Medical Aid to Vietnam May Speed Search for MIAs

The United States expects Vietnam to help locate more than 2,400 military personnel still missing from the Vietnam War because of a recent agreement to encourage organizations to provide medical relief there, a published report said Sunday.

Last week, two doctors specializing in artificial limbs and the director of an international charitable organization accompanied a U.S. delegation to Hanoi for talks, the New York Times reported.

The agreement fell short of Vietnamese hopes for economic aid or war reparations, which the United States has repeatedly refused to consider, but Administration officials said it will be enough to entice the Vietnamese to help with the MIAs and POWs.

The report said the agreement was worked out last month after a U.S. delegation, led by retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman John W. Vessey Jr., met with senior Vietnamese officials in Hanoi.

The United States also agreed to lift trade restrictions imposed against Vietnam and to permit charitable organizations to provide relief, which is now illegal.

“When the United States government gives its blessing to this, we’re saying that they’re (the Vietnamese) no longer a pariah,” an Administration official told the newspaper.

The agreement marks the first time that the United States has agreed to reward Vietnam for helping settle the MIA-POW issue.

The United States estimates that there are more than 2,400 military personnel who are listed as missing or who never returned from prisoner-of-war camps.