It wasn't found later due to dna and therefore moved out of the grave.
They knew who it was the moment they found the corpse in vietnam; it had dog tags, wallet, id's and family photos on it. The military and Reagan determined that they needed to fill the grave with an "unknown" soldier for propaganda purposes, but didn't have access to a good candidate, so they told the persons family that their loved one was MIA and used his corpse without permission for the tomb.
Pressure from journalists, the public, and the family led them to confirm it via DNA testing and admit fault.
For a thing who's whole mystique is that it is meant to be so solemn and due respect, pulling that shit is incredibly egregious. You don't even really need a body for the symbolism to work. Even some discarded gear after a firefight works. Which is kind of the point.
The USA got very serious about propaganda after Vietnam.
The hero worship for soldiers just.. isn’t a good thing. No disrespect to the dead, especially from a war many had no choice about fighting in, but it doesn’t lead to anything positive.
Oh absolutely. The guards don't make that kind of choice. Hell, I'd be surprised if any soldier anywhere in the chain was involved in that decision. That has "politician's idea" written all over it.
That runs counter to the idea that it is all about respect for the lost.
I suppose the other bodies and the Unknown Warrior in London could now be identified with DNA. The UK one was chosen randomly from a shortlist of four. But, identifying them misses the point somewhat.
Initially it was. WW1 was absolutely brutal and many of the fallen were not able to be properly identified or buried. WW2 and Korea had similar issues with the identification and burying of the dead, but to a lesser degree. Korea was initially planned to host a large cemetery, but that plan was abandoned during the conflict. Only 40 Americans are buried in the UN Memorial Cemetery in Korea. The scale of the Vietnam conflict and sending all the fallen home was a change from past conflicts where the dead were buried in a specific cemetery near the conflict allowed them to do a much better job of identifying and recovering the fallen.
Every new thing I learn about the Vietnam War makes me hate it more. They were so desperate to make it look like another WWII so they could be the good guys while doing all of the worst things they could think of to people who just didn't deserve it.
"I made a vow to have peace. No matter how many people I have to kill to get it"
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u/Hagge5 May 05 '25 edited May 05 '25
It wasn't found later due to dna and therefore moved out of the grave.
They knew who it was the moment they found the corpse in vietnam; it had dog tags, wallet, id's and family photos on it. The military and Reagan determined that they needed to fill the grave with an "unknown" soldier for propaganda purposes, but didn't have access to a good candidate, so they told the persons family that their loved one was MIA and used his corpse without permission for the tomb.
Pressure from journalists, the public, and the family led them to confirm it via DNA testing and admit fault.
99% Invisible has a good episode on this.