April 1997
Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork
01 APR 97: (Reuters) - The old Soviet intelligence report that suggested Hanoi held hundreds more U.S. prisoners of war than it acknowledged in the early 1970s is null and void according to Desaix Anderson, Charge d'Affaires. "Vietnam rejected as flatly slanderous and ill-intentioned the so-called ïRussian (Quang) Document' on POW and MIA." An official in Hanoi with JTF-FA said the U.S. accepted that there was no credible evidence in three Soviet intelligence reports on war-era prisoners.
In a NYT Book Review on Spite House, Richard Bernstein says that the "moral heart of Ms. Jensen-Stevenson's account is McKenney's conversion from a would-be assassin of Garwood into a believer in his innocense. But in general, Ms. Jensen-Stevenson's account of the ïlast secret of the Vietnam War' doesn't so much close the case on Garwood as it does raise questions about American conduct that cry out for further investigation."
02 APR 97: H.R. 1161, legislation requiring the flying of the POW/MIA flag at Federal facilities, including post offices has eight co-sponsors ten days after introduction.
03 APR 97: A & Es Investigative Reports - The Secret (Johnson) White House Tapes - tells of a poignant moment when a despairing Lyndon B. Johnson is heard making a prophecy about Vietnam that he would never have uttered in public: "I don't believe they're ever going to quit." Yet, our government officials continued to send men to die, be captured and go missing.
04 APR 97: The U.S. and Vietnam will sign a deal to reschedule some $145 million of debt run up by the former government of South Vietnam. Responsibility for the humanitarian and development loans debt was transferred to Hanoi after the U.S.-backed South Vietnam government fell to the forces of the communist North in 1975. This is one of the conditions necessary for Vietnam to satisfy in order to ear MFN.
08 APR 97: Scott AFB-Air Mobility Command officials on Monday corrected an Army statement that the Travis AFB Port Mortuary would close in the near future. "The mortuary is not closing." The military plans to start sending recovered missing-in-action remains home to their families via commercial flights to get the remains home quicker and save money.
10 APR 97: Reuters reports that the U.S. Senate confirmed former Vietnam prisoner of war Douglas "Pete" Peterson as the first postwar U.S. ambassador in Hanoi.
11 APR 97: AP reports that Vietnamese commandos who had been captured by the enemy, declared dead by the U.S. and torture in prison camps for 20 years still have not received compensation granted to them six months ago by Congress. The Pentagon has not paid because it is not sure which part of the budget the payments should come from. Additionally, Hansen said that Congress should have mandated the payments and not urged them.
Commenting in an AP interview, ambassador Peterson stated: "I think we're in for a long haul" of working with the Vietnamese government to resolve the remaining cases of American MIAs. Peterson has rejected assertions by some veteran's groups that Vietnam's communist government was not helping enough in the MIA search. Peterson said cooperation "has never been better."
13 APR 97: According to AP, Iran and Iraq have agreed to exchange the remains of 75 soldiers killed during their 1980-88 war.
Vietnam has appointed Le Van Bang as Hanoi's first ambassador to the U.S. and he will take up his post as soon as his nomination is accepted by the U.S. Bang served as charge d'affaires at VN's embassy in Washington, D.C. and as chief of the mission to the U.N. in New York.
Hanoi. The residents of An Doai are anxious to once again meet Pete Peterson. 31 years ago, the residents of this town captured Peterson. The villagers said they would be very happy to see Peterson once again.
14 APR 97: AP reports that villagers in southern Vietnam have discovered a mass grave filled with the remains of 50 communist soldiers and volunteers killed during the Vietnam War.
Reuters reports that the Clinton Administration has approved Vietnam's choice of career diplomat Le Van Bang as its first ambassador to Washington.
15 APR 97: In a letter received on the Peterson nomination, Sen. Helms writes: "However, the debate over U.S. policy toward Vietnam is not about Mr. Peterson, but about the nature of the Vietnamese regime. So long as Vietnam is a totalitarian communist state that denies its citizens basic freedoms, the U.S.-Vietnam relations will be satisfactory at best. If Mr. Peterson is confirmed, I will work with him to make sure that the U.S. continues to press Vietnam not only on the POW/MIA issue, but also on Vietnam's political and economic system.
16 APR 97: The new U.S. ambassador to Vietnam Peterson has said that his top two priorities will be normalizing economic ties and finding missing-in-action US soldiers. "The MIA-PoW issue is clearly way up on my list of priorities. I clearly have a personal stake in this. I know a lot of these people, and I can assure you and the American people that this issue is not going to go away. I will be working at it diligently every day."
17 APR 97: Fortune magazine reports on Nike Corporation. The following figures are for the period ending May 31, 1996. It is important to note that Nike Corporation has had a manufacturing base in Vietnam for several years. In 1995, Nike ranked 277 of 500. In 1996, Nike ranked 223 of 500. Based on revenues, there was a 35.9% increase. Based on profits, there was a 38.4% increase. This is why American businesses want to enter the cheap labor market in Vietnam. Paying $.20 an hour for 10 hours - six days a week may be good for business, but not for human dignity.
18 APR 97: Speaking at the Texas Tech University's Center for the Study of the Vietnam Conflict, former Col. Bui Tin, who accepted the surrender of Saigon 22 years ago, said Hanoi fumbled the victory by punishing the South and triggering the "boat people" exodus. Tin also said that no American were left behind as POWs.
20 APR 97: In a newly released movie, Paradise Road, Helen Colijn comments on the authenticity of this movie about women in the prisons camps of WW II. The central theme of Paradise Road is the women's vocal orchestra, but the film is also unsparing in its depiction of the inhuman conditions at the camp and the brutality of the men who ran it.
21 APR 97: Vandals spray-painted profane and racist words and statements on all 22 walls in the Columbarium at the cemetery, commonly called "The Punchbowl." The columbaria contain the cremated remains of thousands of veterans, spouses and dependents. The vandals also desecrated the Chapel, grave markers, railings and walls throughout the cemetery. Particularly hard hit was the Courts of the Missing, inscribed with the names of those missing-in-action. Repairs are expected to take several months and cost tens of thousands of dollars.
22 APR 97: Hanoi said it will not tolerate what it considers U.S. interference in its internal affairs ahead of the imminent arrival of Washington's first ambassador. The Vietnamese Communist Party lashed out at the Voice of America for its broadcasts concerning human rights and other internal affairs.
Authorities have identified those responsible for the desecration at Punchbowl and other cemeteries as the "Ps.A.R.I.H - Psychos Against Racism in Hawaii. Blood red messages of hate for the state and police were sprayed on tombstones and walls at five cemeteries in Honolulu.
25 APR 97: AP reports that more than two decades after 493 Vietnamese were killed during fighting in Laos, their bodies were finally brought home in a convoy of trucks. This was the single-largest repatriation of the remains of Vietnamese lost in Laos and it came after a yearlong search for their bodies. Vietnam continues to search for about 400,000 soldiers reported missing in action after four decades of wars.
27 APR 97: In a UPI analysis we read - "There are still important problems that remain, but we are hoping the next few years will bring improvements in the relationship," said State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns. "The (soldiers missing in action) issue is the most important for the American people, and human rights remains a central concern." Concerns also have ben raised, formally on at least three occasions, over such breaches of protocol in Hanoi as searching the American diplomatic pouch, impounding Pentagon forensic equipment used in the search for soldiers' remains and security around the embassy that U.S. officials refer to as "sloppy at best." Although only seven sets of remains were positively identified last year, U.S. officials say they are satisfied with the degree of cooperation from Hanoi. They attribute the slow pace to the rigors of recovering remains in long-overgrown jungle battle sites and the tedious testing that must be done at the Pentagon's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii.
29 APR 97: Done Deal - Douglas 'Pete' Peterson was sowrn in as the first US envoy to the SOCIALIST Republic of Vietnam.
30 APR 97: On the very same day as the new US ambassador to Vietnam is sworn in, the Communist Vietnamese celebrate their victory over South Vietnam with the anniversary of the fall of Saigon, 22 years ago today.
30 APR 97: REMINDER: 05/24/97 - Family Update - Chicago, IL
POW-MIA Issue Update May 1997