
Napa Sentinel 
April 10, 1992 
By Harry V. Martin 
Seventh in a Series

The U.S. Senate Select Committee on POW/MIAs is preparing to
leave for a trip to Southeast Asia to gather firsthand
evidence for itself.  The Senate Committee has taken reams
of testimony from present and former military leaders - all
indicating that American POWs still remain alive and
captive.

The U.S. Senate Select Committee has also reviewed testimony
of a privately financed mission that went to Southeast Asia
in February to free 10 POWs - at a cost of $200,000 a piece.
 That team met and photographed three A6 pilots held captive
since the early 1970s.  Their mission is being financed by a
wealthy Texan.  The team has until April 27 to retrieve the
POWs - after which the mission may be permanently aborted.

The mission's cover was recently blown by a French
television program.  The team abruptly left their covert
operation in Vietnam and headed back to the United States -
some went directly to Paris.  ABC Television recently
concluded an interview with one of the principles of the
mission - and that individual provided the national TV
network with the names of the operatives - names the
Sentinel has kept secret for two months.  Because of that
disclosure, sources within the Defense Intelligence Agency
have told the Sentinel that the mission is in danger - "Too
many people know about it," they said.

Part of the team has arrived in Hanoi, departing from
Honolulu.  The main mission leader is still in the United
States but is departing soon.  The financial support for the
team is presently waiting in Paris, presumably to release
the millions of dollars necessary to pay for the hostages.
The exchange is expected to take place in France between the
privately-financed operation personnel and representatives
from but Laos and Cambodia.  Dates, times and places of the
exchange are secret.  The team wants to get in and out of
Southeast Asia prior to the visit of the U.S. Senate Select
Committee - but there is a possibility their visit and the
mission may be interlinked.

High ranking officials of the Defense Intelligence Agancy
have indicated that recent Sentinel articles revealing the
mission and also the holding of 12 "POWs" in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, has caused "quite a stir at DOD (Department of
Defense) and Capitol Hill (Congress)."

The Defense Intelligence Agency officials have expressed
major concern over what they see as the "window of
opportunity" closing.  They stated that if the POWs are not
returned soon, they will never come home.  The problem area
appears to be the fact that the United States is heading
toward normalization with Vietnam - and once that occurs the
POWs will vanish and be a forgotten issue.  The Laotians and
Cambodians appear to be cooperating in attempting to get
American POWs out - the Laotians are motivated by money, the
Cambodians want the prestige and accolades of the American
people.  Cambodia has just concluded years of civil war and
needs American aid and friendship during its recovery
stages.

As the Sentinel series has shown, American POWs and MIAs
have been sacrificed in various wars during the 20th century
- all to Communist governments.  Between August 5, 1953 and
September 6, 1953, their was a major swapping of POWs
between Communist China, North Korea and the United States.
"However, U.S. government documents state that the U.S.
government know that nearly 1000 U.S. POWs - and an
undetermined number of some 8000 U.S. MIAs - were still held
captive and were not repatriated at the end of the Korean
War,"  states the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign
Relation's report An Examination of U.S. Policy Toward
POW/MIAs.  On August 8, 1953, the New York Times published
an article which stated, "Gen. James A. Van Fleet, retired
commander of the United States Eight Army in Korea,
estimated tonight that a large percentage of the 8000
American soldiers listed as missing in Korea were still
alive."  A report by the U.N. Combined Command for
Reconnaissance Activity, Korea, stated that U.N. POWs were
transferred to Manchuria and the USSR.  "Many POWs
transferred have been technicians and factory workers.
Other POWs transferred had a knowledge of Cantonese and are
reportedly used for propaganda purposes," the U.N. reports
states.

One consideration the U.S. military had as early as January
1954 -  three months after the exchange of prisoners - was
monetary.  "A further complicating factor in the situation
is that to continue to carry these personnel in a missing
status is costing over one million dollars annually. It may
become necessary at some future date to drop them from our
records as missing and presumed dead," wrote Hugh M. Milton
II, Assistant Secretary of the Army.  These American
fighting men in Korea were dropped just like the American
Expeditionary Force of World War One and the American POWs
of World War Two - it was government expedience.

Perhaps the most shocking revelation about the U.S.
government's attitude toward POWs is found in a confidential
report prepared by the Defense Advisory Committee on
Prisoners of War - an official document of the Department of
Defense.  The report, Recovery of Unrepatriated Prisoners of
War, written on June 8, 1955 - two years after the end of
the Korean War - states, "Such as they are, our current
efforts in the political field, plus the 'stand-by'
alternatives developed by the military, represent the full
range of possible additional efforts to recover personnel
now in custody of foreign powers.  On one hand, we are bound
at present by the President's 'peaceful means' decree.  The
military courses of action apparently cannot be taken
unilaterally, and we are possessed of some rather
'reluctant' allies in this respect.  The problem becomes a
philosophical one.  If we are 'at war', cold, hot or
otherwise, casualties and losses must be expected and
perhaps we must learn to live with this type of thing.  If
we are in for fifty years of peripheral 'fire fights' we may
be forced to adopt a rather cynical attitude on this for
political course of action something like General Erskine
outlined which would (1) instill in the soldier a much more
effective 'don't get captured' attitude, and (2) we should
also push to get the military commander more discretionary
authority to retaliate, fast and hard against these
Communist tactics."

The Soviets denied holding any American POWs from the Korean
War.  As late as April 15, 1991, the U.S. Department of
State had asked the Soviets for an accounting of American
POWs from World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam
War.  The Soviets recently responded by indicating eight
Americans, who died in Soviet hands, had actually fought on
the side of the Communists.

"The sincerity of the State Department's declared intention
to follow 'every credible lead in providing families of U.S.
service members with information about their loved ones' is,
therefore suspect," the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations
Committee reports states.  "One U.S. government document
dated January 21, 1980, a memorandum from MIchael Oksenberg
to Zbigniew Brezinski, the National Security Advisor under
President Carter, reveals the cynical view and attitude of a
least one U.S. government official with regard to the
non-repatriation issue,"  the Senate report states.  "A
letter from you is important to indicate that you take
recent refugee reports of sighting of live Americans
'seriously'.  This is simple good politics; DIA and State
are playing this game, and you should not be the whistle
blower.  The idea is to say that the President (Carter) is
determined to pursue any lead concerning possible live
MIAs."

The Senate states, "The executive branch's disinformation
tactics against concerned mothers and fathers extended to
Congressmen and Senators.  One case is found in a December
21, 1953 letter sent to the Secretary of State from Senate
Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson with regard to a
constituent letter from Mr. Paul Bath of Marshall, Texas,
who wrote to Senator Johnson about a U.S. News and World
Report article titled "Where are 944 Missing GI's?"  The
first reaction of the Secretary of State was to call Johnson
and dispose of the matter by phone, the reports states.
Johnson wanted a written reply and Thurston B. Morton, the
Assistant Secretary of State wrote four drafts.  "On
September 9, the United Nations Command presented to the
Communist representatives on the Military Armistice
Commission a list of approximately 3404 Allied personnel,
including 944 Americans, about whom there was evidence that
they had at one time or another been in Communist custody.
On September 21 the Communists made a reply relative to the
list of names presented, in which they stated that many of
the men on the list had never been captured at all, while
others had already been repatriated." All this was crossed
out, and he finally wrote, "Your constituent may be assured
that is continues to be our determined purpose to obtain the
return of all personnel in Communist custody."

None of these POWs and MIAs from the Korean War ever
returned home.


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