors he took a pay cut because he thought CEOs shouldn't be paid this much. He came back from Vietnam after a tour there, and said we're not being told the truth. ... And his mom, Lenore Romney was [one] of the chief backers of the Equal Rights Amendment. ...it's mind-boggling to see who [Mitt] has become."

"Those of us who are 45 and older, we remember the Romneys -- even if you're not a Republican -- you remember them somewhat fondly," he said.

Turning his attention back to their son, "This apple has fallen far from the tree," Moore lamented. "It's just mind boggling just to see who he has become or who he thinks he is."

Members of Occupy Minneapolis are participating in today's national day of action against foreclosures, "Occupy our Homes" called by Occupy Wall Street. Tuesday will begin another home occupation to defend Vietnam veteran Bobby Hull from eviction on Dec. 6th.

Bobby bravely served his country as a U.S. Marine, and despite his sacrifice he and his family are facing eviction this winter from the South Minneapolis home - originally purchased by his mother - that he has occupied since 1968. The title was later transferred to him, and he made timely payments on the house for decades while his nine brothers and sisters and innumerable extended family used the home as a stable transition point as they worked through the economic downturn.

Recent health problems have caused him to fall behind in his payments, and Bank of America has refused to modify his loan leaving Bobby and his family facing a February eviction, in the dead of winter, with nowhere to go.

After learning that Occupy Minneapolis was organizing to help him and others in similar situations throughout the community, he said “Thank God this is happening. I’ve read the Constitution and I know that it’s supposed to be ‘We the people.' If people start getting together we may have a chance. I’ve served my time in Vietnam and I’m not afraid to fight again.”

The Youtube video featuring Bobby Hull was made by filmmakers Peter Leeman and Kyle Kehrwald.