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Confirmation Bias Follies

Did you hear the story about the elderly Caucasian man in Vietnam who claims to be a long lost American shot down during the war? He speaks no English, and after 44 years in Vietnam, has forgotten the names of his American family. The Daily Mail reported yesterday: There is a tearful reunion with a […]

Did you hear the story about the elderly Caucasian man in Vietnam who claims to be a long lost American shot down during the war? He speaks no English, and after 44 years in Vietnam, has forgotten the names of his American family. The Daily Mail reported yesterday:

There is a tearful reunion with a soldier who Robertson trained in 1960 – who claims he knew it was him on sight.

And there is a moving moment when the man is brought back together with his sister, 80-year-old Jean Robertson Holly, at her home in Canada – who would have been Sgt. Robertson’s only surviving sister.

‘Jean says… “There’s no question. I was certain it was him in the video, but when I held his head in my hands and looked in his eyes, there was no question that was my brother”,’ Jorgensen told the Toronto Star.

This could be confirmed if Robertson-Holly agreed to DNA testing, but she said she does not need to take the test to know the man is her brother.

The translator, Hugh Tran, said that the elderly man spoke just like a Vietnamese native with no trace of an American accent – leading him to become very suspicious.

‘I still didn’t believe…  until I saw the family reunion,’ said Tran about the emotional meeting with his sister.

Other moments made Jorgensen believe they had the right man.

At the family reunion, Robertson also met his sister’s husband, Henry, and told him that he remembered him working in a drugstore. Henry did indeed work for as a pharmacist for 15 years.

And when shown pictures of his two American daughters, he reportedly cried.

Except the US Government now says this cat is a con man. From The Independent:

According to a memo sent to a UK news organisation yesterday evening, the man claiming to be Sgt Robertson is in fact Dang Tan Ngoc – a 76-year-old Vietnamese citizen of French origin who has a history of pretending to be US army veterans.

The memo, taken from a Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office report in 2009, apparently says Ngoc first came to the attention of the US military in 2006 when he started telling people he was Sgt John Hartley Robertson.

He was apparently questioned about the claims but quickly admitted he had been lying and was in fact Vietnamese.

In 2008 Ngoc apparently began claiming to be Sgt Robertson once again, and he was taken to a US embassy in Cambodia to be fingerprinted. It was quickly established that the fingerprints did not match those of the missing army veteran.

It’s a great story, and it’s no wonder that people want it to be true. There is no truth so gripping as one you want to be true, even if it’s a lie. How sad for this family.

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