06/03/92]

Napa Sentinel April 24, 1992 Copyrighted

Will U.S. sacrifice its POWs for oil, military bases ?
                   Harry Martin
               Eleventh in a series

Retired General John W. Vessey, Jr. former Chief of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff and now de facto Ambassador to Vietnam
on the pOW/MIA issue, supports the contention of retired
General Eugene F. Tighe Jr., and Colonel Millard Peck --
both of whom say there are live POWs in Southeast Asia.
"There is good evidence that there are live prisoners, and
it is in the Vietnamese interest to straighten out their
relations with the United States," Vessey said.

Vietnam is inching toward normalization with the United
States -- but such normalization will not occur until after
the November election and only if President Bush is
reelected. The Bush plan for normalization involves the use
of former U.S. military bases in Vietnam after the United
States leaves its bases in the Philippines. It also involves
massive oil exploration by Mobile Oil. One major stumbling
block to normalization is the pOW/MIA issue. All evidence
indicates that the Bush Administration is making every
effort in it power to assure that POWs do not emerge from
Southeast Asia. Bush continues to claim there are no POWs
alive in Southeast Asia despite the findings of various
Congressional probes, 1500 first-hand sightings, and the
revelations of their own military staff -- in both public or
private. Either Bush, the former head of the CIA during the
Vietnam era, is incredible naive or his underlings are
responsible for one of the greatest cover-ups in recent
American history. When Colonel Peck resigned from the
Defense Intelligence Agency POW/MIA office in 1991, he
called the policy of the United States toward POW/MIAs as a
cover-up. When General Tighe retired, he made the same
comments.

On April 9, 1991, a U.S. State Department official met with
Trinh Xuan Lang, Vietnam's Ambassador to the United Nations.
The meeting took place in New York. The State Department
official presented Land with a blueprint for a new policy
toward Vietnam -- a policy designed to rebuild Vietnam's
collapsed economy and to fully recognize the Communist
government. The plan would officially end U.S. hostility
toward Vietnam. The POWs were not part of the plan. Yet,
two-thirds of the American public still believe that
American POWs are still alive in Southeast Asia, according
to a 1990 Gallup Poll. A 1991 CNN/Time poll indicated that
70 percent of the American people believe American POWs are
still alive in Southeast Asia.

The blueprint ignores the human suffering of POWs and
focuses, instead, on access by U.S. companies to Vietnamese
oil. Vietnam has the potential to produce 1.5 billion to 3
billion barrels of oil, worth an estimated $3 billion a year
for a decade and one-half. If the United States lifts its
1964-imposed embargo on Vietnam within a year, they could
gain lucrative oil contracts. Greedy American oil companies
are pushing hard for normalization of relations between the
United States and Vietnam. Bush's history has been tied to
oil -- including his owning his own oil company.

While the United States is anxious to establish
relationships with Vietnam -- it has been in no hurry to
establish ties with another former enemy, North Korea. It is
believed North Korea still holds 8000 POWs. Vietnam has oil,
North Korea doesn't.

The blueprint calls for the Vietnamese to full cooperate on
the "remaining unsolved last known alive discrepancy case"
-- POWs. The agreement allows Vietnam to receive full
recognition, full access to the World Bank, admission to the
United Nations and favored nation status with the United
States -- but does not force or mandate release of POWs.

According to the American Legion, the blueprint would have
unfortunate consequences for American POW/MIAs.

~ Vietnam is not required to meet any specific condition on
the POW/MIA issue.

~ History shows that the Vietnamese cannot be trusted. The
blueprint heavily relies on Vietnamese honesty.

~ The U.S. government's track record on the POW/MIA issue
isn't much better than the Vietnamese.

The French only repatriated one-third of their MIAs, and the
United States has only repatriated 10 percent of theirs from
Vietnam. The French Army reported 39,888 POWs held by the
VIetnamese - 29,954 were never repatriated. The United
States claimed 5000 POWs were being held by the Vietnamese,
only 591 were returned.

After the Vietnamese claimed they had returned all French
POWs, about 40 French POWs were returned to France long
after the war -- the French government charged those men
with desertion and court-martialed them. When Robert
Garwood, a former U.S. POW, returned after being held
prisoner for 14 years, he was also court-martialed.

On January 21, 1980, National Security Council  advisor
Zbigniew Brezinski wrote a memo to President Jimmy Carter.
"Once again, the NAtional League seeks to meet you. They
have nothing new to say. So I have turned down their
request."

"However, a letter from you is important to indicate that
you take recent refugee reports of sightings of live
Americans 'seriously'. This is simply good policy; DIA and
state are playing this game, and you should not be the
whistle blower. The idea is to say that the President is
determined to pursue any lead concerning possible live MIAs.

"Do not offer an opinion as to whether these leads are
realistic. Apparently you revealed skepticism to Congressman
Gillman, and my recommended letter to the League walks you
back from that."

Captain Red Mcdaniel, a former POW who served as the
Navy/Marine Corps liaison to the HOuse of Representatives,
says that President Richard Nixon and the State Department
had all POWs declared dead on April 12, 1973. "That became
policy -- a flawed policy to deal with Watergate
politically." Nixon states, "For the first time in 12 years,
we can observe Armed Forces Day with all our fighting forces
home from Vietnam and all our courageous prisoners of war
set free and here back home in America." The end of the war
was a diversion from the troubles of Watergate.

Colonel Peck stated when he quit his job, "It appears that
the entire issue is being manipulated by unscrupulous people
in the government, or associated with the government. Some
are using  the issue for personal or political advantage and
other use it as a forum to perform and feel important or
worse. The sad fact, however, is that the issue is being
controlled and a cover-up may be in progress. The entire
charade does not appear to be an honest effort, and may
never have been."

The United States Senate Select Committee on POW/MIAs is
currently in Southeast Asia. It has received strong
testimony virtually proving the existence of POWs being
alive in Southeast Asia. A spokesperson for the Committee
told the SENTINEL that the committee had no intention of
issuing its report or findings until AFTER the Presidential
Elections.

Oil, military bases, and political expediency are more
important to the U.S. government than hundreds of captive
Americans. One retired officer now working with the U.S.
Senate, told the SENTINEL yesterday, "After what I know
about the POWs, I would never serve in the American military
again."

                           (to be continued)

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