February 10, 1994
Honorable Congressmen and Distinguished Guests:
I was captured during the Tet offensive in January 1968, at Ban Me Thuot, Darlac Province, Central Highlands of South Vietnam by a North Vietnamese Army Unit, although Hanoi repeatedly swore it had no troops in the South. Despite Hanoi's signature of the Geneva Agreements on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, stipulating that captured civilians would be released immediately, I wasn't released until five years later in March 1973. During this time, I spent 27 months in solitary confinement, and of this time, one year in a black box. For the first year, I was held in over twelve POW camps in South Vietnam. The second year, I was held in a cage in Cambodia--over one year before the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. Hanoi repeatedly swore they were not in Cambodia--another lie. Next, I was held in one camp and several caves in Laos over a period of a month. Lastly, I was held in three camps in North Vietnam.
Communists are the world's foremost bureaucrats and record everything in quadruplicate. There were no less than three dozen separate sets of documents recording my incarceration. I was captured by a North Vietnaemse battalion, thus my capture was recorded in their battle report.
I spent 11 years in Vietnam, over five years as a prisoner of war---1968- 1973, and am a diligent follower of the affairs of the region. While serving as a Foreign Service Officer with the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support program (CORDS), I was captured at Ban Me Thuot, South Vietnam (Central Highlands) by the North Vietnamese, and was held in numerous camps in South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam. For efforts in rescuing several Amreicans before my capture, I received the State Department's highest award for heroism and also one for valor.
I was turned over to Hanoi's Enemy Proselytizing Department (EPD), which was responsible for all POWs, and this was recorded. I was farmed out to a Viet Cong prison camp, again my existance was recorded. Twice a month, I was visited by EPD officers, and these visits were recorded. I was interrogated by military intelligence officers, a different division from EPD, and they recorded the interviews. After being moved to Cambodia, we stopped at Vietnamese military rest camps every night, and the camp commanders recorded my presence. I was treated by a medic in one of the camps, and he recorded this in his separate logbook. When I arrived at the POW camp in Cambodia, the camp commander recorded my presence. I was visited by a doctor from a nearby NVA field hospital, and this was recorded in his log book. The same thing was repeated in Laos. Each of the three camps in North Vietnam where I was held had a political officer who repeatedly interrogated me and recorded everything. I was also interrogated by several "guest" political and intelligence officers, including two Cubans, who kept records. THEREFORE, PLEASE DON'TINSULT MY INTELLIGENCE BY TELLING ME THAT THE VIETNAMESE CANNOT PRODUCE RECORDS OF POWs. THEY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR POWS.
Two civilian prisoners with me died while we were in a remote area. Our "Prison chasers" drew maps of where the bodies were buried. Two EPD officers also came and drew maps of the grave sites. A U.S. team visiting the sites said that the remains had been dug up and removed; however, the Vietnamese have not returned them. Hanoi knows where the bodies are buried!
Why would Hanoi hold POWs? The Vietnamese communists are not "born again Christians." They are not Mr.Nice Guy. Vietnam is ruled by a totalitarian regime that is very repressive. Its leaders are very vindictive. Recently, Freedom House named them as one of the top twenty of the world's worst violators of human rights. During the war, they repeatedly broadcast to their people that the American POWs were "war criminals," and that they would try us before a Nuremberg-like tribunal and keep us forever. They repeatedly told us this, and said they would hold us just like they still held French POWs (which is also documented). The Vietnamese leaders lost face with their people when President Nixon bombed Hai Phong and Hanoi and forced the Vietnamese to release the 590 POWs. Therefore, they would hold POWs to prove to their people and to themselves that they did not capitulate and give into the American "aggressors." And they wanted "bargaining chips," and "pawns" to trade for their prisoners held by the South Vietnamese, and to ensure that they would be paid the $3.5 billion promised by Henry Kissinger as war reparations.
It's important to note what contitutes a communist prison in Vietnam,ÙÉ Cambodia and Laos. It is a chain, a padlock and a tree. It is stocks made from tree trunks in a bamboo cage on some remote mountain. It is a cave with a fence and a guard at the entrance. It is any kind of room or storage bin, with the windows bricked up and the door fastened with a steel bar. it is a generator room under the "Citadel" with a locked door. It is shackles bolted to a bed in an infirmary on an island. This is what constitutes Hanoi's "second tier" prison system, and it cannot be compared to a U.S. prison system, where prisoners can be readily accessed.
While in the cage in Cambodia, I saw perhaps eight to ten American POWs taken up the side of a mountain to another part of the cage-compound complex. The camp I was held in was one of six or eight cage-compounds situated on a mountain top shaped somewhat like a Star of David, each compound situated on a point. I knew this because I was held for a short time in another of the cage-compounds, and from studying a map of the are and talking to other POWs who had been held in the same complex. None of the other POWs released from this camp complex had been moved at the time I saw these Americans. Who were they? What happened to them?
Could someone survive in the prison system of the Hanoi communists after all this time. About four years ago, two or three Japanese soldiers from World War II surfaced in Malaysia. They had survived in the jungle for almost five decades. IF THE POWs BELIEVED THAT AMERICA WOULD NEVER ABANDON THEM, THEY COULD SURVIVE!
Yes, I believe Hanoi is fully cooperating with the Joint Task Force Full Accounting (JTFFA). The Vietnamese communists are answering the questions they are asked. However, JTFFA isn't asking the right questions. Crash site investigation is a growth industry for Hanoi, reaping them millions of dollars in revenue as ransom for "salted artifacts" (as in "salting" a phony gold mine with a few nuggets). Examination of the crash sites is a joke. Hanoi, as a policy, and the Vietnamese, as a way of life, immediately after crash, policed all sites of anything of value, including bodies, identification and personal items, unless the site was in the remotest jungle or moutains. Therefore, any remains or artifacts found on the surface of the majority of these crash sites were probably returned and placed there by Hanoi.
The Pentagon committed a grave injustice to the POW/MIAs and their families by forcing the early retirement of Mr.Garnett "Bill" Bell, former chief of the POW/MIA Office in Hanoi. Mr.Bell has more residual knowledge of the POW/ MIAs than the entire staff of the Joint Task Force Full Accounting (JTFFA). JTFFA is composed primarily of neophytes, who have limited knowledge of the POW/MIA issue; who have inadequate investigative and language capabilities; who have little experience; who have little historical knowledge of the Vietnamese communists and their military; and who have NO knowledge of correlating information from other reports which may be relevant to the case. In reality, they wouldn't know who to ask or how to ask it. It's best summed up by a statement made by Ken De Graffenreid, NSC Intelligence Chief assigned by President Reagan to investigate the POW Issue who said, "People working that issue could not find a POW if a POW dropped on their head."
When Senator John Kerry visited the area of a prison in Southern Vietnam in April, 1992, Vietnamese officials told him that no Americans had ever been held there. Several months later, an American detainee was secretly released by the Vietnamese, who reported that one day prior to the Senator's arrival, he was moved from the prison, and returned two days after the Senator departed.
Although the American detainee wasn't a POW from the war, it proves my point -- THE VIETNAMESE COMMUNIST OFFICIALS ARE PATHOLOGICAL LIARS. Anyone who thinks that the Vietnamese are being truthful and "cooperating" is either a fool or has other motivations.
Resolution of live sighting reports by JTFFA is a moribund joke. The names and locations of all witnesses are given far in advance to the draconian Vietnamese communists, along with all available information in U.S. files. Therefore, witnesses are "prepared" prior to the arrival of JTFFA personnel. Interviews are conducted in the presence of a communist Vietnamese Public Safety representative. ALL WITNESSES ARE SUBJECT TO INTIMIDATION.
I have access to, and will make available for joint viewing, a CINPAC video-tape given to me in confidentiality that was made at the Vietnamese Presidential Palace during Senator John Kerry's December 1992 visit. In his meeting with Vietnamese President Le Duc Anh, Kerry assured him that as with the POW pictures, the U.S. Government won't release anything to the public that would embarrass the communist officials. He also told Anh that in order to get the trade embargo lifted, all Hanoi had to do is show that there was a process for accounting. Was he relaying a message from then President- elect Clinton? Surely, Kerry was de facto setting policy and undermining Clinton's campaign promise that there would have to be a full accounting before he would approve lifting the trade embargo on Vietnam. At the same meeting, Kerry also told Anh that Laotian leaders told him on numerous occasions that they had no information on POWs for Hanoi controlled all the POWs and all information on them. There are about 550 Americans missing in Laos, and of these, approximately 80% of these men are missing in territory that was under the total control of Hanoi.
ANYONE PROCLAIMING THAT THE LAOTIAN GOVERNMENT, NOT HANOI, IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCOUNTING FOR THESE MEN IS EITHER EXTREMELY NAIVE, LYING, COVERING FOR HANOI OR A FOOL. The Lao leader's statements relayed by Kerry are corroborated by the attched 1969 CIA document revealing an agreement "between the North Vietnamese Government and the Neo Lao Hak Sat Central Committee whereby all Americans captured in Laos would be sent to North Vietnam..." This document also records a shipment of 27 American POWs from Laos to North Vietnam. Either from the CIA/NAS "Cold Spot," or similar intercept programs, cited in the attached article by Al Santoli, records another transfer in 1973 of "112 USA pilots" from Laos to Sontay, North Vietnam along with "snapshots...names and ages...." There is a plethora of other intelligence information supporting these transfers.
Only NINE POWs captured in Laos were released by Hanoi. According to a 1993 CIA document (reported to have been given to National Security Advisor Anthony Lake by former intelligence officer Barry Toll), 150 American captives were moved to Laos from Vietnam and were offered for ransom. The report, confirmed by a second highly reliable independent source, quotes a high-ranking member of the Lao Polit Buro as stating, "Now is the time to make a deal." At the bottom of the report was written, "Recommend no further action be taken for it is the policy of the U.S. Government not to pay ransom."
Last year, a media feeding frenzy evolved over the surfacing of a Russian military intelligence translation of what was dubbed the "1205" document." The document stated that in 1972, the Vietnamese held as "pawns" 700 more Americans than the 368 they acknowledged, in a "second tier prison system." Pentagon officials and others, with a "mindset to debunk", proclaimed that there was no other evidence to support that allegation. THIS IS A TOTALLY DISHONEST STATEMENT.
There is a convincing body of evidence corroborating the information in the "1205 document" including a 1968 cable from the British Government quoting Labor party Leader Clive Jenkens, who was a known communist sympathizer; a 1968 debriefing of Vietnamese defector Dr. Dang Tan; a 1970 debriefing of another defector, who commanded a U.S. POW camp in North Vietnam; a 1970 debriefing of yet another defector, Le Dinh, who handled the personnel records of these POWs and was considered a prize asset by DIA; and a 1972 intelligence report sent to the White House quoting North Vietnamese General Trang Minh Duc that the Hanoi Polit Buro had made a decision to hold back about one-half of the American POWs as "bargaining chips." Because of this report, President Nixon launched a year intelligence operation tracking those POWs. All of these documents are available. Also, in the attached article, I cited numerous documents evidencing that indeed Hanoi had a "second tier" prison system.
On page 72 of the Pentagon's study, "The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs to the Soviet Union," Russian officials were asked, "HAVE KGB ARCHIVES been searched for this collection requirement (referring to Korea), similar to the one issued by the KGB for the capture of pilots during the Vietnam War?" (This infers that the Pentagon has such a document.) There are numerous intelligence reports supporting the fact that American POWs were given to the Russians by the North Vietnamese, including the severely injured POWs held in the East German Military hospital. Russian military archivist Vladimir Galitsky has accused both Moscow and Washington of dragging their feet on efforts to locate American POWs and MIAs from Vietnam in the former Soviet Union. ALSO, HANOI KNOWS WHO THEY ARE.
By lifting the trade embargo against Vietnam, President Clinton has lost a unique opportunity to case off his war protester hair shirt, and to gain the respect of the families and millions of veterans and active duty military personnel. He has also lost the opportunity to truly heal the wounds of the Vietnam War. In reality, if any POWs are still alive, their death warrants have now been signed, or even worse, they have given them a life-long sentence of depravation and slow-death. By abandoning the POWs an MIAs, the time-honored tradion that Americans DON'T INTENTIONALLY LEAVE THEIR MEN BEHIND has been defiled, and a message has been sent to future armed services personnel that when there's a choice between business and their lives, BUSINESS COMES FIRST!
The Pentagon resolving a MIA case by identifying only one tooth, as has been reported, is highly questionable. While a POW, I saw, on several occasions, Vietnamese medics extracting teeth from the prisoner. These teeth could easily be "salted" among a few bone fragments at a crash site. No MIA should ever be declared dead and remains returned to a family based on the identification of one tooth. The only acceptable means of identification is by DNA testing of a key portion of skeletal remains. If there is evidence that the person had been a POW, the families should demand that the age of the remains be verified, and then matched with Hanoi's explanation of the time and circumstances of death. This should be revealed to the public. The families deserve and are only seeking and demanding the TRUTH.
This "Bright Shining Lie" began after Operation Homecoming in 1973 when President Richard Milhouse Nixon stated that ALL AMERICAN POWS WERE HOME, Ùand he declared all the MIAs in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos DEAD. When will this lie end?
Respectfully submitted,
(signature here)
Michael D. Benge
CIA CABLE # 8 6 8 3 6
Info: J3-1 J5-1 SACSA-4, SeCOEF-7 ASD/ISA-5
DIA-15 CSA-1 CNO-8 C3AF-4 CMC-3
ASD/SA-1 FILE-1 (51) CAC/LEF
This is an information report, not finally evaluated intelligence
0118702 JTE TDCS-314/09796-69
Dist. 1 July 1969
COUNTRY - LAOS/NORTH VIETNAM
DOI - DECEMBER 1968
SUBJECT - PATHET LAO TRANSFER OF ALL AMERICAN PRISONERS FROM LAOS TO NORTH VIETNAM
ACQ
SOURCE
1. In Late December, 1968, 27 Americans held prisoner by the Pathet Lao/PL/, and three other Prisoners believed to be either Thai or Lao, were assembled in Ban Hang Long L-5 /VH 132629/ in Houa Phan Province before being sent to North Vietnam. The 27 Americans represented all Americans the PL (DA Possibly calls 7 PWs in Laos und 150 ? Unreadable in most parts here... ) HELD captive in Laos. The reason given for sending them to North Vietnam was that they were to be used in prisoner exchanges between the North Vietnamese and the South Vietnamese governments.
2. Before the American prisoners were released to North Vietnamese Army/ NVA/Personnel, an agreement was reached between the North Vietnamese Government and the Neo Lao Hak Sat Central Commitee whereby all Americans captured in Laos would be sent to North Vietnam where they would be used in prisoner exchanges with the South Vietnamese government. For several weeks before the American prisoners were turned over to the North Vietnamese, teams of NVA and PL propagandists circulated throughout Northeast Laos explaining the Improtance of releasing all American prisoners to the NVA to assist the North Vietnamese government in its negotiations with the South Vietnamese and American governments.
3. Field dissem. state army and air USMACV 7th Air Force CINCPAC PACFLT PACAF ARPAC