I think CP's experience did good, simply because the whole experience will not, and should not be let go. It is continuing to be used as a touchstone of practically everything in American politics, and the rest of the world has to watch this psychodrama being played out. That generation, for better or worse, is now taking on the reins of supreme political power in the world. John McCain nearly became president because of the aura of being a prisoner; we have already heard about Bob Kerry's presidential prospects; the situation in Kosovo and much of the world now depends on Colin Powell's version of what America learned in Vietnam. And many lessons have been learned totally perversely: What is American doing in Colombia?

America is now more or less a global military empire, and so the ethics of the military and the war and who did what to whom are absolutely crucial, in part because as far as I can tell none of the subsequent military adventures seem to have taught anyone anything, because humiliation is the only way very powerful people are forced to face reality.

I wish it weren't so, but it won't be let go: in the same way that World War II ruled the next generation, and World War I the generation before that. The lessons learned were often wrong, misguided, and so on. But that can only be helped by the presentation of things that make people unhappy, and wreck the neatness of the story. Like people going to jail, or going to Canada. Or finding yourself a week after landing in the middle of nowhere walking into a hut where you have just killed 14 women and chidren.

yours, Peter T.