Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs
17 July 1991
Introduction
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to outline the Department of Defense's position on the issue of Americans missing or unaccounted for as a result of the conflict in Southeast Asia and to respond to your specific questions.
Today there are still 2,273 Americans who are missing or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. This figure includes 1172 originally carried as Prisoners of War (POW) or Missing in Action (MIA), as well as 1101 whose original status was Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered (KIA/BNR). The breakdown by country of loss is: Vietnam 1,656; Laos 528 and Cambodia 83though nearly 85% were lost in areas under control of Vietnamese forces during the war; and China (coastal waters).
The Administration's Commitment
In a letter to the 22nd annual convention of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Action in Southeast Asia, delivered by Secretary Cheney on July 13th of this year, President Bush reaffirmed his 1989 pledge that the fullest accounting is a matter of highest national priority. His letter stated, "...most important, if any Americans are still being held captive, decisive action will be taken to return them home." Let me stress that the POW/MIA issue is a matter of personal concern to all of us in the Department of Defense. We are committed to getting answers that will allow us to account for our missing comrades-in-arms.
Live Sightings
Our most urgent priority, the Live Prisoner issue, has been at the forefront of negotiations and the intelligence effort. The government authorities in Indochina deny that they are still holding American prisoners. Those denials have not deterred us from raising the Live Prisoner issue directly on each and every occasion at various levels for several years. We intend to keep the pressure on.
Although we have thus far been unable to prove that Americans are still detained against their will, information available to us precludes ruling out that possibility. The recent opening of the POW/MIA Office in Hanoi provides an important opportunity to investigate all Live Sighting reports. The Vietnamese government has given assurances that our people manning that office will be able to move freely about the country, Live Sighting reports will continue to receive our first priority. We intend to actively investigate such reports, and to dedicate all necessary resources to this effort. Our assumption is that at least some Americans are still held captive. Should any report prove true, we will, as President Bush recently put it, take decisive action to return them home.
Vietnam
General John W. Vessey, Jr., USA (ret) was named special Presidential Emissary to Hanoi for POW/MIA Affairs by President Reagan in February 1987 and reappointed by President Bush in January 1980. Agreements reached by General Vessey and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach in August 1987 have served as the basis for increased cooperation on the POW/MIA issue, and as the basis for the agreement to address certain humanitarian issues of interest to both governments.
On September 29, 1990 Secretary of State Baker met in New York with Minister Thach. Secretary Baker stressed the need for rapid POW/MIA progress and agreed to permit Thach and a Vietnamese delegation to travel to Washington, D.C. in October to meet with General Vessey and the U.S. POW/MIA Interagency Group.
On October 17, 1990, General Vessey and other senior U.S. representatives met with the Thach delegation. At thsi meeting Minister Thach agreed to all U.S. proposals including:
Improved cooperative planning for joint investigations;
Increased unilateral remains repatriations; and
Serious cooperation to locate and make available wartime documents and records.
Minister Thach also agreed to assist in facilitating access to witnesses to incidents where Americans were lost, as well as to veterans formerly associated with military units involved in operations in which U.S. personnel were captured or casulaties occurred. Imporatanbtly, he also agreed to expand the number of U.S. and Vietnamese personnel participating in the joint activities and to allow the U.S. teams to stay on-site until thorough investigations of selected cases are completed. If fully implemented by the SRV, these agreements will allow us to spend more time on actual in-field investigations, and permit more U.S. teams in Vietnam at one time. Hopefully thsi will speed up a process that has heretofore been painfully slow.
On April 19 and 20, 1991, General Vessey and the IAG, including myself, met with Minister Thach and other Vietnamese officials in Hanoi. At these discussions, General Vessey reviewed the progress in implementing steps agreed upon in their October, 1990 meeting and provided the Vietnamese with our assessment of progress on the cases. Both government's also agreed that a temporary POW/MIA office would be established in Hanoi. The mission of the office is to:
To conduct in-country investigations of reported first-hand live sightings;
Research historical/archival records;
Conduct forensic review of remains jointly recovered or unilaterally made available by Vietnam to facilitate more rapid repatriation; and
Conduct advance planning and prepare/execute joint field operations.
Results of Recent Activity
Since September 1988, we have conducted 13 extended periods of joint investigations in Vietnam. During these activities, specific cases of Americans, many of whom were Last Known Alive in Vietnamese hands, were investigated to determine their fate - if they were found alive, to bring them home, and, if they were determined to have died, recover and return their remains to the United States.
Technical experts from the Joint Casualty Resolution Center and the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii have traveled with their Vietnamese counterparts in selected areas throughout Vietnam, interviewing witnesses and examining crash sites in the search of answers on specific cases of unaccounted for Americans. During our field operations, the investigators have contributed important information; however, no American has been determined to be alive. During this time, of the remains returned unilaterally by the Vietnamese, 22 sets of remains have been identified as Americans.
Overall, Vietnamese unilateral efforts have been the most effective means to recover and repatriate remains. But, even here, the record has been mixed. For example, the most recent unilateral remains repatriations by the Vietnamese yielded disappointing results. Ten sets of remains were provided by the Vietnamese, nine sets were jointly reviewed by forensic experts and brought to the United States for further scientific examination at the Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. Only one set appears to be identifiable as the remains of an American. The other nine appear to be Southeast Asian Mongoloid or unidentifiable.
Vietnamese wartime records are a major key to accounting for Americans. We have urged the Vietnamese to examine their wartime records and to identify knowledgeable witnesses and make them available to us. Our POW/MIA specialists are able to make effective use of this information when they are provided access. With the opening of the POW/MIA Office in Hanoi, our archival specialist should be able to capitalize on this critical source of information. We hope the Vietnamese will continue to allow our specialists access to archival information bearing on missing Americans. We also hope they will sustain, and over time increase the efforts of their own information specialists participating in the search for evidence and information that will help shed light on the fates of our missing.
The 14th field investigation will be underway shortly. The opening of the U.S. POW/MIA Office in Hanoi offers the opportunity for greatly expanded cooperation and progress toward the resolution of the fates of our Missing in Action. As always, however, progress is a function of the degree to which the Vietnamese are willing to cooperate and be forthcoming.
I wish to emphasize that our goal is to obtain the fullest possible accounting for all missing Americans. We and the Next-of-Kin recognize that every one will noy be accounted for because of the physical circumstances of loss.
We are confident, however, that with the complete and serious cooperation of the government of Vietnam, the uncertainty of many of the families of these unaccounted for Americans can be ended.
Laos
In Laos, there has been an increase in productive joint activities in recent years, including surveys and excavations of crash sites. In December 1991, I traveled to Vientiane to emphasize to the Lao the importance to the U.S. of increased cooperation on POW/MIA and counter-narcotics issues.
During early 1991, we conducted the first joint investigations of Discrepancy Cases involving Americans Last Known to be inPathet Lao hands. These investigations were a major step forward in Lao POW/MIA cooperation. Shortly therefater, I presented to the Lao a significantly expanded POW/MIA program for the remainder of 1991 as well as a U.S. Government proposal to address Lao humanitarian concerns.
The Lao agreed in May to our proposed POW/MIA program, which would expand both the level of activity and our access to areas throughout Laos where incidents occurred. Activities agreed upon were to include further joint investigations of discrepancy cases, small scale joint surveys and recoveries and joint crash site excavations.
We were pleased that the Lao agreed to theis expanded program and that we have been able to conduct the first two joint activities under this program on schedule. However, actual Lao cooperation on the ground, which is essential if the program is to be fully and successfully implemented, has been less than promised. Tha Lao have stressed their intent to fulfill their commitment, and I am hopeful that their initially uneven implementation of the POW/MIA workplan will improve rapidly and enable both countries to get back on track with the agreed upon year-rounf program. Meanwhile, in line with previous USG commitments to respond to Lao humanitarian needs, the Department of Defense has provided in excess of 45 tons of humanitarian medical supplies to Laos this year. In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a rural five room schoolhouse in Savannakhet Province earlier this year.
Cambodia
While we are still hopeful that Phnom Penh's initial willingness to cooperate with U.S. technical officials could lead to expanded humanitarian cooperation, no such indication have been received. The 6 remains which were repatriated in the spring of 1990 are still being examined at the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory; however itnow appears that none of these remains are American.
While efforts have proved frustrating, the USG will continue to seek Phnak Penh's, Hanoi's cooperation in resolving the fates of the 83 Americans lost in that unfortunate country including those whose losses occurred in Vietnamese areas of Cambodia.
Recent Publicity and Events
In light of the publicity on the POW/MIA issue in recent weeks, I would be remiss if I did not address the numerous allegations of impropriety, conspiracy, and cover-up that have been leveled at teh government's efforts to resolve this issue.
First, this committee and the American people should be assured that accounting for our Missing in Action from the Vietnam War is a high priority objective of U.S. policy, this commitment was underscored just this past weekend by Sceretary Cheney when he told the annual meeting of the National League of Families that: "Resolving the issue of Prisoners of War and Missing in Action is, and will continue to be, a matter of highest national priority, for the Department of Defense and for the nation."
To implement this promise, the Department of Defense has about 150 people around the world waorkign all day, every day. Each of those who is working toward our goal is deeply committed and doing his or her level best to find the answers to the questions remaining from the Vietnam War. We in the Department of Defense feel a special kinship with those still missing and their families. It does a tremendous disservice to all those honorable men and women working on this issue to suggest that they are not giving an honest effort or have essentially abandoned their comrades.
I want to state unequivovcally, with no reservation, that there is neither a cover-up nor a lack of zeal in moving toward our goal of the fullest possible accounting.
We would have long ago achieved this objective accounting had the government of Vietnam acted quickly to satisfy our continued quests for information, for access to sites for investigation and excavation, for access to witnesses and for the cooperation of the government and military officials assigned to work with our technicians.
There is no question that COL Peck's departure from DIA has reinforced those who choose to believe that the U.S. government is the scoundrel in this issue, and created doubts as to whether the USG is doing the best possible job under the circumstances. In a speech before the National LEague of Families this past Saturday evening, Lieutenant GEneral Harry E. Soyster, the Director of DIA, stated that Colonel PEck "was simply poorly suited for this position - a case of good officer in the wrong job... and subsequently, Lieutenant GEneral Soyster removed him from it." It is unfortunate, as Secretary Cheney said, that in the process of lashing out, Colonel Peck created even more uncertainty in the minds of family members.
The DEpartment of Defense has identified areas where changes would be helpful and we have taken positive steps toward improving the way we do business. We have identified areas where additional manpower is required and have the full backing of the Sceretary in the process. We will continue to apply the necessary resources to assure the fullest possible accounting for our missing from the Vietnam War.
Conclusion
The Governments of Vietnam and Laos have agreed that accounting for the missing si a humanitarian issue and that they will cooperate in resolving it. What is needed now is further, more intensive efforts to improve planning and prepatory work for joint investigations on the part of the Vietnamese; more effective archival work and cooperation on making information accessible to our specialists; and sustained, systematic efforts to address the Live Prisoner issue through active investigations conducted by our temporary office.
At this point, with the opening of the office in Hanoi and a broadening of our activity from the initial discrepancy cases to a geographically oriented approach that will include all remaining cases, I am optimistic that we have the framework in place to move rapidly toward the fullest possible accounting. I feel that again, the ball is in HAnoi's court. We are prepared to move as fast as they will permit.