News-Info-Alerts

Re: 51 US Vietnam POWs May Be Identified in Russian Archives

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 18, 2003

"Russians shed light on U.S. POWs in Vietnam

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Associated Press

MOSCOW -- A U.S.-Russian panel on prisoners of war has found information in Russia's military archives that could help account for 51 American pilots missing from Vietnam, a lawmaker said yesterday.

The information already has helped identify seven of the pilots, said lawmaker Nikolai Bezborodov, deputy chief of the parliamentary defense affairs committee and co-chair of the POW panel.

"The fate of 19 more servicemen can be determined by the Americans on the basis of the lists presented to them," Bezborodov was quoted as telling the Interfax-Military News Agency.

The information documents 38 incidents involving the capture of 51 Americans. In all, 1,889 Americans are still missing in Vietnam and nearby countries, 30 years after the war ended.

Last week, Bezborodov complained about Russian military archives remaining largely classified. He voiced hope that the POW search would become easier, because the archives from the Vietnam era are to be declassified this year.

The commission also studied reports and notes on Soviet military aid to Vietnam and combat reports about Vietnamese air defense and air force operations, Bezborodov said.

The panel has found information about five cases of Soviet intelligence offices questioning American POWs in Vietnam, but no evidence has been found that any Americans were transferred to the Soviet Union.

The U.S.-Russian Joint Commission on POWs and soldiers missing in action was set up in 1992. The main focus has been on the Korean War, but the commission also is looking at the Vietnam War and investigating the fate of Soviet troops missing in Afghanistan.

Copyright 2003 The Star-Ledger"