U.S. Army Commander, Joint Task Force Full Accounting
United States Pacific Command
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY UNTIL RELEASED BY THE ASIA AND THE PACIFIC SUBCOMMITTEE
HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
February 10, 1994
Mr.Chairman and members of the committee:
Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I look forward to explaining the efforts of my command to achieve the fullest possible accounting of those Americans still unaccounted-for as a result of the Vietnam War.
When I took command of Joint Task Force Full Accounting two years ago, I knew the mission before us was daunting: a difficult task -- and one that carried with it a great deal of emotion. The mission is straightforward: find out what happened to the men who did not return from Southeast Asia. But this task is far from simple: the ravages of war; the violent nature of some of the loss incidents; and the passage of time conceal the answers to many of our questions. In some cases, we may never know the answers. But we are determined to continue seeking those answers -- until we have achieved the fullest possible accounting.
From the beginning I have believed that achievement of the fullest possible accounting is a task that we, as a nation, need to confront on a basis of complete openness and honesty. I have spent two years doing exactly that. We have developed an organization and a mechanism which have already answered many questions. I am convinced, furthermore, that we will continue to answer many questions in the future.
An important measure of our progress is the resolution of discrepancy cases. Discrepancy cases are those in which we had compelling evidence that the individual may have survived his incident of loss. This is an area where the Vietnamese have provided outstanding support. The establishment of our in- country priority case investigation team is testimony to Vietnamese willingness to help us solve these vexing cases. The efforts of the priority case investigation team -- and the excellent support from its Vietnamese counterparts -- were central in providing the information and evidence necessary for the determination of fate of 62 individuals. Since January 1992, the number of discrepancy cases has been reduced from 135 to 73. We have a well-established live-sighting investigation mechanism in Vietnam. We have conducted more than 75 live sighting investigations there -- all since JTF-FA was established. Currently only a handful of reports require investigation in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese have placed a renewed emphasis on their remains amnesty program. This program calls upon Vietnamese citizens to turn in remains they may be holding. This increased emphasis has resulted in new remains being turned in to both Vietnamese officials and our teams. In addition, we have jointly established a new team, the Special Remains Team. This team pursues leads about Americans known to have died in captivity, as well as ones whose bodies have been identified as having been under the control of Vietnamese officials or citizens. The Special Remains Team has already located seven potential grave sites -- sites which will be excavated in the near future. Remains believed to be those of 102 Americans have been returned from Vietnam in the past two years -- 67 in 1993 alone.
Cooperation in conducting operations along the Vietnamese/Lao border is another important area. Many our unaccounted-for servicemen were lost either in this border area between Vietnam and Laos, or in areas of Laos controlled by Vietnamese forces during the war. Our first trilateral operation was conducted last December. All reports received -- from our team leaders to Assistant Secretary of State Lord, who visited the operation -- were that Vietnamese cooperation was whole-hearted and sincere. This operation produced remains recoveries and new information; we are planning another trilateral operation for later this year.
Increased access to wartime documents is critical to our success. Resolution of many of our cases will be possible only if Vietnamese documents offer us new leads. Since July, the Vietnamese have intensified their efforts to locate and provide documents to U.S. analysts. The Ministry of Defense ordered all units to search for pertinent materials and a special office was established to search for documents from Group 559, the organization which ran the Ho Chi Minh Trail logistics operation, and Group 875, which was responsible for administering POW camps. Vietnamese cooperation with our Oral HIstory Program -- the effort to capture the memories of those who may have been involved with or knew of the Vietnamese prisoner system -- has been excellent. The Vietnamese have been very helpful, especially in their increased willingness to produce witnesses -- particiularly senior-level members of their military hierarchy -- for interview. In addition, our Hanoi-based research-historian has been granted unescorted and unprecedented access to the Peoples Army of Vietnam military library.
In summary, increased access, increased cooperation, and increased assistance have been forthcoming from the Vietnamese in each of the four areas of discrepancy cases, remains, trilateral cooperation, and archival research. I have reported those findings to Admiral Larson, who himself visited the most recent joint field activity in Vietnam.
After two years of searching, we have not found credible evidence of American prisoners still alive in Southeast Asia. I do not know if there are any unaccounted for Americans held alive in Vietnam or anywhere else in Southeast Asia. But -- as long as the possibility exists -- we will continue to search, to interview refugees and other potential witnesses, and to investigate live sighting reports. We must continue our efforts -- until we achieve the fullest possible accounting.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.