A 1971 letter to the editor written by Sherrod Brown, now running to return to the U.S. Senate from Ohio, has resurfaced over what it said about American prisoners of war.
Story Snapshot
- Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who served three terms in the U.S. Senate, is challenging Republican Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio.
- Podcast hosts surfaced a letter Brown wrote at 18, in the summer of 1971, about North Vietnam releasing American POWs.
- As quoted, Brown asked: if the North Vietnamese “released our POWs, what would stop the U.S. from bombing Hanoi and Haiphong?”
- Brown’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
What the Letter Said
Brown, 73, represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 2007 to 2025 and is now the Democratic nominee in a race rated a toss-up. His campaign did not answer when asked about the letter, according to the report that published it.
Hosts of the “Ruthless Podcast” brought the letter to light in a report published Wednesday, October 14. They say it ran in the News-Journal in the summer of 1971, when Brown was a teenager, at the height of the Vietnam War. POWs, or prisoners of war, were American servicemen held captive by North Vietnam. Hanoi was North Vietnam’s capital, and Haiphong was its main port.
Put plainly, Brown’s question treated the prisoners as a reason the U.S. would hold back from bombing those two cities. If North Vietnam let them go, he asked, what would stop the bombing? The hosts read that as an argument against releasing the POWs. Only that one line of the letter has been quoted publicly.
How the Podcast Hosts Reacted
The hosts are Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook and a co-host who goes by “Comfortably Smug.” Duncan said, “Sherrod Brown’s been on this his entire career.” Smug asked, “How is he on the ballot?” and said Brown “hopes American POWs do not return from being tortured.” Ashbrook called Brown “a crazy lefty” and said the letter “sort of explains why a lot of people were like maybe he is sort of sympathetic to the communists.”
The report also pointed to a 2015 account that a teenage Brown once called the Nixon administration a “fascist police-state.”
Why POW Release Mattered in 1971
That summer, U.S. and North Vietnamese negotiators were meeting in secret in Paris. According to the State Department’s historical record, the U.S. offered a deal that tied the release of prisoners to a date for pulling out American troops and a ceasefire that would halt U.S. air strikes. For the families of the men held in North Vietnam, bringing them home came first.
What Voters Will Weigh
Brown wrote the letter as a teenager 55 years ago, and voters will decide how much weight it carries. But Ohio voters have a right to know what a candidate has said about the men who served. For many veterans and military families, the rule has not changed since 1971: you never leave an American behind.
Sources:
foxnews.com, history.state.gov
