U.S., Vietnam to Search for MIA Remains

Experts assembled Sunday for the first joint U.S.-Vietnamese excavation of an American warplane crash site--considered a breakthrough in the decade-long dispute over servicemen listed as missing in action.

Col. Joe Harvey, head of a four-man U.S. military mission that conducted MIA talks in Hanoi last week, said a seven-man U.S. team was scheduled to arrive today with a backhoe tractor, metal detectors, pumps and metal-cutting equipment.

The Americans in the military mission Sunday waited for the U.S. team that will join them and several Vietnamese in the excavation at the site of a B-52 bomber crash nine miles north of Hanoi. The work was to begin Tuesday.

Two-Year Plan

Tran Hoang, director of the North American section of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, said Saturday that the joint project, the first of its kind, was part of a new two-year plan to resolve the MIA issue.

After the excavation, expected to last 10 to 12 days, Vietnam will also return seven sets of remains of American servicemen found by civilians at various crash sites, Hoang said.

U.S. officials, who have criticized Vietnam for not moving quickly enough to account for MIAs since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, regard this week’s joint project as a major breakthrough after years of discussions on the MIA issue.