In early September 2005, another Navy report on the status of 1991 Gulf War Navy pilot Lt. Cdr. Michael Scott Speicher was completed. It reiterated conclusions reached in earlier studies that he could well have been captured; that there was no specific evidence of his death; and that some former members—they were not identified, if known—of the Saddam Hussein government of Iraq were knowledgeable about his fate. Accordingly, it recommended that Speicher's status be maintained as missing, rather than killed. This report summarizes numbers of U.S. prisoners of war (POWs) and servicemembers missing in action (MIAs) lost during the Vietnam War (1961-1973) and the Korean War (1950-1953), compares these losses to other 20 th century American wars, and describes the POW/MIA investigation and policy process. It discusses reports asserting that some POWs from these wars were not returned to U.S. control when the wars ended, and that some of these individuals may still be alive. Further, it discusses Americans possibly captured by communist countries during Cold War incidents, or after being liberated from German POW camps at the end of World War II, and whether any such Americans could still be alive. It also summarizes POW/MIA matters and controversies related to post-Cold War U.S. military operations, particularly the 1991 Persian Gulf War; the ongoing Operation Enduring Freedom that began on October 7, 2001, when the United States began combat operations against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan; and Operation Iraqi Freedom that began on March 19, 2003. Finally, the report describes legislation and congressional oversight concerning the POW/MIA issue. For information on other aspects of U.S.-Vietnam relations and on the current controversy over the attempt by some American former POWs held by the Japanese during World War II to obtain compensation from Japanese corporations, see the " For Additional Reading " section at the end of this report. The following terms are frequently encountered in analyses of the POW/MIA issue: POW (Prisoner Of War): Persons known to be, or to have been, held by the enemy as a live prisoner or last seen under enemy control. MIA (Missing In Action): Persons removed from control of U.S. forces due to enemy action, but not known to either be a prisoner of war or dead. KIA-BNR (Killed In Action-Body Not Recovered): Persons known to have been killed in action, but body or remains not recovered by U.S. forces, such as an aircraft exploding in midair or crashing or a body lost at sea. PFOD (Presumptive Finding Of Death): An administrative finding by the appropriate military service Secretary, after statutory review procedures, that there is no current evidence to indicate that a person previously listed as MIA or POW could still be alive. Unaccounted For : An all-inclusive term—not a legal status—used to indicate Americans initially listed as POW, MIA, KIA-BNR, or PFOD, but about whom no further information is yet known. Names are shifted, usually from the most uncertain status, MIA, to more certain categories, during and after hostilities based on new information, or, in the case of a PFOD, lack of any new information over time that indicates an individual is still living. Statistics on U.S. POWs and MIAs in Vietnam and past wars are often mutually irreconcilable. Tables 1, 2, and 3 , below, as with all such material, are not always compatible in detail, but they do provide some basis for comparison. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong (South Vietnamese Communist; termed the "National Liberation Front") authorities returned 591 POWs to U.S. control within the specified two-month period after the signing of the Vietnam War peace treaty on January 27, 1973. 67 U.S. civilians, not part of the official list of Americans unaccounted for, were trapped or stayed voluntarily after South Vietnam fell in April 1975. All were released by late 1976. Since 1976, some Americans have been imprisoned in Vietnam (almost all for civilian offenses) and eventually released. Most Americans now in Vietnamese prisons for criminal offenses (some of which would be characterized as "political" crimes by the Vietnamese authorities) are naturalized Americans of Vietnamese birth or ancestry. Since 1973, only one U.S. military member has returned alive from Vietnam. Marine Corps PFC Robert Garwood was listed as a POW by U.S. authorities—but never by the Vietnamese—in 1965 and returned voluntarily to the U.S. in 1979. He was convicted of collaboration with the enemy, but his light sentence included no prison term. After the return of the 591 POWs, 2,583 Americans were unaccounted for (not counting civilians trapped in Vietnam after the South fell, or who later visited Vietnam). Identified remains of 768 Americans have been returned from Vietnam (540), Laos (197), Cambodia (28), and China (3) since the war ended on January 27, 1973. Of the 1,815 still listed as unaccounted for as of August 5, 2005, the Department of Defense (DOD) is still actively seeking to account as fully as possible for the 1,148. DOD believes that, based on currently available information and its analysis, it will be unable to ever recover the remains of the other 667. Examples of the latter would include the 468 men lost over water, as stated in the note to Table 3 , which summarizes data on Americans currently unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. Another example would be those crewmen of aircraft that, at the time, were observed by both Vietnamese and Americans to have exploded without any sign of the crew ejecting; and similar situations. Since 1982, the official U.S. position regarding live Americans has been as follows: "Although we have thus far been unable to prove that Americans are still being held against their will, the information available to us precludes ruling out that possibility. Actions to investigate live-sighting reports receive and will continue to receive necessary priority and resources based on the assumption that at least some Americans are still held captive. Should any report prove true, we will take appropriate action to ensure the return of those involved." The Director of the DOD Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO), who also serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs (DASD POW/MIA), provides overall direction and control of DOD POW/MIA matters, both for previous conflicts and the formulation of policies and procedures for future circumstances in which U.S. military personnel could become POWs or MIA. Field activities in Indochina and elsewhere around the world related to POW/MIA accounting is supervised by DOD's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), headquartered in Hawaii. JPAC maintains POW/MIA files, conducts research and interviews in Indochina and elsewhere in Asia with refugees and others, and staffs U.S. POW/MIA operations in Indochina. JPAC's Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii (CIL-HI) identifies returned remains from around the world. (JPAC was formerly called Joint Task Force—Full Accounting, or JTF-FA.) (Some identifications have little or no current foreign policy relevance. World War II-related recovery of remains, or researches, have taken place in Hungary, China, New Guinea, Betio Island in Tarawa atoll in the Pacific, and Libya.) POW/MIA information comes from refugees and other human contacts and assets, physical evidence (such as "dog tags" worn by U.S. military personnel, photographs, and aircraft debris), communications intelligence and aerial reconnaissance, and open sources. According to DOD, between April 1975 (the fall of South Vietnam) and August 5, 2005, 22,677 reports "possibly pertaining to Americans in Southeast Asia" have been acquired by the U.S. government, including 1,976 alleged first-hand sightings. Of the 1,976, fully 1,942 (98.28%) have, according to DPMO, been resolved. More specifically, 67.86% (1,341) correlate with persons since accounted for (i.e., returned live or known dead); another 28.14% (556) have been determined to be fabrications; and 2.28% (45) correlate to wartime (pre-mid-1975) sightings of Americans, either military or civilian. The remaining 34, or 1.72%, involve sightings of Americans in either a captive (31) or non-captive (3) environment, and "represent the focus of DPMO analytical and collection efforts." Of the 34, 24 were reported to have occurred prior to 1976; 4 between 1976 and 1995; and 6 during the period 1996-present. Since 1991, the U.S. has gained substantial access to aircraft crash sites, Vietnamese records, and Vietnamese civilians, and has established a substantial permanent presence of military and civilian personnel. For several years, the Vietnamese have allowed U.S. personnel some access to their government archives and permitted some interviews with senior Vietnamese military leaders from the war. This increased access, however, has not yet led to large numbers of Americans being removed en masse from the rolls of people who are unaccounted for; between 1991 and 2005, the total number has generally dropped by 30-35 cases per year. However, much information or material or information obtained in Vietnam does not assist in remains identification; upon close study it turns out to be redundant, already in U.S. hands, or pertaining to resolved cases.