Vietnam Turns Over 27 Sets of MIA Remains

U.S. military guards today reclaimed remains believed to be those of 27 Americans killed in the Vietnam War--the largest such repatriation since 1973.

The U.S. military team saluted as the remains, each in a metal case topped with a folded American flag, were loaded one by one onto a U.S. Air Force cargo plane for a flight to army laboratories in Hawaii. The brief, solemn ceremony was held under overcast skies.

Vietnam also returned three other remains they identified as those of ethnic Asians but who could be missing Americans.

It was the largest such transfer of remains since the last American forces withdrew from South Vietnam on March 29, 1973, opening the way for the Communist victory in April, 1975. Three million Americans served in Vietnam, and 58,000 died.

Also today, Vietnamese officials angrily rejected charges that Hanoi was dragging its feet on accounting for 1,767 Americans who remain listed as missing in action in the war. Vietnam has threatened to end its cooperation in repatriating other American remains if Washington maintains its criticisms.

In a meeting today with visiting U.S. Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach responded heatedly to a recent Pentagon suggestion that the Communists have been storing remains and returning them little by little.

The head of Vietnam’s accounting office for missing in action, Nguyen Can, had dismissed the charge as “nonsense” the day before. “The next time they make such a statement, we will have to reconsider whether we will do the job. This shows there is no good will on the part of the U.S.”