Questions Over Continuing Search for MIAs

We were saddened to see that The Times has fallen for the standard government line of Vietnamese cooperation on the POW/MIA issue (Dec. 27, “Issue of MIAs in Vietnam Losing Steam”).

The statement about “Vietnam’s cooperation, long in coming but now substantial . . . “ is totally incorrect. The U.S. government has misinformed the American people regarding archival access as well as the supposed “no notice” live sighting investigations. There are no such things as “no notice” live sighting investigations. Every witness is first located by Vietnamese officials and then presented to U.S. investigators. All witnesses are questioned in the presence of the Vietnamese officials.

The reporter’s statement that “there has never been any credible evidence of Americans being held prisoner in Vietnam since McCain, Peterson and the other POWs were released in 1973” is false. In 1993, the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, of which Sen. John McCain was a member, concluded a small number of POWs had been left behind.

In many cases, U.S. intelligence knew who those men were and where they were being held. Yet, the Vietnamese have not cooperated in providing information on these men. In one case, the Vietnamese presented three hearsay witnesses telling how they heard about the death of an American in 1969. Based on that information this American’s case was stamped “fate determined.” Neither the U.S. nor Vietnamese considered the fact that this man was known to be alive in a South Vietnam prison camp in February 1973.

DOLORES APODACA ALFOND

National Chairperson,

National Alliance of Families

Bellevue, Wash.

*

The covenant established throughout the history of warfare between a soldier and his faith is that a soldier, airman or sailor asks only to be remembered, not to be “rescued.”

The manner in which Vietnam POWs’ parents, wives and children, in their own mixture of emotion, post-Watergate conspiracy and political momentum, pursued this $100-million-a-year “business” has only tarnished their men and added their own measure of salt to the wound of military service in Vietnam.

The families, chosen like the random bullet that brought down their loved ones, neither wanted nor welcomed their fate, but by exacting their pound of flesh, they damage the very memory they sought to honor.

HOWARD S. REGENT

Colonel, USAF Retired

Victorville