February 10, 1994
Mr.Chairman, distinguished members of the Committee:
The investigation of case 0954 began in October 1992 when local Vietnamese villagers unilaterally returned 531 bone fragments, 16 teeth, an ID tag, Geneva Convention Card, and aircraft data plate to local officials during the 20th Joint Field Activity. A CILHI team climbed to the site in November 1992, conducted a site survey and recommended against excavation due to the hazards involved in climbing to the site and the difficulty of the terrian. The Commander of the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting directed that his detachment commander in Hanoi, an experienced Infantry Officer, go to the site and determine whether an excavation could be done safely. In March 1993, the Detachment Commancer and another Detachment member traveled to the remote site. Three aerial reconnaissance attempts failed to locate a landing zone close to the site due to the ruggedness of the terrain.
From the nearest road the team climbed uphill for five hours to a small farm inhabited by only two people, remained overnight and the next day climbed an additional two hours to reach the site. The site was located at an elevation of 4780 feet on the side of a mountainous rock formation that varies in slope from 30 to 60 degrees. The Detachment Commander determined that an excavation could be done safely, but it would be extremely difficult and would require a hand picked team in top physical shape. Prior to the 26th Joint Field Activity, the Vietnamese cut a helicopter landing zone suitable for an MI-8 on the side of the mountain, thereby reducing the climbing time to the site.
Over a two-day period, six MI-8 sorties transported the twelve U.S. and fifteen Vietnamese recovery team members with their water, equipment and supplies to the landing zone. From the landing zone the team carried equipment for about two hours over extremely rugged terrain to a base camp. The crash site was over an hour climb from the base camp and the terrian was so steep that at points it required scaling rock faces hand over hand. Over the next two and a half weeks, the team climbed an hour each day from the base camp to the site, excavating at the site, then climbed for an hour back to the base camp.
The immediate area of the crash is a rocky slope 40 to 45 degrees in grade. Working from the lowest elevation to the heights at the site, the team worked over the next sixteen days removing surface rock, scraping and sifting through screens the associated soil, aircraft debris and human remains. The excavation resulted in 187 bone fragments, 16 human teeth, personal effects, life support equipment, and other wreckage. This excavation, along with the earlier unilateral turn-in, resulted in a total of 718 bone fragments and 16 teeth.
Mr.Chairman, that is the story of just one case among the hundreds that brave and devoted Americans are pursuing every day -- in the jungles and on the mountains of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, in the laboratories in Hawaii, in Pentagon offices, and in hearts and minds. This brief vignette illustrates not only the labors of Americans but also the intensified cooperation of the Vietnamese. And it shows we are getting results from a process that is painstaking, incremental and will last for decades.
Against this backdrop, I welcome the opportunity to appear before you to discuss President Clinton's decisions last week to lift the trade embargo against Vietnam and to establish a liaison office in Hanoi.
The President took these steps because he was convinced that they offered the best way to achieve the fullest possible accounting of our POW/MIAs. At the outset, I want to emphasize that his decisions were based on that single judgment. Of course the Administration is not oblivious to the potential economic and geo-political benefits that may now begin to unfold. But such benefits would flow from last week's decisions; they were not the reasons for them.
Thus, as the President stated, the POW/MIA issue will remain a central focus of our relationship with Vietnam. We will continue to require, in his words, "more progress, more cooperation, and more answers."
THE ADMINISTRATION'S SEARCH FOR ANSWERS:
President Clinton's decisions were preceded by an intense government-wide effort during the first year of his term. This Adminstration has devoted more resources to the POW/MIA accounting effort than any previou one; there are now more than 500 military and civilian personnel assigned to this task under the leadership of Secretary Perry, General Shalikashvili and the Commander in Chief of the Pacific, Admiral Larson.
From the beginning, President Cliton has worked hard to change the way the government handles information about the POW/MIA issue to ensure full dis- closure. On Memorial Day, he pledged to declassify and make available all possible government documents related to our unaccounted for men. On Veterans Day, we fulfilled that pledge. The State Department reviewed about 200,000 pages of documents, and we declassified and released more than 99 percent. The small amount of material that has been withheld from release consists of matters relating to personal privacy or sensitive foreign policy discussions. The public can gain access to the released documents at our Freedom of Information Reading Room. I understand that the Defense Department declassified about 1.5 million pages of documents, which are available at the Library of Congress.
President Clinton and his top advisers have also made extraordinary efforts to consult many groups that share his concern for the POW/MIA issue. He insisted that all points of view be carefully considered. As is well known, some of these we consulted do not support lifting the embargo at this time.
This Administration has provided American veterans organizations an unprecedented role on this issue. For the first time, leaders of major groups accompanied a Presidential Delegation to Vietnam last July to press for more progress. We have continued to meet with those organizations and other representatives of veterans. The various leaders and their constituents hold diverse perspectives and we have benefitted from them all.
We have also consulted regularly with the National League of Families of POWs and MIAs. I would like to pay tribute to that organization, which, during the 1980s, was instrumental in pushing our government to do more to account for our missing men. Much of the credit is due to Mrs. Ann Mills Griffiths, the League's executive director and the sister of one of our missing. We invited the League to joint the July mission to Vietnam, but they were unable to participate.
To the Veterans and families, let me repeat that this Administration remains steadfast in its determination to achieve the fullest possible accounting. Our doors remain open. We encourage them to continue working with us toward our common goal. As the President stated last week, this spring he will send another high level delegation to Vietnam and will again invite the veterans organizations and the League of Families to participate.
The President and his advisers also sought the views of a large, bi-partisan group of Senators and Representatives, including members of this sub-committee and many who were themselves prisoners of war or served in Vietnam.
Finally, the President has relied heavily on the information and advice provided by his military and civilian advisers here and on the ground.
CHRONOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENTS:
These intensive consultations are part of the careful, steady course on Vietnam that the President has charted during the first year of his Administration. Let me briefly review the events that led to the President's decision to end the embargo and establish reciprocal liaison offices.
The first milestone was the April 1993 mission to Hanoi of General John Vessey. Mr.Chairman, I would like to use this opportunity to salute Jack Vessey. Much of what we have accomplished on the POW/MIA issue is due to the dedicated labors of this patriot who has served three Presidents as Special Emissary to Hanoi. Entering the army as a private, he rose to the highest position in our armed forces, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He gave 46 years of outstanding service to the nation. A grateful country could not have asked for more, but General Vessey had more to offer. He devoted himself to seeking the answers to the questions that have plagued the families of the missing. In 1987, he went on the first of six missions to Hanoi as Special Emissary. His work led to the establishment of the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, and to our full-time POW/MIA office in Hanoi.
During General Vessey's April mission we were able to investigate the information we had just received from the archives of the former Soviet Union. Hanoi agreed to establish special teams to investigate the remaining discrepancy cases. For the first time, we received documents from Vietnam's wartime general political directorate.
On July 2nd. last year, the President announced two new steps toward our goal of the fullest possible accounting. First, to acknowledge the progress we had made, but more importantly to encourage further advances, we ended our blockage of Vietnam's access to international financial institutions. Second, the President decided to send a new, high-level delegation to Vietnam to press for more progress on unresolved POW/MIA issues. I had the honor of co-leading that delegation, along with Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Hershel Gober and Lt. General Michael Ryan, assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. We were accompanied by leading representatives of the four largest veterans organizations.
Our mission was to ensure that Hanoi's top leaders understood the President's commitment to the POW/MIA issue. We stressed that further movement in bilateral relations required additional concrete results in four key areas identified by the President: remains, discrepancy cases, trilateral cooperation with Laos and Vietnam, and documents. We also emphasized the importance we attach to human rights.
We accomplished our missiong. We delivered the President's message to the Party General Secretary, the Minister of Defense, the Acting Foreign Minister and the Minister of the Interior. We also had a very productive session between veterans of both sides. On September 13, the President decided to renew his authority to continue the embargo against Vietnam. However, to recognize POW/MIA progress in the four key areas and to stimulate further results, we modified the embargo to permit American companies to undertake development projects in Vietnam funded by international financial institutions.
In December, I returned to Vietnam to assess the overall situation, including progress in the four key areas. I held lengthy discussions with the out- standing personnel serving in our Joint Task Force. I met with Vietnam's Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and other leaders. I travelled to the border with Laos to observe first hand the trilateral cooperation process there. And I had the honor to witness the beginning of the journey home for the remains of missing Americans -- a ceremony of stunning dignity that I will never forget.
In late December, the President's senior advisors met to review the POW/MIA record. They came to the unanimous conslusion that there had been significant, tangible progress in all four of the areas identified by the President in July.
THE CRITERIA FOR PROGRESS:
What then were the results upon which the President's actions were based? Let me summarize the detailed information that was provided last week.
The first area identified by the President is the recovery and repatriation of American remains:
During the six months following the President's July announcement we brought home the remains of 39 Americans, more than we repatraited in all of 1992.
Throughout 1993, we repatriated the remains of 67 Americans, making last year the third most productive one for recovering remains since the end of the war. In the first month of this year, we have already brought home 12 more American remains.
The second area is the continued resolution of discrepancy cases and continued accomplishment of live sighting investigations:
Since July 1993, we have confirmed the deaths of 19 individuals on our list of discrepancy cases.
Since the beginning of the Administration, we have confirmed the deaths of 62 individuals, reducing the number of these cases from 135 to 73. We have a special team operating in Vietnam which is continuing to investigate the remaining 73.
We have conducted more than 300 investigations on the ground in Vietnam of reported sightings of live American POWs and of cases of Americans who were last known to be alive during the war. None of these has produced evidence that an American POW is being held captive in Vietnam today. But we will continue to pursue vigorously any reports of live prisoners that we receive.
The third area is further assistance in implementing trilateral investigations along the Vietnamese-Lao border:
For many years we tried without success to investigate cases of Americans missing along the Vietnamese-Lao border, particularly airmen shot down over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. As a direct result of the President's July initiative the governments of Vietnam and Laos reached agreement in August last year to cooperate jointly on such investigations. The first such operation took place on the border of Vietnam and Laos in December. I personally visited with the Vietnamese, Lao and American teams during my trip. The operation has succeeded in locating new remains as well as crash sites that we plan to excavate in the coming months.
And the fourth area is accelerated efforts to provide all POW/MIA-related documents that can give us answers to individual cases:
Since July, we have received for the first time records from Vietnam's war- time anti-aircraft units along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. These records contain information about hundreds of U.S. airmen who were shot down and are listed as missing. This information should help us locate crash sites and recover remains in both Vietnam and Laos.
We also have obtained for the first time documents from a wartime political- military unit. This material contains information on American servicemen buried by North Vietnamese forces and written reports recounting unilatera efforts by Hanoi to locate the remains of Americans. This information should assist our efforts to achieve the fullest possible accounting.
Since the archival research program was initiated in October 1992 we have received from the Vietnamese 25,000 POW/MIA-related documents and artifacts. Six hundred of these have been correlated to unresolved cases. This represents more POW/MIA-related documentation than we had previously received during the entire period since the end of the Vietnam War.
The President agreed with his advisers that this record represented "significant tangible progress". Overall, we believe that 1993 was the most productive year for POW/MIA progress since the war.
Once again, I would like to pay special tribute to the incredible work being done by the men and women of the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting under the leardership of Admiral Charles Larson and General Thomas Needham. They have endured hardships and dangers. They have displayed ingenuity, dedication and tenacity in tracking down every possible lead. They deserve our utmost gratitude and respect. These men and women are a source of immense pride for all Americans.
I also note the assistance we have received in the field from both officials and private Vietnamese. Our Joint Task Force-Full Accounting personnel have reported that their cooperation during the past six months has been excellent. I cite two brief examples. In one instance, Vietnamese soldiers participating in an activity helped U.S. teams cross a Vietnam War-era minefield to an investigation site and helped remove four one hundred pound bombs from a crater we wanted to excavate. In another incident, a U.S. excavation team had been working without success for two weeks when a local villager approached and said he had witnessed the wartime burial of an American. The villager then directed the team to the burial site, resulting in the recovery of remains for which the JTF-FA were searching.
We now have in place the mechanisms we need to achieve the fullest possible accounting. We have the means to investigate any reports of possible live American prisoners. We have the mechanisms to excavate crash sites and burial locations. We have the means to interview witnesses in villages and Vietnam's wartime military leaders. We have special teams to search for remains and information on the highest priority discrepancy cases. We have mechanisms to review documents related to our missing men. And we have the means to investigate cases along the Vietnamese-Lao border. All of these instruments will help President Clinton fulsill his pledge to the families of the missing -- that everything possible will be done to determine the fates of their missing fathers and sons, husbands and brothers.
Let us also briefly recall two other positive aspects of recent U.S. engagement with Vietnam. As a result of the 1991 "roadmap" policy, Hanoi withdrew its troops from Cambodia and has supported the promising advance toward peace, freedom and human rights in that country. The overwhelming turnout for last year's free Cambodian elections, in spite of intimidation and violence, clearly demonstrated that democracy is not only a Western ideal.
Hanoi has released from re-education camps its citizens who had been detained because of their pre-1975 association with the United States or the former- South Vietnam government.
These developments are encouraging. So too are Vietnamese pledges of continued cooperation on POW/MIAs. But, as the President cautioned, "it must not end here." We will relentlessly continue our search for answers.
We know from experience that this search will take a long time. Just two months ago we repatriated the remains of American aviators who were lost in World War Two. Their remains, and the wreckage of their airplane, were found in the glaciers of Tibet, and returned with the cooperation and assistance of the Chinese government. In recent months we have also retrieved more remains and more answers concerning the Korean and Vietnam wars from North Korea, Russia and China as well as the countries of Indochina.
I am confident the Vietnamese understand the President's determination to see this issue through. They also know that any further steps in our relationship will depend on our making even more progress.
Following the President's announcement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that, "The Vietnamese Government reiterates its policy of consistently regarding the question of Americans missing from the war as a humanitarian concern not linked with political issues.. the government and people of Vietnam have been, are and will be cooperating in a constructive spirit with the American government and people to solve this issue to the fullest possible extent."
When I informed Vietnam's Ambassador to the United Nations of the President's decisions, he said, "We promise to go forward with you to see the MIA issue resolved. I have a promise from Hanoi that cooperation will continue."
THE VIEWS OF OTHERS:
The question for the President then was, what actions could we take to continue this important progress? How could we keep Vietnam motivated to pursue and expand its cooperation?
The President turned to many people for advice on these questions. He consulted with all members of his cabinet most directly concerned with the POW/MIA issue, including the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Advisor. The President asked General Shalikashvili and the Commander of our Pacific Forces, Admiral Larson. He asked General John Vessey, and the leaders of the delegation he sent to Hanoi last July.
Everyone recommended that the best way to make more progress and resolve the POW/MIA issues is to lift the embargo and expand our presence in Vietnam.
As I noted earlier, the President also sought the advice of many members of Congress. Here I would note the special contribution of Senator John Kerry, who co-chaired the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. For 15 months, the Senator, a decorated Veteran of Vietnam, steered his committee through an importanat part in our deliberations. Senator Kerry also sponsored and championed the amendment endorsing an end to the embargo which the Senate overwhelmingly passed late last month.
At the risk of not mentioning all of the amendment's co-sponsors, I do want to single out two others with particular backgrounds. In very personal and moving remarks on the floor, Senator John McCain, who spent almost six years as a POW in Vietnam, recommended ending the embargo as the best way to account finally for his missing brothers in arms. Senator Bob Kerrey, who earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam, also urged us to end the embargo to resolve the POW/MIA issue, and to make more progress on human rights and democracy issues.
In the House of Representatives I believe a broad majority also supports the President's decisions. They include many veterans and former POWs such as Congressman Pete Peterson, who has served a central role in our search for answers not only in Indochina but in the former Soviet Union.
The President and other Administration officials also consulted once again with the representatives of veterans organizations and family groups. While many of them disagree with the President's decision to lift the trade embargo, they all share his objective of achieving the fullest possible accounting. They agree in principle with the strategic approach of the Administration -- namely, to take incremental steps forward in our relations with Vietnam in response to progress and to encourage further progress. They agree that Vietnamese activity has intensified in recent months.
The disagreements arise over whether there has been sufficient progress, as opposed to an extensive process, to justify making another move forward. As I have outlined, we believe that we have witnessed not only unprecedented cooperation from the Vietnamese but also substantial tangible results from our joint efforts.
Despite these differences -- and I don't wish to minimize them -- we look forward to working closely with those who have the greatest personal stake in this difficult issue. We welcome their continued counsel. We empathize with their pain -- not only over lost family members and comrades but over the past deceoptions by the Vietnamese and inadequate performance by the U.S. Government.
After considering all views, the President made his decisions. In short, he agrees with all his senior advisors, with our military personnel working on the ground, and with an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the Congress that the actions he announced represent the best way to account for our missing men.
The steps we have taken do not represent full "normalization" of relations with Vietnam. We are not opening embassies or exchanging ambassadors. We are not granting Vietnam special economic privileges. We retain considerable political and economic incentives to ensure that the government of Vietnam does not waver from its commitment to continue its cooperations on POW/MIA issues.
Our efforts will continue undiminished, indeed with fresh momentum.
With these prospects in mind, President Clinton also decided to establish a liaison office in Vietnam and to permit the Vietnmese to open a similar office here. We believe such offices will greatly assist in our search for MIA information. They will also serve to expand our dialogue with Vietnam on many issues, including human rights. And they will support and protect American visitors, tourists, and businesspeople.
The vastly increased numbers of American visitors, tourists, businesspeople and other private groups who will now spread across Vietnam should produce greater openness, greater contacts, greater information on our MIAs -- and concrete results.
At this moment we are only in the initial planning stages for the liaison offices. Questions on timing, staffing, privileges and immunities, and functions will be the subject of discussions with the Vietnamese. We plan to begin these talks in the near future. We welcome your views and will keep you and your staff apprised of significant developments.
In sum, President Clinton and all his top advisers believe that it is time to acknowledge the help of the Vietnamese. The February 3, 1994 decisions will encourage further efforts by demonstrating to Vietnamese leaders and the Vietnamese people that we will meet cooperation with reciprocal steps, that it is in their interest to continue helping us.
The families and loved ones of our missing Americans deserve answers. Th President's actions mark a major milestone on a lengthy journey in pursuit of that goal. They represent a new beginning, a rededication to our ongoing labors.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Before concluding, let me cite two other important issues with Vietnam. My colleagues and I have raised these subjects regularly, including at the highes levels in Hanoi, and in Secretary Christopher's meeting last fall with Deputy Prime Minister Khai.
The first issue concerns American citizens who are incarcerated in Vietnam. We know of five such Americans, and are disappointed that we have only been granted access to one of them. Now, with the opening of an official U.S. office in Hanoi, we expect our discussions with Vietnam to lead to normal consular access in accordance with international practice and law.
The second issue is human rights. The just published State Department 1994 human rights report for Vietnam spells out our deep concerns. It states, in part, that the Vietnamese government "continued to violate human rights in 1993. The authorities continued to limit severely freedom of speech, press, assembly and association, as well as worker rights and the right of citizens to change their government."
In my December meetings in Hanoi, Vietnam agreed to hold regular bilateral discussions with us on human rights. These should commence later this month. We expect a constructive, productive forum in which we will continue to urge Hanoi to respect universal human rights, and release those detained for the peaceful expression of political or religious beliefs. I would note here our sustained, personal concern for the health of Dr. Nguyen Dan Que among others. We have raised his case on many occasions, most recently in my meeting last week with the Vietnamese Ambassador to the United Nations. We will continue to follow closely his fate and others in similar situations. The further exposure of Vietnamese society to outside trade, investment, people, information and ideas as a result of the President's decisions should work to open up the political system of Vietnam.
Vietnam clearly has far to go to improve its observance of human rights. Some actions by the Vietnamese leadership in recent years, however, have signaled their intention to reintegrate their nation in the world and contribute to the stability of the Southeast Asian region. As I already noted, the Vietnamese were a signatory to the Cambodia Peace Accords and have faithfully supported the implementation of the peace process. While the government's institution of economic reforms is clearly in Vietnam's self-interest, it has also had a positive impact on the region and drawn that nation more into the world trading community. The Vietnamese have also demonstrated a willingness to resolve their territorial disputes in the South China Sea with China and other Southeast Asian claimants in a peaceful and constructive manner.
CONCLUSION:
Let me close with the words of President Clinton last Thursday:
"Whatever the Vietnam War may have done in dividing our country in the past, today our nation is one in honoring those who served and pressing for answers about all those who did not return. This decision today, I believe, renews that commitment and our constant, constant effort never to forget those until our job is done. Those who have sacrificed deserve a full and final accounting. I am absolutely convinced, as are so many in Congress who served there and so many Americans who have studied the issue, that this decision today will help to ensure that fullest possible accounting."
Mr. Chairman, members of this Committee: As we look back upon this time many years from now, perhaps the most significant dimension of the President's decision will prove to be psychological. Perhaps we have begun turning the pages of history. Perhaps we are moving toward eventual reconciliation with a former enemy. Perhaps for Americans, as one observer has put it, Vietnam will become a country, not a war. Perhaps we are further developing the President's vision of a new Pacific Community.
Above all, let us hope that -- whatever our differences about the war or how to resolve its lingering questions -- we have truly advanced the process of healing the wounds. May the families at last find answers. And may all Americans at last find peace.
Thank you Very Much.