Bush Scolds Hecklers at MIA-POW Meeting : Speech: Relatives of missing servicemen shout, ‘No more lies!’ President calls his retort ‘an emphatic point.’

Several dozen angry relatives of American servicemen missing in Southeast Asia shouted down President Bush on Friday as he addressed a convention of POW-MIA activists, prompting the perturbed chief executive to interrupt his talk and tell the protesters to “shut up and sit down.”

Two days after Bush ordered the Pentagon to release more than 1.3 million pages of documents on missing U.S. servicemen, he came to the 23rd annual conference of the National League of POW/MIA Families at a suburban Virginia hotel to deliver the opening remarks.

But the President had barely begun when several people stood up and called out: “No more lies!” From the back of the room came a steady chant: “Tell the truth! Release the files!”

Obviously irritated, Bush stepped away from the podium and waited for order to be restored. He acknowledged that the issue of missing servicemen was “very emotional, understandably emotional,” but then seemed to lose all patience with the continued chanting.

“Would you please be quiet and let me finish,” he said to loud applause. “Would you please shut up and sit down!”

The protesters said they were outraged at the failure of the U.S. government to move aggressively to get an accounting of the whereabouts of 2,266 servicemen listed as missing during the Vietnam War.

“Twenty-four years is too long to wait,” said Mitch Guess of Powell, Ohio, whose father was shot down over Vietnam in 1968. Some activists even accused the Pentagon of covering up knowledge that captured Americans remain alive in Southeast Asia.

But officials of the POW/MIA organization quickly disavowed the actions of the protesters Friday and had mostly words of praise for the President.

“These are dissidents, a minority that does not represent the views of most of the families. We were mortified,” said Mary Backley, a spokeswoman for the group. “But it is a clear indication of the frustrations we’ve felt. It is fact that the families were lied to in the ‘70s.”

At a campaign stop later Friday in Brookville, Ohio, Bush said of his morning exchange: “I didn’t blow my cool. I just made an emphatic point.”

He dismissed the vocal interruption as an “organized demonstration,” and later said: “It was a planned reception, you know. A little volatile reaction. You know that. We’ve all been around in a political year.”

Frederic V. Malek, Bush’s campaign manager, said: “The important thing is that he went. He knows full well when he goes into an audience like that . . . that there’s a risk of being heckled.”

And Torie Clarke, Bush’s campaign spokeswoman, reminded reporters traveling with the President aboard Air Force One that he had received a standing ovation at the end of the speech. Bush “has done more for the POW-MIA community than anyone,” Clarke said. “You’ve got to keep this in perspective.”

Still, the White House was clearly embarrassed by the episode. In Columbia, Mo., where Bush made a late afternoon campaign appearance, officials rushed to distribute copies of a supportive letter from Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

McCain, a former POW, praised Bush’s commitment to the issue and said: “It is a shame that a few people with little regard for the truth would try to spoil an occasion of such great importance to so many families whose loved ones remain missing in Southeast Asia.”

Family members said they were pleased that the issue of missing servicemen is again getting attention in Washington. They remain displeased, however, that it has taken so long.

“We don’t intend to sit down and we don’t intend to shut up,” said Santa Ana resident Barbara Robertson, who was among those in the audience protesting. “We are still fighting for the truth. I think the families are getting very weary of each successive Administrationsaying that this issue is a top priority and nothing being done.”

Robertson said that the President’s speech was “filled with empty promises as usual” and that she was angry that the protesters were being described as “dissidents.” Her husband, Lt. Col. John Leighton Robertson, an Air Force fighter pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam in September, 1966.

Besides hearing from the President, the group, meeting in Crystal City, Va., also heard from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Robert C. Smith (R-N.H.), who head a special Senate committee set up to investigate the POW-MIA issue. Along with Bush, they sought to dampen expectations that missing American servicemen might be found alive in Southeast Asia.

“I’m interested in the truth, plain and simple,” said Kerry, who served on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. He said 244 Americans who were believed to be held captive in Vietnam did not return home in 1973. Of those, 111 were reported as having died in captivity by Hanoi. Since then, the remains of 57 others have been returned, leaving about 76 who are unaccounted for, the senator said.

He noted that 58 American officials are working in Vietnam gathering information and tracking reports of missing servicemen. But he disputed the notion that his special committee has found convincing evidence that missing Americans remain in captivity.

“A live sighting report, which may on its face seem to indicate that an American, unknown by name, is held in captivity, could look very promising to somebody just reading the piece of paper,” Kerry said. “But when you get to the analysis of where it came from, of what the person said, of where the person really was, of what their passport shows . . . (and) that the particulars don’t pan out according to five other people that are interviewed, you wind up with a wholly different interpretation.

“So I am trying to caution people.”

Kerry said his panel will hold further hearings on Aug. 4 and 5 and plans to hear from Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire who earlier championed the cause of the missing servicemen. Perot had been scheduled to appear once before but declined when he was considering a presidential bid.

Bush’s speech was intended to demonstrate his Administration’s attention to the POW-MIA issue.

Although “the Cold War may be over,” he said, “the noble cause that took your fathers and your sons and your husbands away from home is with us still. And our work must not end, and it will not end, until you have answers about your loved ones.

“And so, I would simply say to you, I care about it. We are trying, and we’re going to continue to try.” Bush also angrily rebutted protesters who alleged that the White House had ignored verified reports that Americans remained in captivity.

“To suggest that the commander in chief that led this country into its most successful recent effort would condone for one single day the personal knowledge of a person held against his will, whether it’s here or anyplace else, is simply totally unfair,” Bush said.

The families of missing servicemen had been victimized by “scam operations” and “false reporting” that has raised hopes and then dashed them, Bush said. But he pledged that U.S. officials would keep searching for evidence.

“We are going to account for every single person who is missing.”

Times staff writers Douglas Jehl, traveling with President Bush, and Greg Hernandez in Orange County contributed to this story.