VIETNAM WAR POW-MIA DATABASE

 ADVOCACY AND INTELLIGIENCE INDEX FOR POWMIA

 RECOVERY PROCEDURES/OPERATIONS

D

 

On February 12,1973, the first planeload of POWs touched down on US soil at Travis Air Force Base. It was also on this very day that the US and Hanoi set up a group to channel US reconstruction aid to Hanoi. On March 29, 1973, former President Richard M. Nixon announced that 'For the first time in many years, ALL THE PRISONERS ARE FINALLY HOME.

 

Vietnam War POW MIAs Actions of Our Elected Officials April 3, 1973: Pathet Lao (Laotian Communist) forces declare they are holding more than 100 American POWs and are prepared to give a full accounting of them The U.S. government responds 9 days later declaring they are all dead -- without ever talking to the Laotians about the POWs they admit holding! 1970-1976: After the French pay an unspecified sum of money to the Vietnamese, the communists release POWs captured in 1954! The North Vietnamese had claimed all of then had died. August 19, 1986: The Wall Street Journal reports the White House knew in 1981 Vietnam wanted to sell an unspecified number of live POWs for $4 billion. The White House decided the offer was genuine -- and ignored it! September 30, 1986: The New York Times reports a Pentagon panel estimates up to 100 live American POWs are held in Vietnam alone. October 7, 1986: CIA Director William Casey says: "Look, the nation knows they (the POWs aren't  there, everybody knows they are there, but there's no grounds well of support for getting them out. Certainly, you are not suggesting we pay for them, surely not saying we could do anything like that with no public support." January 1988: A cable from the Joint Casualty Resolution Center states that during General Vessey's visit to Hanoi, "The Vietnamese people were prepared to turn over 7 or 8 live American POWs if Vessey told then what they wanted to hear. All the prospective returnees were allegedly held in a location on the Lao side of the border." September 1990: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Interim Report on POW/MIA's in Southeast Asia concluded that despite public assurances in 1973 that no POWs remained in the region, the Defense Department ". . . in April 1974 concluded beyond a doubt that several hundred American POWs remained in captivity in Southeast Asia." October 1990: Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach admits Vietnam still holds American POWs but is willing to release "as many as 10 live American POWs." His offer, like others before it, is ignored by Secretary of State James Baker III. February 1991: Colonel Millard Peck, Chief of the Pentagon's Special Office for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action, resigns in protest of being ordered by policy makers in the POW/MIA Inter-Agency Group not to investigate live-sighting reports of American POWs! April 25, 1991: Senator Bob Smith addresses the Senate and reveals that, of more than 1,400 eyewitness sightings of live POWs, NONE has ever received an on-site investigation! May 23, 1991: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Examination of U.S. Policy Toward POW/MIAs concludes that the U.S. has ignored thousands of American POWs, and left them to rot in Soviet slave labor camps and North Korean and Vietnamese prisons. "Any evidence that suggested an MIA might be alive was uniformly and arbitrarily rejected." Summer 1991: A flood of new evidence of live POWs pours from Southeast Asia: pictures, handwriting samples, hair samples, blood samples, fingerprints, foot-prints, maps and other physical proof. The Bush administration disregards the evidence and attempts to discredit it by rumor and innuendo. Some of the photos are scientifically validated -- and have never been scientifically disproven! All these facts are a matter of public record and clearly indicate that we have some serious problems in the POW/MIA arena that our elected officials refuse to acknowledge. This information was compiled by Task Force Omega of Kentucky, Inc. "The intelligence indicates that the American Prisoners of War have been held continuously after Operation Homecoming and remain in captivity in Vietnam and Laos as late as 1989." Oral Intelligence Briefing before the Senate Select Committee on POWs-MIAs, April 8, 1992 "Despite adherences to internal policies and public statements after April, 1973, that "no evidence" existed of living POWs, DIA authoritatively concluded as late as April, 1974, that several hundred living POW/MIAs were still held captive in Southeast Asia." Interim Report on the Southeast Asian POW/MIA Issue  By the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Republican Staff  Release Date: Monday, October 29, 1990 "In fact, classified and unclassified information all confirm one startling fact: That DOD in April, 1974, concluded beyond a doubt that several hundred living American POWs remained in captivity in Southeast Asia. This was a full year after DOD spokesmen were saying publicly that no prisoners remained alive." Interim Report on the Southeast Asian POW/MIA Issue By the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Republican Staff Release Date: Monday, October 29, 1990 The Quang 1205 Document After President Clinton was sworn in for his first term, a Harvard Researcher unrelated to the POW/MIA issue discovered a document in the archives of the former Soviet Union. This document, a Russian translation of a report given to the North Vietnamese Politburo in September 1972 by then Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnamese Peoples Army, General Lieutenant Chan Van Quang. This document shows beyond doubt that the Vietnamese never intended on returning all American POWs back to US control. Although the Clinton Administration's knee jerk reaction was to classify the document, the researcher had given a copy of the document to the NY Times. So now the Clinton Administration had to trash this document because Clinton had something in mind respective to Vietnam. He was preparing to: Lift US objections to the World Bank lending IMF funds to Vietnam; Over the objections of virtually every Veteran Organization, Family members, over 50 former Prisoners of War and the POW/MIA community in general, he lifted the US imposed trade embargo against Vietnam; Less than two years later, again over the objections of the Veteran Organizations, Family members, 50+ former Prisoners of War and the PoW/MIA community he re-estalished diplomatic relations with Vietnam. So the 1205 document had to be trashed. Not ever debriefing general Quang, who is still alive, the US Government said that the document was a fake. it was a plant. But planted by whom and for what purpose? The Soviets were the allies of Vietnam at the time and since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russians have needed US help. Why wouldn't they have destroyed a document that they had purportedly planted? Read the Quang 1205 Document here

 

What Can We Do About The POW/MIA Issue? Not a damned thing! Unless, of course, you get involved and get involved NOW! You see, chances are you are waiting for the next guy to do something about this because, after all, what can one person do? What if the next guy is waiting for you? And the guy next to him is waiting for him to do something and the woman next to that guy is waiting for him. . .and so on and so forth. In that event, what we have here, you see, is a whole lot of people W-A-I-T-I-N-G ! But the folks who the waiting is hardest on is THEM. Don't wait for someone else to do something. You do it! Become involved Now!  WAKE UP AMERICA! if you are not outraged you are not paying attention! it's time we turned up the heat on the bad guys! The POW MIA issue is not resolved !! It's time to set them free!

Gulf War Pilot’s Status ~ Missing-Captured By: Matt Kelley, Associated Press October 11, 2002 The Navy has changed the status of Gulf War pilot Michael Scott Speicher from missing in action to missing-captured, Sen. Pat Roberts confirmed. A defense official confirmed that Navy Secretary Gordon England had approved the change in status, which had been in the works for months. Speicher, a Navy F-18 pilot who was shot down over Iraq on the opening night of the Gulf War in January 1991, initially was listed as killed in action, with no body recovered. But in January 2001, the Navy changed his status to missing in action, given an absence of evidence that he died in the crash .Iraq says Speicher was killed in the crash. Roberts, R-Kan., and other members of Congress have been pressing the Pentagon this year to change Speicher’s status. Some in the Navy had worried that declaring Speicher captured would be seen as a political move as part of President Bush’s drive to win support for possible military action against Saddam Hussein. The change in status sends a symbolic message to the Iraqis, to other adversaries and most important to the men and women of the armed forces that we will accept nothing less than full disclosure of circumstances surrounding the missing and captured," Roberts said. Though not mentioning Speicher by name, Bush has referred in several recent speeches to a U.S. pilot still missing in Iraq. There is no known physical evidence that Speicher was captured, but U.S. intelligence agencies believe it is a possibility. It is widely believed inside the Navy that Iraq knows more about Speicher’s fate than it has acknowledged. Last year, U.S. intelligence agencies said in a report to the Senate Intelligence Committee that Speicher probably ejected from his plane and survived the shoot down. We assess Lt. Cmdr. Speicher was either captured alive or his remains were recovered and brought to Baghdad," the report said. In either case, the Iraqi government has concealed information about his fate, it said. In July, the State Department sent a diplomatic note through the International Committee of the Red Cross asking whether the Iraqi government can offer new details about Speicher. In a July 8 letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he agreed with Powell’s suggestion that a note be delivered “to confirm Iraq’s intention to provide new information. In March, Iraq offered to meet with U.S. officials in Baghdad to discuss the case. A U.S. excavation team visited the crash site in 1995, finding aircraft debris but no human remains. U.S. officials have said the site was tampered with because reconnaissance photos showed part of the plane removed, then returned, before the excavation team arrived.

U.S. team concludes Navy pilot died in Gulf war--The Washington Times, 07-22-04

POW/MIA SEARCH ENGINE

 

 

Menu

.     Home	.  Diabetes	.Web Rings	.11th Cav  Nam	.11th Cav Links	.11th Cav Memorial	.11th Cav  Cmdr's
Memorial Wall	Peripheral Neuropathy	VA Central Office	Memorial to Brother	POW/MIA	W.Va. POW/MIA Links	POW/MIA 2
Vietnam Veteran	Banner Links	Code Of Conduct	American Creed	American Flag	Agent Orange	Hepatitis
Add Your Link	Links	Links	Military Links	Awards Page 1	Awards Page 2	Awards Page 3
Awards Page 4	Awards Page 5	Prostate Cancer 1	Prostate Cancer 2	Prostate Cancer 3	PTSD.	W.Va Veterans Memorial