May 1996
Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork
03 MAY 96: Senator John McCain {R-AZ}, introduces an amendment to the FY'97 Bill which will completely change the provisions of the MISSING SERVICE PERSONNEL ACT-Public Law 104Ü106, which was recently signed by President Clinton. Whose side is this guy on, anyway?
A House subcommittee opened its own investigation into the U.S. trade embargo enforcement agency and is accusing the Clinton administration of stonewalling on documents. The Treasury inspector general, the department's internal watchdog, conducted an investigation of OFAC Director R. Richard Newcomb. According to the investigation, Newcomb instructed his investigators to stop working on a major criminal probe in 1991 into allegations that American companies, through a New York bank, were illegally doing business with Vietnam. Newcomb took steps that ended the investigation.
05 MAY 96: Less than two years after the Korean War, a high-level Soviet defector told White House officials that American prisoners of war in North Korea had been taken secretly to Siberia to be exploited for Soviet intelligence purposes, according to a newly declassified U.S. government document. The document, dated Jan. 31, 1955, and stamped "secret," is not proof that smuggling of POWs - long denied by the Soviets and now by the Russian government - actually happened. But it adds weight to claims that it did.
07 MAY 96: The Veterans of Foreign War, following the Veteran's Initiative of Vietnam Veterans of America, have turned over artifacts and information on possibly 900 Vietnamese casualties from the Vietnam War.
08 MAY 96: DPMO admits that a mistake has been made in the identification and burial of three servicemenbers. The Jellison, Plumadore and Berry families are once again subjected to the uncertainty of where there family members are buried and, if indeed, they have been repatriated.
JTF-FA announces that it has over 180 investigators, analysts and other experts conducting regular search missions for the remains of Americans unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. JTF-FA began in 1992 and has recovered 355 sets of remains and identified 114.
13 MAY 96: The National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 1997, Section 537: Revisions to missing persons authorities - READS: "The committee recommends a provision that would repeal certain provisions in the Missing Persons Act in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996. The recommended provision would remove DOD civilian employees and contractor personnel from the coverage; increase the time limit for the first line commander to submit a missing persons report from 48 hours to 10 days; remove the requirements that the theater commander participate in the missing persons report; repeal the requirement that a counsel be appointed for the missing person; amend the conditions under which subsequent reviews are conducted to give the service secretary total discretion to determine when a subsequent review will be conducted; remove the criminal penalties for wrongful withholding of information; reduce the information required to be submitted for a board to make a recommendation of death; repeal the right of judicial review; and repeal the mandatory review of Korean War and special interest cases."
16 MAY 96: President Clinton signs Executive Order ending the American classification of Vietnam as a combat zone. The order comes into effect on June 30.
19 MAY 96: Speaking in defense of his amendment to change the Missing Service Personnel Act, Senator John McCain said this: "CINC'S DON'T HAVE TIME TO WORRY ABOUT LIEUTENANTS OR SERGEANTS." Once again soldiers are declared expendable.
20 MAY 96: AP reports that the U.S. has given $2 million dollars to North Korea for the recovery of 162 American remains from the Korean War. This is in addition to the $897,000 paid in 1993 for costs associated with the repatriation of 46 sets of remains.
The U.S. announces a $2.7 million dollar training program (Bomb disposal techniques) as a "thank you" for Laos' cooperation in the search for American servicemen missing in action in Laos. Our question is this: What about the KNOWN POW's? What happened to them?
21 MAY 96: In a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, Richard T. Childress - former Director of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council - said this: "Intelligence and other information clearly indicates that Vietnam could do much more. Despite the perception that Vietnam has responded in a serious way since the trade embargo was lifted and normalization of relations were announced, the facts speak otherwise."
22 MAY 96: Reuter reports that the United States will open a consulate in Ho Chi Minh City in September. The United States ranks sixth in a growing list of foreign investors in Vietnam's booming economy, with about $1.2 billion earmarked for 56 projects.
24 MAY 96: Presient Clinton takes final step for full relations with Vietnam and nominates former POW Rep. Pete Peterson {D-FL}, as Ambassador. In sending the long-expected nomination to the Senate, the president kicked off what could be a difficult confirmation process - not because of Peterson but because of lingering sentiment in the Senate that the Hanoi government has still not divulged everything it knows about the fate of Americans still listed as missing from the war. The DPMO Weekly Update reports that Secretary of Defense William Perry has signed a DOD policy statement establishing a high priority for resolving the cases of Korean War unaccounted-for servicemen.
26 MAY 96: DPMO announces that there are 2,154 Americans unaccounted for in SEA. There have been 429 Americans accounted for in SEA post-1973. In 1996, there have been 8 repatriations and from those 7 identifications.
29 MAY 96: President Clinton issues Presidential Determination No. 96-28 to the Secretary of State. It reads: "Consistent with section 609 of the Fiscal Year 1996 Omnibus Appropriations Act, Public Law 104-134, I hereby determine, based on all information available to the United States Government that the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is cooperating in full faith with the United States..."
POW-MIA Issue Update June 1996