From: jewell@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Larry Jewell)
Newsgroups: soc.veterans
Subject: 'NamVet Newsletter, Vol.5, no7 (2/6)
Date: 29 Aug 92 23:47:21 GMT
Organization: Purdue University


     |  fierce pressures of the time, are now coming forward,        |
     |  looking for someone who can help with their healing.         |
     |                                                               |
     |  We hear from children, now 15 - 25 years old, who are        |
     |  searching for bits and pieces of information they can        |
     |  assemble to help fill that empty place in their lives that   |
     |  is the father they never knew well, if at all. And they want |
     |  to talk to each other, to share their special needs and the  |
     |  unique experience of growing up with a father on the Wall.   |
     |  They understand each other all too well.                     |
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 14
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

     |                                                               |
     |  Millions of Americans need to meet and talk because of the   |
     |  Wall, and only the Friends can help them.                    |
     |                                                               |
     |  Initial discussions with many other national organizations   |
     |  whose work brings them into contact with Vietnam veterans    |
     |  and their loved ones have attested to the need for IN TOUCH  |
     |  and their willingness to help.                               |
     |                                                               |
     |  Simply put, the Friends will draw on its special work at the |
     |  Memorial,  its acquired and available data bases and         |
     |  programs designed and integrated by Electronic Data Systems  |
     |  (EDS), and the commitment and concern of its volunteers to   |
     |  place people with a common association to a name on the Wall |
     |  to be in voluntary communication with each other.            |
     |                                                               |
     |  From there, we will let human nature take its good course.   |
     |  And let the healing begin.                                   |
     |                                                               |
     |  The starting point for the data base will be the more than   |
     |  twenty thousand names of people who have requested name      |
     |  rubbings from our volunteers in Washington. Each will be     |
     |  contacted and given the opportunity to participate by being  |
     |  listed in the IN TOUCH central data base file.               |
     |                                                               |
     |  Confidentiality is the keyword to cooperation and IN TOUCH   |
     |  will respect the integrity of all lists and records.  Lists  |
     |  will be unavailable for public use and will not be           |
     |  distributed for any commercial purpose.                      |
     |                                                               |
     |  By its nature, IN TOUCH must reach far beyond the veterans   |
     |  community in order to be successful. With professional       |
     |  guidance, the Friends will develop a program of on-going     |
     |  articles and other coverage in major media markets, high-    |
     |  lighting the personal experiences of people as they are put  |
     |  "in touch."  The International Vietnam Veterans Echo         |
     |  Conference via the Herndon Byte eXchange 1:109/316 node as   |
     |  the enter point for gathering and disseminating information  |
     |  will be used.  Aside from bringing the program  into public  |
     |  awareness, these articles and stories will serve as a val-   |
     |  uable tool for public education on a wealth of matters       |
     |  relating to the Vietnam era.                                 |
     |                                                               |
     |  As a preliminary test of the IN TOUCH project, the Friends   |
     |  has implemented a pilot project to test the design and       |
     |  demands of such a program.  Several hundred requests with    |
     |  full background information have been entered into a system  |
     |  designed to match requestor data with the existing Memorial  |
     |  data. Even with such a small sample, limited data and a      |
     |  fairly unsophisticated cross-indexing system, matches have   |
     |  been made and IN TOUCH has produced its first real           |
     |  connections.  The results have been as profoundly moving for |
     |  the participants as expected. And as gratifying for the      |
     |  Friends.                                                     |
     |                                                               |
     |  But it was clear that the information management system and  |
     |  the supporting hardware system would have to be more power-  |
     |  ful and more complex in order to handle thousands, perhaps   |
     |  hundreds of thousands, of requests.  Confidentiality of the  |
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 15
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

     |  system and information must be paramount.                    |
     |                                                               |
     |  With well over 2,000 Vietnam veterans, Electronic Data       |
     |  Systems (EDS) became involved and has been generous in its   |
     |  assistance with designing the data management systems which  |
     |  will be critical to a successful program.  The Friends have  |
     |  reached a three-year working agreement with EDS which        |
     |  promises continuity and maximum potential for success in     |
     |  building an information bank that can truly help people in   |
     |  their search for others who knew a loved one.                |
     |                                                               |
     |  The Friends are delighted that Bob Hope has agreed to make   |
     |  a public service announcement which we can use on radio and  |
     |  television to help get the word out to the public on the     |
     |  availability of the service.                                 |
     |                                                               |
     |  The Friends are also pleased to note that Hewlett Packard,   |
     |  Zenith Data Systems, Borland International, FASTCOMM         |
     |  Communications Corporation and the First National Bank of    |
     |  Chicago have all contributed computer equipment, computer    |
     |  software, and office equipment to the project, so they are   |
     |  beginning to feel fully functional.                          |
     |                                                               |
     |  The Friends hear from people who have long been living with  |
     |  the pain of loss and looking for a way to heal.  For         |
     |  instance, the Friends recently received a letter from a      |
     |  woman who wrote:                                             |
     |                                                               |
     |       Dear Friends:                                           | 
     |           For quite some time I have been searching for a     |
     |       way to know my brother.  It seems hopeless at times.    |
     |       I was 12 when he was killed...  I had waited for the    |
     |       day he would come back to us.  He never did.  A part    |
     |       of me will always be 12 and continue to wait.           |
     |           Thank you for giving me hope that there may be      |
     |       a way to find him and bring him home to my heart..."    |
     |                                                               |
     |                          +   +   +                            |
     |                                                               |
     |           The Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial        |
     |                     Electronic Data Systems                   |
     |           Herndon Byte eXchange TCOMMnet BBS 1:109/316        |
     |                                                               |        
     |+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
     


          "Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others
                  cannot keep it from themselves."

                                  --  Sir James Barrie  --








     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 16
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

                    IN-TOUCH Registration/Request Form
     
                       Input by: Ray "Frenchy" Moreau
                      NAM VETs IN-TOUCH Section Editor
                     Herndon Byte eXchange - Herndon, VA
                               (703) 471-8010
     
         THIS FORM REQUIRES SIGNATURE FOR CONFIDENTIALITY RELEASE 
                             PLEASE READ BELOW
     ------------------------------------------------------------------
     I wish to be IN TOUCH with (Please circle and/or comment) Family, 
     Friends and/or Fellow Veterans of the following: 
     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________
     
     ----------- PERSON WHO DID NOT COME BACK FROM VIETNAM ------------
     
     First Name_____________ Middle Name___________ Last Name__________
     Relationship to You and/or Reason for Request 
     (Answer as fully as possible)_____________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________
     
     ==================================================================
     
     -------- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT HIM/HER - IF KNOWN ---------
     
     Rank_______ Birth Date ______________ Soc. Sec. # ________________
     Tour Date of Birth _______________ Where Buried __________________
     Branch of Service:  AR__   NA__    AF__   MC__  CG__  RC__   CIV__
     (Fill in his/her equivalent unit designations in the spaces below)
     Division ____________ Brigade ___________ Battalion ______________
     Regiment ____________ Company ___________ Ship ___________________
     Battles:__________________________________________________________
     Locations:________________________________________________________
     Nicknames:________________________________________________________
     Hometown (while in Nam): ____________________ Home State: ________
     
     ==================================================================
     
     ---------------------- INFORMATION ABOUT YOU ---------------------
     Title___  First Name ____________ Middle/Maiden Name _____________
     Last Name ____________________
     Address___________________________________________________________
     City __________________________________ State ____ Zip: _____-____
     Your Home Phone (   ) ____________  Work Phone: (   ) ____________
     
     ---------------- IF YOU ARE A VIETNAM-ERA VETERAN ----------------
     
     Tour date _______________________________  Rank __________________
     Branch of Service: AR__  NA __  AF __  MC __  CG __  RC __  CIV __
          Fill in your equivalent unit designations in the spaces below
     Division: __________  Brigade: ___________  Battalion: ___________
     Regiment: __________  Company: ___________  Ship: ________________
     Battles: _________________________________________________________
     Locations: _______________________________________________________
     Nicknames: _______________________________________________________
     Hometown (when in VN) _______________________ Home State: ________
     Comments: ________________________________________________________
     
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 17
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

                             CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT
     _____  I give permission to the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans 
            Memorial to release my name, address, phone number and 
            relationship to other participants in the IN TOUCH project 
            seeking information on the individual above (strike out 
            phone number if you do not want it released).
                                    OR
     
     _____  I would like to have the names, addresses, and phone 
            numbers of persons who knew my friend or relative, but 
            prefer NOT to have my name, address, and phone number 
            released.
     
     I hereby release the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 
     any and all liability that may arise from the operation of the IN 
     TOUCH project.
     
     Signature ____________________________________ Date _____________
     
     NOTE: Do not electronically transmit this form, instead mail to:
           Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
           1350 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Suite 300
           Washington, DC 20036
     -----------------------------------------------------------------
     


































     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 18
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991



     ==================================================================
                             Forgotten - again?
     ==================================================================

                       EXPLODING THE POW COVER-UP...
                           by William F. Jasper
                   7/2/91 Edition of THE NEW AMERICAN!!!
                         Input by: Marsha Ledeman
                 NamVet's Assistant MIA/POW Section Editor
                        VETLink #1 - Pittsfield, MA
                              (413) 443-6313
     
     Nation:
        Last  October  29th.  the  minority Staff of  the  U.S.  Senate 
     Committee  on Foreign Relations,  under the direction of  Senators 
     Jesse  Helms  (R-NC)  and  Charles  Grassley  (R-IA.)  released  a 
     bombshell:  its  Interim  Report  on the Southeast  Asian  POW/MIA 
     Issue. The result of more than a year of intensive research by the 
     two  senators and their staff investigators,  the report confirmed 
     what  many  families of those who were left behind in Vietnam  had 
     long  feared:   In  spite  of  the  government's  repeated  public 
     assurances that it was doing "everything possible"  to account for 
     all American POWs and MIAs in Vietnam,  for more than 17 years the 
     official U.S. government policy has been to write off all POWs and 
     MIAs as dead,  and to ignore,  suppress and discredit all evidence 
     to  the  contrary.  (See  The New  American,  February  12,  1991, 
     "Official Policy: Abandon POWs")
     
     SOME STILL ALIVE???
        Finally,  after  nearly two decades of dealing with  government 
     cover-ups,  lying,  dissembling and stonewalling,  the families of 
     the  more  than 2,000 POWs and MIAs still unaccounted for  may  at 
     long last take hope that the truth will become known.
        On May 23rd,  Senator Jesse Helms released the Minority Staff's 
     much-anticipated  full  report.  Entitled An Examination  of  U.S. 
     Policy  Toward POW/MIAs,  the 100-page document goes much  further 
     than  the  scorching interim report in indicting the  government's 
     policy  of  abandoning  our servicemen imprisoned  or  missing  in 
     Southeast Asia. It also offers hope, based upon evidence contained 
     in  the  Department of Defense's classified live-sightings  files, 
     that some of these Americans may still be alive.
        In  his  introduction  to the new report,  Helms  reminded  his 
     colleagues  of  the "very disturbing"  conclusions of last  fall's 
     interim report. "After examining hundreds of documents relating to 
     the  raw intelligence,  and interviewing many families and friends 
     of POW/MIAs,  "wrote Helms,  "  the Minority Staff concluded that, 
     despite public pronouncements to the contrary, the real,  internal 
     policy of the U.S. government was to act upon the presumption that 
     all  MIAs were dead."  As a result of this policy,  "any  evidence 
     that suggested an MIA might be alive was uniformly and arbitrarily 
     rejected,  and  all  efforts  were directed  towards  finding  and 
     identifying  remains  of  dead personnel,  even  though  the  U.S. 
     government's  techniques  of  identification were  inadequate  and 
     deeply flawed."
     
        Since  April 1973,  when 691 POWs were repatriated in Operation 
     Homecoming, the government has maintained that it has "no evidence 
     that  there  were any more POWs still alive in all of  Indochina." 
     Most Americans never believed it.  Various polls have continued to 
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 19
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

     show that more than 60 percent of the general public and more than 
     80  percent of the Vietnam veterans believe that American POW/MIAs 
     are still alive in Southeast Asia.
     
        The  government's  policy of sealing off all  POW/MIA  evidence 
     under  the  cloak  of "national security"  has only added  to  the 
     public  distrust  of  all official pronouncements on  the  matter. 
     Until  Helms  and  Grassley gained limited  access  in  1989,  the 
     Defense Department's 11,700 files relating to POW/MIAs,  including 
     1,400 firsthand, live-sighting reports, had remained off-limits to 
     all  congressional or other independent examination.  After a year 
     of intensive scrutiny of hundreds of files, the senators and their 
     staff investigators concluded that U.S. officials had engaged in a 
     pattern  of  activities that included:  "misleading  Congressional 
     inquiries";    concealing    information";    misinterpreting   or 
     manipulating   data";   possible   intimidation   of   witnesses"; 
     discrediting   live-sighting  reports";   dismissal  of   credible 
     evidence through technicalities"; and "exaggerating or mishandling 
     forensic data."
     
     70 YEARS OF TREACHERY:
        The betrayal of American POWs did not begin with Vietnam.  Part 
     1  of the newly-released report presents a historical  perspective 
     on POW/MIAs that will shock most Americans. Based in large measure 
     on  the groundbreaking research of Vietnam Veterans John M.G.Brown 
     and  Thomas  Ashworth,  the  report presents  compelling  evidence 
     demonstrating  that American POWs abandoned in communist  regimes, 
     from World War I through Vietnam, number in the tens of thousands. 
     After  analyzing  the fate of U.S.  POW/MIAs in the hands  of  the 
     Bolshevik regime after World War I,  the Soviet regime after World 
     War  II,  the  North Korean regime after the Korean War,  and  the 
     Vietnamese regime after the Vietnam War, Helms observed:
     
           In  each case,  the same dismaying scenario appears:  On the 
           Communist side,  the regimes denied holding U.S.  prisoners, 
           contrary  to many credible reports,  while in fact they were 
           holding  the U.S.  POW/MIAs as slave laborers and as reserve 
           bargaining chips to get diplomatic recognition and financial 
           assistance. On the U.S.  side,  our government downplayed or 
           denied the reports of POW/MIAs,  and failed to take adequate 
           steps  to prove or disprove the reports,  while elements  in 
           our  government pursued policies intended to make diplomatic 
           recognition  and  financial  support  of  the  revolutionary 
           regimes possible.
     
        "The  fact  is,"  says  the  report,  "that  Soviet  and  Asian 
     Communist regimes view POW/MIAs, living or dead,  not as a problem 
     of  humanitarian concern but as leverage for political bargaining, 
     as  an involuntary source of technical assistance,  and as  forced 
     labor."
     
        At  the  end of World War II,  Stalin followed the  example  of 
     Lenin  and  kept thousands of American GIs in the gulag.  And  our 
     government quietly acquiesced. On June 1,  1945,  according to the 
     Senate  Minority  Staff  Report,  "the  U.S.  government's  public 
     position  was that most American GIs taken prisoner have come home 
     and been repatriated, even though the classified cable traffic for 
     the  previous  fortnight was reporting between 15,000  and  20,000 
     still held." The U.S.  government simply consigned these Americans 
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 20
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

     to  the memory hole ___   and to deprivation and death in Stalin's 
     prisons  and slave labor camps.  Thousands more were abandoned  to 
     the communists after the Korean War.
     
     EXPOSING THE SHAM:
        Sooner  or later,  someone on the inside was bound to become so 
     revolted  by this scandalous betrayal of our fighting men and  our 
     national  honor  that  he would come forward to expose  the  whole 
     rotten mess. It now appears that has happened.  On March 28th.  of 
     this year, Colonel Millard "Mike"  A.  Peck,  chief of the Defense 
     Intelligence  Agency's  Special  Office for Prisoners of  War  and 
     Missing  in  Action,  left  his  job after  stapling  a  startling 
     memorandum  to  his office door.  The colonel charged in his  memo 
     that  higher-ups "hidden in the shadows"  obstructed his  efforts, 
     while  using his office "as a toxic waste dump'  to bury the whole 
     'mess'  out  of  sight and mind."  Peck,  who had taken  over  the 
     POW/MIA  post  eight months earlier,  also wrote,  "I was  not  in 
     charge  of my own office,  but was merely a figurehead or whipping 
     boy  for  a  larger  and totally Machiavellian  group  of  players 
     outside of DIA."
     
        "That  National leaders continue to address the prisoner of war 
        and  missing in action issue as the "highest national priority' 
        is  a  travesty,"  Peck declared in his parting  missive.  "The 
        mindset  to  'debunk'  all live sightings pervaded the  POW/MIA 
        office "at all levels,"  he said.  "Practically all analysis is 
        directed  to  finding  fault with the  source,"  charged  Peck. 
        "Rarely has there been any effective,  active follow through on 
        any of the sightings..."
     
        Peck's   command  of  the  POW/MIA  Special  Office  capped  an 
     exceptional Army career,  including three combat tours in Vietnam, 
     for which he was awarded numerous medals for gallantry,  including 
     the  nation's  second-highest  award,  the  Distinguished  Service 
     Cross. He had volunteered for the job, he said, with the intention 
     of  "refurbishing  the image and honor of DIA"  and resolving  the 
     POW/MIA issue, which he viewed as a "holy crusade."
     
        On  May 30th,  Peck testified before the House Foreign  Affairs 
     subcommittee   on   Asian   and  Pacific   Affairs,   chaired   by 
     Representative  Stephen Solarz (D-NY).   About half of the hearing 
     was  public  and was shown over C-Span.  The  remaining  testimony 
     involved  classified information and was taken in closed  session. 
     As  expected,  Representatives  Solarz and Robert Lagomarsino  (R-
     CA.),  both  of  whom  support  "fast-track"   normalization  with 
     Vietnam,  immediately  began  a  line of questioning  designed  to 
     discredit Peck. Soon after the closed session began, Solarz exited 
     the  hearing room to tell reporters that Peck had offered  nothing 
     to substantiate his earlier charges.
     
        But,  according to Senator Robert Smith (R-NH),  "That's simply 
     not accurate." Smith,  a Vietnam vet who pursued the POW/MIA issue 
     as  a member of the House,  notes that Solarz attended only "about 
     two-thirds of the open session and was only there for about a half 
     hour  of  the  closed  session.  "Peck  did  indeed  "provide  new 
     information  and important,  strong testimony ...  and he did name 
     names"  of officials who impeded the effort to resolve the POW/MIA 
     issue, Smith told The New American. But Solarz and Lagomarsino did 
     not want to hear what Peck had to say, and they didn't want anyone 
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 21
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

     else to hear him either. "They immediately tried to discredit him, 
     as  they had earlier done to General Eugene Tighe,  Captain  "Red" 
     McDaniel,  Representative  Bill  Hendon,  myself  ...  anyone  who 
     challenges the official position," said Smith.
     
     "VERY COURAGEOUS OFFICER"
        Captain  Eugene  "Red"  McDaniel,  a highly  decorated  Vietnam 
     veteran who flew 81 missions in Indochina and spent six years as a 
     prisoner  of  the  communists,  sees Peck as  a  "very  courageous 
     officer"  with  high credibility,  and one who will not be  easily 
     dismissed.  "His  testimony is very credible,  and it corroborates 
     that  there  has  been  an enormous cover-up,"  he  told  The  New 
     American.  McDaniel,  who is founder and president of the American 
     Defense  Institute  in  Alexandria,   Virginia,   remains  "firmly 
     convinced there are live POWs still over there."  He believes that 
     Peck's  revelations will help to set them free.   He also believes 
     that passage of Robert Smith's Senate Resolution 82,  to establish 
     a  Senate  Select  Committee on  POW/MIA  Affairs,  is  critically 
     important  to  the  final resolution of this  issue.  "The  Select 
     Committee will have subpoena powers,"  says McDaniel,  "which will 
     enable  it  to require present and former government officials  to 
     appear and testify under oath.  The Committee will also be able to 
     subpoena government POW/MIA documents." 
     
        Hearings  on  S.Res.  82 are scheduled for July  25th.  in  the 
     Senate Rules Committee. After decades of cover-up,  there is now a 
     glimmer  of  hope  that  the truth about our MIAs  and  POWs  will 
     finally prevail...
     
     (copies  of  an  Examination  of U.S.Policy  Toward  POW/MIAs  are 
     available  from  the  U.S.  Senate Committee of Foreign  Relations 
     Staff, 452-Dirksen Office Building, Washington, DC 20510)
     __________________________________________________________________
     
     One  more publication for our side,  now we need to help all these 
     men  who  are risking their careers for the truth to  be  known... 
     Write Bob Smith and Charles Grassley and Jesse Helms and tell them 
     not to stop now, as we are all behind them 200%...
     
                        Let's Get It Done in 91!!! 
     


















     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 22
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

     
     
        HIGHLIGHTS OF MINORITY STAFF EXAMINATION OF POW/MIA POLICY
                          [addendum.sum 06/06/91]
                         Input by: Marsha Ledeman
                 NamVet's Assistant MIA/POW Section Editor
                      At VETLink #1 - Pittsfield, MA
                              (413) 443-6313
     
     1. The  conclusions of the 112-page Minority Staff report parallel 
     the conclusions of Col.  Millard A.  Peck,  former director of the 
     Special office of POW/MIA Affairs, namely that the U.S. Government 
     has manipulated the POW/MIA issue to avoid an effective search for 
     missing military personnel.
     
     2. The  Minority  Staff report states that the  U.S.  government's 
     stated  intention  of giving the search for POW/MIAs the  "highest 
     national    priority"    is   subordinated   to   higher    policy 
     considerations.  (Prologue to Part I, page i)
     
     3. The  Report states that the U.S.  Government policy of  dealing 
     with live-sighting reports is flawed,  thereby ignoring reasonable 
     evidence which could lead to finding missing personnel.   It cites 
     7  specific   DIA procedures for discrediting reports to  avoid  a 
     good-faith  effort to find POW/MIAs.  (page 6-1)  It reproduces  a 
     censored  CIA  document  from  1988 that  summarizes  three  live- 
     sighting  reports of U.S.  POW/MIAs in North Korea.   (Prologue to 
     part II)
     
     4. The  Report  states  that it was a matter of  policy  to  issue 
     falsified  statements of KIA (killed in action)  instead of MIA or 
     U.S. personnel captured during covet operations. (page 7-1)
     
     5. The  Report  states  that the U.S.  Government  uses  technical 
     distinctions to avoid accounting for specific MIA cases.  It cites 
     an  example from the Gulf War where the refusal to categorize  two 
     U.S.  soldiers  captured  under fire as POW/MIA could have led  to 
     permanent captivity.  (Prologue to part I, page ii)
     
     6. The Report states that there is a historical pattern throughout 
     this century of abandoning U.S. military personnel for the sake of 
     diplomatic and other considerations.
     
     7. POWs  from  the  World War I American  Expeditionary  Force  in 
     Siberia 1918-1919 and other Americans were abandoned in the Soviet 
     Union despite the granting of diplomatic recognition in 1933.
     
     8. General  Eisenhower  told the Allied Command that  "only  small 
     numbers remain" of U.S. soldiers captured by Nazi forces and taken 
     over  by Soviet authorities only two days after he was informed by 
     his  intelligence services that 20,000 U.S.  personnel were  still 
     being held by the Red Army.  (page 3-20)
     
     9. General James Van Fleet stated that 8,000 MIAs were unaccounted 
     for  in 1953 when the major prisoner exchange took  place.   (page 
     4-1)
     
     10. Assistant  Secretary  of the Army High Milton II  received  an 
     internal  memorandum in 1954 stating that 954 U.S.  personnel were 
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 23
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

     still being held in North Korea.  (page 4-2)
     
     11. The  U.S.  Department of State sought to mislead then-Majority 
     Leader  Lyndon  Johnson  about  the 954 known  POWs  in  Korea  in 
     official correspondence.  (page 4-10-12)
     
     12. State  Department  and Air Force Intelligence reports in  1954 
     detailed  that  "two trains"  of seven cars each  containing  U.S. 
     military   personnel   in  uniform  were  observed  crossing   the 
     Chinese/Soviet border into the Soviet Union.  (page 4-6)
     
     13. The CIA already had reported in 1952 from sources inside North
     Korea  that  North Korea had already established the  policy  that 
     certain categories of U.S.  personnel in North Korean prison camps 
     would never be exchanged.  (page 4-8)
     
     14. Kissinger  stated  in  1982  that  he  knew  during  the  1973 
     negotiations  that  80 U.S.  military personnel known by name  and 
     known to have been captured alive did not return (page 5-1)
     
     15. Kissinger hand-carried a secret letter to the North Vietnamese
     Foreign  Minister  promising  $4  billion in  reparations  to  the 
     Commumunist  regime.   This  commitment  was  concealed  from  key 
     members  of  Congress for over five years,  who finally found  out 
     from meetings with the North Vietnamese.  (page 5-12)
     
     16. U.S. authorities originally asked North Vietnamese authorities 
     for the return of 5,000 U.S.  military personnel,  but settled for 
     only 591.  (page 5-8)
     
     17. Although  the  Pathet Lao stated that they were  holding  U.S. 
     military  personnel  in March,  1973--estimated at  about  100--no 
     prisoners  held by the Pathet Lao ever returned or were  accounted 
     for.  (page 5-3)
     
     [For  a  copy  of the Senate Foreign Relations  Minority  Addendum 
     Report call 202-224-3941. No charge (for the copy).]
     





















     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 24
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

               VETERANS CALL FOR PROBE OF POW, MIA `COVERUP'
                     7/26/91 Bangkok Post - World News
                         Input by: Marsha Ledeman
                 NamVet's Assistant MIA/POW Section Editor
                        VETLink #1 - Pittsfield, MA
                              (413) 443-6313
     
     WASHINGTON (REUTER) -  A US veteran's group urged President George 
     Bush  on Friday to appoint an independent panel to investigate  an 
     alleged  conspiracy  to cover up the fate of US troops missing  or 
     captured in Vietnam.
     
       In  a letter to Bush,  the national commander of the Veterans of 
     Foreign  Wars  cited  charges by the former head of  the  Pentagon 
     Intelligence  unit  set up to account for missing Americans and  a 
     new  Senate Foreign Relations Committee Republican minority  staff 
     report.
       "These  are  serious  allegations from  very  credible  sources, 
     "James Kinery wrote. "they call into question the integrity of the 
     United  States government and cast serious doubt as to whether the 
     POW/MIA issue has ever truly been of "highest national priority."
       Since the end of the vietnam War in 1975,  resolving the fate of 
     those  unaccounted  for  has been called a matter of  the  highest 
     priority by successive US administrations.
       As of May 16,  a total of 2,273 Americans were listed as missing 
     or unaccounted for, including 1,656 in Vietnam, 528 in Laos, 83 in 
     Cambodia  and  six  in China's coastal waters,  according  to  the 
     Pentagon.
       Successive   administrations  have  said  information   gathered 
     "precludes  ruling  out"   the  possibility  that  at  least  some 
     Americans could still be held against their will in Indochina.
       Vietnam  and  its  allies in Cambodia and Laos  have  repeatedly 
     denied holding any US prisoners and say they are cooperating fully 
     to resolve the issue.
       In  a letter on Thursday accompanying the staff report,  Senator 
     Jesse  Helms,  a  fierce critic of the  administration's  MIA/POWs 
     policies,  said  the  administration  was continuing a  policy  of 
     abandoning soldiers missing after wars.
       "In each case the same dismaying scenario appears,"  said Helms, 
     the  Foreign Relations Committee's senior Republican.  He referred 
     to  World  Wars One and Two as well as to the Korean  and  Vietnam 
     wars.
       "On the Communist side, the regimes denied holding US prisoners, 
     contrary to many credible reports, while in fact they were holding 
     the US POW/MIAs as slave labourers and as reserve bargaining chips 
     to get diplomatic recognition and financial assistance," Helms, of 
     North Carolina, said.
       Army  Col.  Millard  Peck,  who headed the Defense  Intelligence 
     Agency's  Special  Office  for  Prisoners of War  and  Missing  in 
     Action,  accused  the Bush administration of using his office as a 
     "toxic waste dump" to bury what he called the whole mess.
       In  an  angry resignation letter obtained by news  organizations 
     this week,  Peck,  a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who left his 
     job  on March 28,  faulted administration officials for failure to 
     pursue leads, adding; "A cover-up may be in progress."
       In  calling  for  a full independent  probe,  the  VFW  national 
     commander said:  "Can we trust our government on tis issue or not; 
     this most basic question demands an honest answer."
       The  Defence  Department had no immediate comment on  the  VFW's 
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 25
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

     appeal.  But  a  spokesman,   Navy  Lt-Comdr.   Edward  Lundquist, 
     reiterated  that  the  POW/MIA  issue remained an  issue  of  "the 
     highest national priority."
       "Obviously,  we  have  the  same concerns that  these  veterans' 
     groups  have,"  he  said,  referring  to a  full  accounting.  The 
     Pentagon  has begun an "internal management inquiry"  into  Peck's 
     charges but not a full-scale investigation, Lundquist said.
       He  added  that  seven previous probes had been  conducted  into 
     conspiracy  charges over the past decade,  each concluding that no 
     coverup on the POW/MIA issue exists or existed.
       The  VFW  says  it has 2.1 million  members,  including  670,000 
     Vietnam veterans. Kinery, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, specified in 
     a statement that he had written on behalf of them all.
       William Smith,  a spokesman for VFW Washington office,  said the 
     group  wanted  Bush to appoint a panel "with the fullest  possible 
     powers to conduct an investigation."
     
     __________________________________________________________________
     
       Funny  how our own news media people won't touch this with a ten 
     foot pole, but in far off Bangkok, Thailand they have it???  Seems 
     like  all  other  nations and countries rate higher  than  the  US 
     government rates its own people doesn't it?
     
                              Marsha Ledeman
     

































     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 26
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

              PHOTO SPURS A US CALL FOR A VIETNAM MIA SEARCH
                    By Jim Wolf - REUTERS News Service
                           7/17/91 Boston Globe
                         Input by: Sarge Hultgren
                       NamVet's Editorial Assistant
                      Freedom's Choice BBS - Lynn, MA
                              (617) 593-2605
     
                 3 FLIERS BELIEVED SEEN IN JUNGLE SETTING
     
     WASHINGTON  -  The  US  government has asked  the  governments  of 
     Vietnam,  Laos  and  Cambodia  to  investigate  whether  three  US 
     servicemen  missing in action since the Vietnam war are alive  and 
     in Indochina, officials here said yesterday.
       The  action  was taken after a photo of  three  men,  apparently 
     taken last year, was provided to US government agencies.   The men 
     in the photo have been identified by their families as the missing 
     Americans.
       A  Defense Department spokesman,  Navy Cmdr.  Edward  Lundquist, 
     said  yesterday the families of three servicemen listed as missing 
     in   action  "firmly  believe"   the  photo  shows  their  missing 
     relatives.
       The picture shows three men in a jungle-like setting, apparently 
     in good health, holding a white sign.
       The sign bears the handwritten date 25-5-1990 and other markings 
     - NNTK! and K.B.C.19. - that could indicate an address.
       Family  members  gave a copy of the photo July 12 to Carl  Ford, 
     the   principal   deputy  assistant  secretary  of   defense   for 
     international security affairs, Lundquist said.
       Ford  represents  the Pentagon on the  government's  interagency 
     group on Americans unaccounted for since the war.
       The  State  Department said it learned of its existence  of  the 
     picture  July  12  and on the same day sent a  copy  to  Vietnam's 
     ambassador  to the United Nations and requested Vietnam's  "urgent 
     assistance in investigating this matter," a spokesman said.
       "Also  on  that day,  we instructed our embassy in Vientiane  to 
     present  a  similar message providing information  and  requesting 
     cooperation  to  the government of Laos and to the  representative 
     from Phnom Penh," the department said.
     
       A  congressional  staff member familiar with the case  said  the 
     State Department had had the picture since Nov. 7, 1990. The staff 
     member, who asked not to be identified, said it was brought out of 
     Cambodia by a woman he would not identify.
       Retired  Navy Capt.  Eugene McDaniel,  freed by Vietnam in  1973 
     after  six  years  as  a prisoner,  made a  copy  of  the  picture 
     available   to  Reuters  after  having  obtained  permission  from 
     relatives of the missing servicemen.
     
       He  identified those in the picture as Air Force Maj. Albro Lynn 
     Lundy Jr., of Sherman Oaks, Calif., who would be 58 years old, and 
     was shot down Dec 24, 1970 over Laos; Air Force Col. John Leighton 
     Robertson,  of Seattle,  who would be 60,  and was shot down Sept. 
     16, 1966 over northern Vietnam; and Navy Lt.  Larry James Stevens, 
     of Canoga Park,  Calif.,  who would be 48,  and was shot down Feb. 
     14, 1969 over Laos.
       [The  Globe obtained confirmation of the names from two  sources 
     yesterday.]
       Ann Mills Griffiths,  executive  director of the National League 
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 27
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

     of  Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast  Asia, 
     said the photo is drawing special attention because family members 
     are adamant in their conviction about the identities of the men in 
     it.
       "It's  highly  unusual that three families would identify  their 
     missing relatives in a single picture,  and with such certainty in 
     their own minds," she said. "It certainly gives it great impact."
       [The office of Sen. Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican,  told 
     the Globe yesterday he has seen the photo,  but feels the validity 
     of it is beyond his competence to judge.   He said,  though,  that 
     evidence such as this "surfaces quite frequently" and it points to 
     the  fact that "problems still exist after 23 years,"  his  office 
     quoted him as saying.]
       As of July 1,  a total of 2,273 Americans were listed as missing 
     or unaccounted for as a result of the US war in Indochina: 1656 in 
     Vietnam, 528 in Laos, 83 in Cambodia and six off China's coast.
     
     [PHOTO VIA REUTERS]
     A  worn photo appears to show three American pilots shot down over 
     Indochina during the Vietnam War.  The sign is dated May 25, 1990.
     






































     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 28
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

                   SNAPSHOT RAISES HOPE 3 MIAs ARE ALIVE
                        The Boston Herald - 7/17/91
                         Input by: Sarge Hultgren
                       NamVet's Editorial Assistant
                      Freedom's Choice BBS - Lynn, MA
                              (617) 593-2605
     
     [REUTER PHOTO]
     PHOTO  ID:  A  snapshot showing three men believed to be  American 
     soldiers  missing  since the end of the Vietnam War has spurred  a 
     new hunt for the servicemen.
     
     WASHINGTON  -  The  United States is pressing  Vietnam,  Laos  and 
     Cambodia  to investigate a snapshot apparently taken last year  of 
     three  U.S.  servicemen  missing  since  the end  of  the  war  in 
     Indochina  and possibly held against their  will,  U.S.  officials 
     said yesterday.
       A  Defense  Department  spokesman  said the  families  of  three 
     servicemen  listed  as  missing in  action  "firmly  believe"  the 
     snapshot is of their missing relatives.
       The  picture shows three men in a jungle-like setting holding  a 
     white  sign  that bears the handwritten date 25-5-1990  and  other 
     markings - NNTK! and K.B.C.19. - that could indicate an address.
       A  congressional staff member said the State Department had  had 
     the picture since Nov. 7, 1990, and it was brought out of Cambodia 
     by a woman he would not identify.
       The  men in the picture were identified as Air Force Maj.  Albro 
     Lynn Lundy Jr. of Sherman Oaks, Calif.,  who would be 58 years old 
     and was shot down Dec. 24, 1970,  over Laos;  Air Force Col.  John 
     Leighton  Robertson of Seattle,  who would be 60 and was shot down 
     Sept. 16, 1966,  over northern Vietnam;  and Navy Lt.  Larry James 
     Stevens of Canoga Park, Calif.,  who would be 48 and was shot down 
     Feb. 14, 1969, over Laos.
     

























     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 29
     Volume  5, Number  7                                 July 27, 1991

     
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#"Sunday's horoscope is noteworthy because of its strange, sudden and wholly#
#unpredictable and inexplicable occurrences, affecting all phases of life." #
#--"Your Horoscope," L.A. Evening Herald Express, Saturday, Dec. 6, 1941.   #