Sen. Kerry Says Hanoi Has Agreed to Give Logistic Aid to MIA Search

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Friday that the Vietnamese government had agreed to give logistic help to search for Americans missing in action in the Vietnam War.

Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran, said Hanoi had agreed to his request that the government deploy three or four helicopters to enable a border exploration team to respond quickly to reported sightings of Americans.

Vietnamese government officials were not available for comment.

Kerry said Hanoi will allow the team access to border areas, but he said that the U.S. government has not given adequate support to the U.S. team.

“And the fact that logistics is difficult and that we need to be talking about the capacity to have helicopter input . . . really represents the kind of things that should have been done a long time ago,” he said at a news conference after returning to Bangkok from a visit to Vietnam and Cambodia.

He said the deployment of helicopters needs Washington’s approval.

Kerry is chairman of a Senate committee set up to investigate the fate of 2,273 Americans still listed as MIAs or otherwise unaccounted for from the war, which ended in 1975.