U.S. to Receive Remains of 21 From Vietnam

Vietnam will turn over to the United States at least 21 sets of remains that may be those of Americans missing from the Vietnam War, a U.S. diplomat said today.

The remains include the two sets that U.S.-Vietnamese teams recovered during last month’s unprecedented joint field investigations in northern Vietnam, said Tran Viet Tan, counselor of the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok.

Tan said 23 sets would be returned on Thursday, but a U.S. Embassy official put the number at 21. Sources said Vietnam has given the United States a list of at least nine names associated with the remains.

Transfer in Hanoi

A U.S. military team is to receive the remains in a ceremony at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital. They will be placed aboard a military plane for the flight to Honolulu, where an Army laboratory tries to confirm the preliminary analyses done by the Vietnamese.

Thursday’s return would be among the largest since the January, 1973, Paris Peace Accords ended U.S. military involvement in the war. The communists defeated the U.S.-backed South Vietnam government in April, 1975.

Since the Paris accords, the United States has received the identified remains of 196 missing personnel, including 168 from Vietnam, 26 from Laos and 2 from China.