Senate Select Committee - XXIX

Public Awareness Campaign

The problem of Americans in enemy hands was a visible and painful reminder of the Vietnam War's cost. Uncertainties about the prisoners and missing combined with the numbers who came home in body bags to erode public support for the war.

Vietnam had signed the Geneva Convention governing treatment of prisoners of war. In an apparent attempt to circumvent the Geneva Convention, Americans captured by the Vietnamese were regarded as "international bandits" or "air pirates;" within the prison system, they were referred to as "criminals," the American public learned after Operation Homecoming.

Given Vietnamese rejection of any limit on their treatment of American prisoners, families were prepared to believe stories about abusive treatment of their kin. When the Vietnamese broadcast anti- war statements made by, or attributed to, American prisoners, their cynical manipulation intensified the anger of Americans at home. Even when Hanoi released Americans in 1968, it sought to manipulate public opinion by releasing the POWs to war protesters instead of to U.S. authorities.

The Nixon Administration

When the Nixon Administration took office in 1969, the Vietnam War dominated American politics. Having promised a plan whereby the U.S. could bring the war to a close, the Nixon Administration had to balance international needs against domestic support and questions about the fate of Americans missing in Southeast Asia posed a severe complication -- and an opportunity.

The Nixon Administration found one solution for the two related problems -- how to gain better treatment for American prisoners, and how to maintain public support for the war until it could be favorably ended -- a publicity campaign.

Laird Initiative

Two months after Nixon took office in 1969, Defense Secretary Melvin Laird demonstrated the United States' new policy on American prisoners and the U.S. thrust the plight of the prisoners into the public spotlight.

Laird's decision was controversial at the outset. Some critics thought the prisoners would be better served by quiet efforts rather than a public campaign. In this view, shared by Kissinger and Averill Harriman, public criticism would only harden the Vietnamese and Lao positions, and make it harder to negotiate on this and related issues. This position was especially attractive to those who assumed the Vietnam War would be a short one.

Other observers, among them Laird, noted that a quiet approach had not brought positive results yet, and argued that the Vietnamese were using prisoners to manipulate American public opinion. POW/MIA families long had pressed the case for more public support. In late 1966, Sybil Stockdale, wife of Admiral James Stockdale, began organizing meetings among wives of downed pilots. Eventually, they obtained some official attention from DoD. In October 1968, the American media picked up the story of how few letters from prisoners had been allowed out by the Vietnamese -- only 623 since the beginning of the war from 108 prisoners.

Laird introduced new attention to POWs publicly on May 19, 1969, by highlighting North Vietnam's refusal to provide a list of prisoners and strongly criticizing their position at a press conference:

I am deeply shocked and disappointed by this cruel response of Hanoi's representative to such a basic request for humanitarian action. Hundreds of American wives, children, and parents continue to live in a tragic state of uncertainty caused by the lack of information concerning the fate of their loved ones. This needless anxiety is caused by the persistent refusal by North Vietnam to release the names of U.S. prisoners of war.

I want to reaffirm the continuing hope that Hanoi will provide a list of American prisoners and permit a free flow of mail between U.S. prisoners of war and their families. We continue to urge the immediate release of sick and wounded prisoners, the neutral inspection of prisoner of war facilities, and the prompt release of all American prisoners.

The same month, the Viet Cong put forward a 10-point peace plan stating that prisoner releases would have to be negotiated by the parties to the conflict as a part of the total settlement of the war. Similarly, North Vietnam argued that repatriation of prisoners must wait until the end of hostilities. The U.S. position was consistent with the provisions of the Geneva Accords, although not heavily supported by precedent.

Search for Allies

That year, the U.S. Government sought to bring the issue to international attention, including by pressing for United Nations resolutions and action by the Soviet and Chinese Government, allies of -- and potential conduits to -- the Hanoi Government.

Similarly, the State Department stressed the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, generating a debate over North Vietnam's reservations about that Convention. In general, North Vietnam argued that the conflict was not a war, and the Geneva Convention did not apply -- an argument not widely accepted by the international community. Hanoi also argued that the prisoners were war criminals, and thus not entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention.

The Nixon Administration also worked with a variety of private organizations, including the fledgling National League of Families. By the end of the first year, it added an informal partnership with VIVA, which originally supported a policy of victory in Vietnam that had evolved into a POW/MIA awareness promotion. In 1970, DoD also dealt with the Committee of Liaison with Families of Prisoners and Missing (COLIAFAM), which opposed the war but was able to provide for exchange of mail with POWs. By 1972, several regional organization also became devoted to supporting POW/MIAs as anticipations of their seemingly imminent return grew.

H. Ross Perot

In the Fall of 1969, Secretary of the Navy John Warner approached H. Ross Perot to discuss the POW/MIA issue. Perot told Committee investigators that at that time Warner, Perot's friend, and Warner's aide (Col. William Leftwich) visited at length about the POW issue. Warner arranged for Perot to talk with Col. Chappie James of the DoD, which in turn led to a meeting with Assistant Secretary of Defense Capen. Eventually, Perot said he talked with Kissinger, who asked him to mount a private effort to assist American prisoners. The objective was to embarrass the North Vietnamese into improving treatment of American prisoners to improve their chance of surviving. Col. Alexander Haig was Perot's liaison with the NSC, he said.

Perot said he responded vigorously to the White House request, launching a spectacular mission that Christmas. A chartered plane was loaded with carefully designed packages for each prisoner -- even for the missing so as to avoid the appearance of having decided their fate, no matter how strong the evidence of death. At the same time, Perot financed a trip to Paris for POW wives and children, where they appealed directly to the Vietnamese mission there.

At home, Perot founded "United We Stand," a POW/MIA awareness group with chapters in most states, which coordinated a letter campaign to the Vietnamese mission in Paris. Later, Perot learned from returned prisoners that their treatment did improve in direct correlation with his efforts.

A further discussion of the impact of Mr. Perot's work during these years can be found in chapter 7 of this report.

POW Bracelets

The most memorable private effort was distribution of bracelets engraved with the name of American POW/MIAs. Begun by Voices in Vital America (VIVA) and headed at the time by Carol Bates, this approach raised millions of dollars for travel by families to Paris and Moscow to repeat Perot's 1969-70 efforts. VIVA also staged POW/MIA rallies, with guarded help from the DoD.

Nearly a million bracelets have been distributed during the campaign and since, according to the League.

Son Tay Raid

The Nixon Administration's effective use of the Son Tay raid supported its efforts to promote public awareness. Launched under the most stringent secrecy in late November 1970, the raid penetrated North Vietnam to the prison site at Son Tay, some 75 miles west of Hanoi. The raiders made their way in, found an empty prison, and flew out.

Subsequently, with genuine heroes to fed, the country celebrated the effort and honored the participants. The message that the U.S. was capable of such an action, and the connection between their efforts and the plight U.S. POWs endured was obvious and overcame the mission's failure to rescue POWs. The Nixon Administration also used nationwide commemorations to undergird the public awareness efforts.