The reason Dick Durbin could make the claim he did is because we have not been taught about the past.

Like the photos of 9/11, a decision was made to downplay the treatment of our POWs in Vietnam because it could make us "bitter" or "hostile." What that decision has cost us is the subtle propaganda loss, which believes that America is evil.

On which point, please read this response to Durbin's fatuous comparisons by an American held as a POW by the Vietnamese.

And isn't it odd, how Durbin never included in his comparison any reference to North Vietnamese treatment of Americans? As if it wasn't that bad or he didn't know.