Cover-Up on POWs in Asia Denied by U.S.

WASHINGTON — A Pentagon official today strongly denied that the government is covering up the existence of live American prisoners in Southeast Asia, but he acknowledged there is a public perception that the truth is being suppressed and the belief won’t go away.

“Allegations of a cover-up are absurd and insulting,” Richard Armitage, an assistant secretary of defense, told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

More than a decade after the end of the Vietnam War, 2,441 Americans are still unaccounted for.

Armitage said the cover-up charge makes no sense because “any member of this Administration who can prove that Americans are held against their will would be a hero to the President, the secretary of defense and to the American public.”

More Resources Urged

Rep. Bill Hendon (R-N.C.) has charged that the government is covering up the existence of information about prisoners. And a suit filed in Fayetteville, N.C., charges that the government has not devoted enough resources to finding out about prisoners.

The panel was holding the last of a series of hearings into the question of prisoners in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. All three nations have denied they hold any prisoners.