A Continuing Betrayal

Among the many Vietnamese who have settled in Orange County are several dozen former commandos who were captured and imprisoned after parachuting into North Vietnam during the war. The history of their treatment by the Pentagon is sordid, and shameful chapters keep being added. The latest is the outrageous delay in paying surviving commandos, months after the Congress ordered payment and the Pentagon promised to comply.

The Pentagon claims the payments have been held up because it has not received a direct order from Congress to pay what is owed. Congress passed a bill ordering the payments of $40,000 each to several hundred former commandos or their surviving relatives, most of them now living in Orange County or Los Angeles County. But Congress also passed a bill merely urging the payments, not ordering them. Which language to heed, a Pentagon spokeswoman wondered.

The answer is easy. Pay the money. The intent of Congress was clear. Legislators rightly wanted the money paid. It’s time to stop stalling and act. If it requires a supplemental appropriation, it should be passed quickly.

Most of the commandos, after being captured in the 1960s, were declared dead by the U.S. government. However, in many cases government agencies had intelligence reports, including North Vietnamese broadcasts, saying that the men were alive and being held captive. Rather than continuing the soldiers’ salaries, the United States paid relatives a “death gratuity” of a few hundred dollars.

Two years ago, the commandos sued the U.S. government. At a congressional hearing on the issue last year, senators were properly condemnatory. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) called the government’s treatment of the onetime commandos criminal.

Congress ordered the payments and the Pentagon said in October that it would comply quickly. Yet six months later not only have the payments not been made, the Pentagon seems to be in no hurry. The claim that congressional clarification is needed took a long time to surface. The Pentagon also tried to resume court hearings on its attempt to dismiss the commandos’ lawsuit--four months after the payments were ordered.

The unwarranted delays have an aura of continuing a U.S. betrayal of Vietnamese who fought as allies during the war three decades ago and put themselves very much in harm’s way. The entire story is a blot on the U.S. record.