News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Looking For the Lost: Interview with Pete Peterson

Date: July 16, 2001

"Looking for Lost Soldiers
The U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, Pete Peterson, talks about why it's important to continue the hunt for MIAs in Southeast Asia
By Ron Moreau

July 8 —  During a routine mission this past spring, several members of the team that searches for MIAs in Southeast Asia died when their helicopter suddenly crashed. Their untimely deaths have prompted some to question whether or not the costly—and at times dangerous—searches for the 1,981 Americans missing from the Indochina War are worth the effort. American ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson believes that, despite the difficulties, the search should go on. The 65-year-old former Florida congressman has good reason for his opinions: After his fighter aircraft was shot down in 1966, Peterson spent six and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, which included long stretches in solitary confinement. Recently he spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Ron Moreau in Hanoi.  

NEWSWEEK: Did you know many of the men who died personally?
Pete Peterson: Everyone is deeply in grief here. [Lt. Col. Rennie] Cory was a very serious guy, really committed to this mission. He was a real hands-on guy—more of an army commander than the others. Not a single thing went awry under him. He expanded operations into pretty innovative stuff like doing some of our first, complex and difficult underwater searches for missing pilots and aircraft.

What about the Vietnamese man [Col. Tran Van Bien] who died in the crash?
Col. Tran Van Bien [who headed the Vietnamese side of the searches] was the key Vietnamese who kept this program on an even keel. He sold our effort to the Vietnamese. He went into the provinces and negotiated access for us. As Americans, we couldn’t do this alone. We [have to] go in and tear up fields. We move houses. He was the guy who helped negotiate all these things.
       
Does the death of these men give you pause as to the high cost of continuing the search for MIAs?
It’s OK to review the mission. But this mission is, in my view, similar to that of a battlefield medic who brings in a wounded soldier or a body during a battle. There is great risk and we lose a lot of medics but we do it because it is the right thing to do. The men and women who are involved in the [searches] are not only recovering the families’ loved ones, they are also demonstrating America’s commitment to all of our people serving in the military today. No serviceman or woman doubts for a moment America’s resolve to care for them if they are lost anywhere in the world. It’s a message that’s clear and that gives comfort to service people and to their families.


Is there still broad-based support in the U.S. government, Congress and the American public for the missions to continue?
There’s no doubt in my mind. I think the American people would be outraged if there were a suggestion that we’d suspend this operation. Still, some people do ask me, “Why are we spending X number of dollars and only getting so many bodies per dollar?” I ask them: “How much is your life worth? Can you put a value on it?” I don’t think so. Everyone who talks like that is using the wrong equation. We should ask how much of a commitment does America have to account for those who gave their lives for their country in combat. We can’t put a price tag on that.
       
So you consider the searches an overall success?
The program has had significant success. It’s perhaps the most significant humanitarian mission and the most honorable task that two former enemies have ever engaged in. It would be a national disgrace to terminate this mission because of this accident. I would go so far as to say that those who [just] lost their lives would be the first ones to say, “Keep the mission going.”
       
Do you ever go out on the missions yourself?
Every time I go out I become very emotional because I am seeing our young service people in a hole digging side by side with Vietnamese of the same age, none of whom were alive when these losses occurred. Our two nations and people are working side by side to do something that is pretty fantastic. We are also helping the Vietnamese to identify their own MIAs. They just lack the funding and the sophistication to make as great an effort as we do. But it’s a real partnership. We have helped them with forensic technology and [have] given some hardware. We’ve led them to burial sites and brought back war artifacts from the U.S. that our GIs have taken off of bodies [during the war.]

Don’t the searches give false hopes to the families that the missing are still alive or can indeed be found?
I think we’re pretty candid with the families. They are told everything. Nothing’s classified. [Sen. John] McCain and I were both adamant that everything should be declassified with the exception of the personal stuff. We don’t want to violate anyone’s privacy. Still, there is no detail that we don’t divulge to the families. I think the families would agree that it’s not likely we will find anyone alive, though never say never. Who knows? These people would be my age and that would mean their survivability would not be so high after having been in captivity all these years. As for the recovery [of remains], if the loss occurred over land then I think the chances are pretty good. If [the loss] was over water then [the chance of recovery] goes down. We are starting some underwater searches but after 25 years of tidal movement, it’s difficult.

MIAs: The Search Continues
     
How long should the searches continue?
That’s a good question. I ask myself that all the time. We use the term “fullest possible accounting” but I don’t know what that term means. No one does. I think there will be a point when we have completed the excavations that are doable. There may be a time when we don’t know where to go next. At that time I would hope that the families of those still missing and the American veterans would help us to find what that fullest possible accounting is. At that point it would not be a termination but rather the start of a new approach: to continue our searches as new information arises, much as we are doing with our World War II and cold-war missing. When is that? It is still some years away."       
© 2001 Newsweek, Inc.