Senate Select Committee - XIII

Families

By its nature, war claims victims and produces suffering. Some are killed, and their loved ones mourn. Some become missing, and their loved ones both mourn and hope. When a loved one is in danger, the state of "not knowing" is emotionally the most difficult; and for many POW/MIA families, that state has now stretched on for two decades or more.

The Committee understands that it is difficult to generalize accurately about POW/MIA families, whether from the Vietnam era or from prior wars. The families are diverse in their views, in the particular circumstances surrounding the loss of their loved one, and in the experiences they have had in dealing with their government. Some believe the government has generally done all it could; others believe it has bungled inexcusably. Some believe we should put this part of our history behind us; others are convinced live Americans remain in captivity. None among us can attack the validity of any one of these points of view; for on this question, every POW/MIA family member has fair claim to be considered an expert in the truest sense of that word.

The Committee owes its creation to the activism of family members and, from the beginning, sought to work closely with the families and with their representatives. Fitting, family members were represented at the Committee's first set of hearings and the last. The Committee asked not only for public testimony about individual cases, but directly contacted each of the POW/MIA families from the Vietnam era seeking their advice and participation.

Largely in response to Committee and family requests, the President appointed a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs in January, 1992 to serve as a central coordinator and point of contact for families and for the bureaucracy. Even more importantly, the Committee's drive for the declassification and public release of POW/MIA related documents was a direct result of past family frustration in seeking answers to legitimate questions about their loved ones and about the government's overall knowledge of the issue.

The Committee's review of past family experiences reflect an array of problems in dealing with our government that never should have happened and that can--with proper organization and planning--be avoided in the future.

Accordingly, the Committee recommends:

• Those actually working on POW/MIA accounting in the field in Southeast Asia should be made available, when schedules permit, to meet with families in the United States.
• Military service casualty offices should be headed by civilians who are not subject to the kind of routine duty rotations experienced by military personnel. Individuals in these sensitive positions must have experience and a base of institutional memory if they are to deal effectively and knowledgeably with family members.
• The resumed publication of a regular newsletter containing POW/MIA related information would be a useful means of sharing new developments with the families.
• Guidelines should be established immediately for the creation of a central computerized data base within the Executive branch with information on all unaccounted for U.S. personnel from past military conflicts, to include World War II, Korea, the Cold War and Vietnam. All relevant casualty and intelligence data, in addition to any recently obtained information potentially correlating to a specific case should be made readily available to family members and researchers through the central data base. On-line access to the central data base should be made available through an easily accessible modem system.

Procedures also should be developed to ensure that requests for information contained in the data base can be processed easily so that family members receive prompt, printed responses when necessary. Additionally, procedures should be established by the Department of Defense and the Department of State to ensure that the data base is updated regularly. The Committee further recommends that the Secretary of Defense authorize the DOD family liaison officer to work with the service casualty officers to develop a data base program which meets the needs of families and researchers who need to use the system.

• Family members of Vietnam era POW/MIAs who would like to travel to Southeast Asia for direct discussions with appropriate U.S. and foreign government officials should be encouraged and helped to do so.

Conclusion

This executive summary began with three well-deserved tributes--to our POWs, to POW/MIA families, and to veterans and other responsible activist groups. The efforts and contributions of others deserve recognition, as well. The investigatory responsibilities of this Committee caused it to place enormous demands on the Executive branch for information, for the processing and declassification of documents, and for access to archived files.

Committee Members questioned current and former Executive branch officials rigorously, repeatedly and, at times, very bluntly about important issues of judgment and fact. These requests and questions were an essential part of the Committee's job, but the demands placed on the time and energies, especially of current officials, was very real.

Accordingly, the Committee wishes to acknowledge the truly extraordinary level of cooperation it received from President George Bush, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, Secretaries of State James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, and many others in the Executive branch.

Further, the Committee must respond to the frequently-heard criticism that our government is "not doing enough" in behalf of our missing Americans. There is no question that such criticisms have been valid at points in the past. Although the answers we seek are in Vietnam and Laos and other foreign lands, this Committee was created not so much because other governments have failed to cooperate, but because our people did not believe our own government was doing enough.

We believe that, over the past 15 months, our Committee has played a major role in remedying past problems. Building on the efforts of family and veterans groups, we urged creation of the JTF-FA. We have complemented the heroic efforts made by Gen. John Vessey to gain greater access to Vietnam so that our investigations of live- sighting reports and discrepancy cases in that country will yield credible results. We helped spark creation of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission and took steps to open the doors of cooperation with North Korea.

Today, the improvements are visible on the ground throughout Southeast Asia and in Moscow. The level of commitment at the highest levels of our government has never been greater, and our Committee has witnessed first-hand the dedication that exists within the rank and file of the JCRC and the DIA. These are people who have worked in extremely difficult conditions in Southeast Asia, often for weeks at a time in remote and hostile locations, searching for remains, following up live-sighting reports or pursuing other evidence about what happened to missing Americans. These individuals have earned our admiration and are symptomatic of a revived national effort to gain the fullest possible accounting for our POW/MIAs.

This Committee was created to remedy the atmosphere of suspicion and distrust that has so long pervaded this issue. It is our hope that this report, and the record of our work, will in fact help to repair the bonds of trust between our government and the public, and heal the wounds caused by past allegations and anger.

The bitterness surrounding the U.S. Government's effort to account for Americans missing from past wars has gone on long enough. It is time to move beyond past differences to a unified and informed commitment to seek further answers within the bounds of what time and the circumstances of war realistically permit.

Our people, and especially our POW/MIA families, have a right to know all that it is possible to know about the fate of their fellow countrymen and loved ones. This Committee, with strong public support, has pressed both our government and foreign governments to add to that knowledge--through the declassification of documents, response to hard questions, access to archives and eyewitness accounts. A process has been established that will permit timely, in-country investigations of evidence that live Americans remain in captivity. The search for remains and other evidence that could bring certainty to families is ongoing. More people are now employed and working full time on the POW/MIA issue than at any time since the end of the war, almost 20 years ago. America is finally being allowed to do what it should have been able to do long ago.

Unfortunately, the existence of a strong "accountability process" cannot stop the pain in a family member's heart, nor can it substitute for the gut belief held by some that one or more U.S. POWs survive. The qualities of love and faith reflect what is best about us, and are not answerable to laws of probability or perspective. That is why some of us will always bring to the evidence a different level of passion and a different standard for judging evidence than others. But this Committee's investigation demonstrates that these kinds of differences need not lead to differences of goal. It does not matter with what emotions we proceed at this point to seek further answers; it is important only that we continue looking as long as there is good reason to believe that additional answers may be found.

The Committee's investigation has answered a host of questions about the past, while opening the door to future progress. With this final report, the Committee will cease to exist. But that does not mean that our own work on this issue will also end. To the extent that there remain questions outstanding that are not adequately dealt with by the Executive branch, we will ensure that these questions are pursued through the normal Committee structure of the Congress. We will also work with officials in the Clinton Administration to see that the major recommendations of the Select Committee are implemented and that needed, additional diplomatic steps are taken.

We undertook our assignments as Members of this Committee not only out of official duty, but as a personal commitment; a commitment founded variously on prior military service or a concern for families in our respective states or out of a simple desire to pursue the truth. For each of us, that commitment has grown over the past year as we have worked with the families and agonized with them in trying to sort out the facts. Now, having completed our work as Members of the Select Committee, we move to a different stage of our effort but with no change of goal. We remain committed, and will ensure that our nation remains dedicated, to obtaining the fullest possible accounting of missing Americans. We owe no less to our POW/MIA families; nor can we accept less and be at peace with ourselves.