Hanoi Gives U.S. 27 Remains, Adds Warning

Vietnam on Wednesday turned over to U.S. representatives remains said to be those of 27 missing Americans, and it threatened to stop the search if the United States continues accusing it of playing politics with the dead.

In a solemn military ceremony, 27 sets of remains were put on a U.S. Air Force transport jet to be flown to Army laboratories in Honolulu for authentication. It was the largest delivery yet by the Vietnamese.

Hanoi also turned over three sets of remains described as those of ethnic Asians who also may be missing Americans from the long war in Vietnam, which ended with a Communist victory in April, 1975.

The large delivery had encouraged U.S. officials to anticipate more help from Hanoi, but senior Vietnamese had sharp comments about allegations that they warehouse remains and return them gradually for political reasons.

They also said Washington should help finance Vietnam’s reconstruction if it wants a full accounting of the 1,767 Americans still listed as missing in action.

Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach, who met Wednesday with Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), responded “very angrily” to a recent Pentagon statement that Vietnam is returning remains gradually, an American participant in the talks said.

“That is nonsense,” Nguyen Can, head of Vietnam’s MIA accounting office, said in an interview Tuesday. “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.”

Two dozen peasants in conical bamboo hats squatting in an adjacent field watched as the 27 small caskets, each with a folded American flag on top, were placed in a giant C-141 jet transport plane at Noi Bai airport.

Pressler, a Vietnam veteran and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined a military team from the U.S. Joint Casualty Resolution Center in saluting the caskets as they passed on the tarmac under overcast skies.

Provides Names for Half

Vietnam provided names for at least half the 27 remains, said Lt. Col. Paul Mather of the Joint Casualty Resolution Center. They were not made public.

“This being the largest, we hope it means increased collaboration,” said Maj. Virginia Pribyla, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Pacific Command. She also said, however, that the United States believes Vietnam has more information than it has divulged.

It was the fourth return of remains since Vietnam agreed in talks with U.S. envoy John W. Vessey in August to resume its MIA accounting efforts.

Nguyen Dy Nien, a deputy foreign minister, said Tuesday that the United States has not met the terms of the agreement because it has given no direct government aid for reconstruction.

Since the accord, Vietnam has received only two shipments of prosthetic equipment, both from private agencies in the United States.

Some U.S. officials suspect that the Vietnamese are trying to move toward normal relations through government-to-government links on the humanitarian aid issue.

The United States has said frequently said it will not establish diplomatic relations or lift its trade embargo until Vietnam makes as full an accounting as possible of the MIAs and leaves Cambodia, which it invaded in December, 1978.

Washington has sent investigative medical teams to Vietnam and encouraged private aid, but has not lifted an embargo on official aid imposed to protest the occupation.

Hanoi has returned 152 remains the Army laboratories have confirmed as those of MIAs.