News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: NLF Issue Update

Date: April 17, 2001

"April 13, 2001

1,981 Americans are still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, though 459 were at sea/over water losses: Vietnam - 1,489 (North, 529; South, 960); Laos - 417; Cambodia - 67; Peoples Republic of China territorial waters - 8. The League seeks the return of all US prisoners, the fullest possible accounting for those still missing and repatriation of all recoverable remains.

The League's highest priority is resolving the live prisoner question. Official intelligence indicates that Americans known to have been alive in captivity in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were not returned at the end of the war. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it must be assumed that these Americans may still be a live. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Government does not rule out the possibility that Americans could still be held.

Unilateral return of remains by the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) has been proven an effective means of obtaining accountability. A comprehensive wartime and post-war process existed in Vietnam to collect and retain information and remains. For this reason, unilateral SRV efforts to locate and return remains and provide records offer significant short term potential. Vietnam's recent decision to establish a Special Research Cell of senior personnel to support their government's unilateral efforts was encouraging, a positive response to the May 1999 League Delegation. The Defense Department's case-by-case review and other evidence reveal that unilateral SRV efforts could bring many answers. Archival research in Vietnam has produced thousands of items, documents and photos, but the vast majority pertain to accounted-for Americans.

Extensive field activities in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have brought results through joint recovery or turnover in the field of remains fragments. From that process, 241 Americans (127-VN; 99-LA; 15-CB) have thus far accounted for by the Clinton Administration, all as a result of joint field operations.

Joint field operations in Laos are productive, but the U.S. is seeking greater flexibility while our teams are in-country. Agreements between the U.S. and the Indochina governments now permit Vietnamese witnesses to participate in joint operations in Laos and Cambodia when necessary. POW/MIA research and field activities in Cambodia have received excellent support. Over 80% of U.S. losses in Laos and 90% of those in Cambodia occurred in areas where Vietnamese forces operated during the war; however, Vietnam has not yet responded to numerous U.S. requests for case-specific records on loss incidents in these countries. Records research and field operations are the most likely means of increasing the accounting for Americans missing in Laos and Cambodia.

Despite U.S. intelligence assessments and other evidence that hundreds of Americans can best be accounted for by unilateral Vietnamese efforts to locate and return remains and provide relevant documents and records, President Clinton has consistently certified to Congress that Vietnam is "fully cooperating in good faith" to resolve this issue. The League supports steps by the U.S. to respond to concrete results, not advancing political and economic concessions in the hope that Hanoi will respond. President Clinton lifted the trade embargo, established the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, normalized relations, and posted a U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam; the burden is squarely on the current administration to obtain increased accountability.


The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia 1001 Connecticut Avenue Northwest, Suite 919 Washington, D.C. 20036-5504 (TEL) 202-223-6846 Federal Tax ID #23-7071242"