Information Still a Prisoner of War : Nothing can be gained by keeping the government’s POW-MIA files secret any longer

The Pentagon has asked the Central Intelligence Agency to investigate a gruesome rumor that Americans taken prisoner during the Korean War, 40 years ago, were subjected to medical and psychological experiments at the hands of Chinese and Soviet doctors and intelligence specialists. Among other things, the prisoners are said to have been tested to determine how much pain they could endure.

According to an East European military official--possibly the sole source for the story--several dozen Americans were the victims of tests conducted in Harbin, Manchuria. All apparently died, at least some as a direct result of what was done to them. The allegation inevitably brings to mind the documented reports of inhuman medical experiments conducted by Nazi Germany on concentration camp inmates during World War II and similar atrocities carried out by the Imperial Japanese Army against American, Chinese and other prisoners of war.

China has told U.S. officials it has no evidence that such a facility existed in Harbin. Russia, which is now cooperating with the United States in efforts to determine the fates of missing American military men, will join in looking into the allegation. Meanwhile, this chilling story inevitably redirects attention to the question of what might have happened to several thousand Americans still officially listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War.

Almost from the moment the United States ended its military involvement in Indochina 19 years ago there have been rumors--some fed by those all too ready to manipulate emotions for profit--that Americans were left behind in captivity. Assurances given by officials of the Nixon Administration that all prisoners had been accounted for have recently been called into question. Many families of missing men continue to believe that their government has yet to reveal everything it knows.

Surely, nothing can be gained by keeping the government’s POW-MIA files secret any longer. The Senate, on a 96-0 vote, has called on the Bush Administration to release all of the information it has “without compromising U.S. national security.” Specifically being sought are former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s papers dealing with the Paris peace negotiations with North Vietnam; the relevant papers of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush; reports in Pentagon files of alleged live sightings of MIAs, and documents from the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has had a lead role in MIA investigations.

Release of the files would not remove every doubt or assuage all anguish. But it could help reduce both. The government owes that much to the families of the missing.