June 1996
Summary of news for the entire month.
For recent and daily news, please go to: InterNetwork
06 JUNE 96: Reuter's reports that newly declassified documents show the US lied about the fate of hundreds of Vietnamese commandos it sent into North Vietnam in the 1960s, declaring them dead when many survived. The U.S. government diliberately declared the secret agents dead, lied to their families and covered up the matter during the Vietnam War. Nearly 200 of them survived capture, torture and prison and are alive in the U.S. today.
07 JUNE 96: The DPMO Weekly Update states that the Deputy Director, Alan Liotta, will lead a U.S. delegation in technical dicsussions with the government of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea on the return of american remains from the Korean War.
Ambassador Malcolm Toon and Congressman Pete Peterson led a U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIA Affairs to the countries of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The 'official' number of unaccounted for in SEA is 2153. From North Vietnam - 590, POW/MIA - 333, KIA/BNR - 257; South Vietnam - 1018 - 427, 591; Laos - 461 -291, 170; Cambodia - 76 -36, 40; and China - 8 -6, 2. Since Operation Homecoming 430 sets of remains have been identified.
08 JUNE 96: Congressman Dornan announces that Hearings on Vietnam and Korea will be held by the House Military Personnel Subcommittee. The Vietnam Hearing on June 19, will look into Vietnamese accountability of American servicemembers missing from the Vietnam Conflict.
09 JUNE 96: Reuter reports the death of Le Mai, Deputy Foreign Minister of Vietnam. Mai played a junior role at the Paris peace talks and led the Vietnamese negotiations on American POW/MIA accounting as well as the issue of the return of American diplomatic properties.
14 JUNE 96: The DPMO Weekly Update reports the U.S.- Lao Joint Field Recovery Operations. This is the third operation this year.
President Clinton announced his intent to nominate Everett Alvarez, Jr. to be re-appointed to the Board of Regents for the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences. Alvarez was captured in 1964 and held as a POW for eight and oneÜhalf years.
AP reports that an internal Defense Department reports that ten to fifteen American servicemen apparently taken prisoner during the Korean War may still be alive in North Korea.
Vietnam turned over to U.S. authorities seven sets of remains of American servicemen reported missing during the Vietnam War.
15 JUNE 96: Senator Smith said he is very distrubed that DOD has not put more pressure on North Korea after a report showing that 10 to 15 American Prisoners may still be alive. Smith was the first U.S. Senator to go to Korea to negotiate the return of soldier's remains.
The White House announces that it will support legislation to give $11 milllion in back pay to 281 Vietnamese who served as secret agents for the U.S. during the Vietnam War.
17 JUNE 96: The U.S. government has asked North Korea for access to four American soldiers who defected in the 1960s. It will also begin a recovery operation July 10. This will mark the first time that North Korea has permitted U.S. officials to search for wartime remains since the the conflict was halted in July 1953.
21 JUNE 96: In a follow-up story, the NEW YORK TIMES reports that the Pentagon analyst, Insung Lee, still insists that North Korea is holding American POWs. Lee, appearing in a panel at the House Subcommittee on Military Personnel Hearing on Korea restated his analysis as accurate based on all available information.
22 JUNE 96: The WASHINGTON TIMES reports in an AP story that Americans taken prisoner in the Korean War may have been used as "laboratory specimens" in drug tests run by Soviet and Czech doctors and then executed them, according to a formerly secret U.S. government report. The document states further: "During the Korean War a Soviet and Czech drug-testing program utilized American and other United Nations POWs as laboratory specimens." A memo attached to this report justified the secrecy of this report. It said, "The attached intelligence report could seriously impact ongoing foreign policy activities of the United States government." Once again we are told soldiers are expendable. Maybe one day we will listen to this and change that policy based on foreign policy considerations.
25 JUNE 96: The WASHINGTON POST, in a story by Mike Benge - former POW held for five and one-half years in Laos - tells of the remains recovery program to begin in North Korea. He writes: "At the rate of $600,000 paid for each of the five sets of remains returned to date, this could amount to a $5 billion surreptitious foreignÜaid program for what should be a purely humanitarian effort... If the remains recovery program in North Korea is anything like the one in Vietnam, a tremendous amount of money could be wasted. According to an investigation by the San Jose Mercury News, 'more than one-third of the $11.2 million spent last year by DOD in the Vietnam MIA program could not be accounted for.' In the past four years, the U.S. government has spent $33.6 million in its remains recovery operations in Vietnam."
26 JUNE 96: The Pentagon announces that 4 sets of remains are being returned home.
POW-MIA Issue Update July 1996