Among the 200 American Vietnam prisoners of war and their families who recently gathered in the reproduced East Wing at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda were Whitethorn residents Everett and Evelyn King.
Everett King was a corporal in an Army intelligence unit stationed at Hue, the historic capital of Vietnam, when he was captured by the North Vietnamese Army, or NVA, during the Tet Offensive in early 1968.
The event in Southern California commemorated the state dinner President Nixon hosted for POWs released during “Operation Homecoming” on May 24, 1973, the largest state dinner ever held at the White House. Operation Homecoming was a series of diplomatic negotiations between the U.S. and the North Vietnamese government in January 1973 that culminated in the return of 591 American POWs.
