Wednesday, March 10, 2004
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Wednesday, March 10, 2004 |
| Collins reports on Vietnam trip WASHINGTON - Congressman Mac Collins spent several days in Vietnam the last week of February seeking access from officials there to archival records about America’s unaccounted for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action service personnel. Collins met with senior Vietnamese government officials and several Vietnam Communist Party Cadre. Collins, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the trip resulted from an opportunity presented by Vietnam’s Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Duc Hung in August, 2003, to return to that Southeastern Asian country to review records of the missing American POW/MIAs (Prisoner of War/Missing in Action). During an Intelligence Committee trip to Southeast Asia in August of 2003, Collins told Vietnamese officials that they have not been forthcoming in opening all of their archival records on the 1,866 Americans still unaccounted for from that conflict. The Vietnamese officials, particularly Deputy Foreign Minister Hung, denied the charge and invited Collins to return to Vietnam and look through the records himself. The congressman accepted the offer. On this trip, Collins met with senior civilian, military and security officials in Hanoi, including Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Minister of Trade Vu Khoan and the Vice Ministers of Defense, Public Security and Foreign Affairs, then traveled to Da Nang, one of the areas of heaviest U.S. military concentration during the Vietnam War, for talks with two senior wartime communist cadre. “We met with an elderly Communist cadre, who was the Secretary of the wartime Vietnamese Communist Party, Region 5 of the command structure, the most senior position in Central Vietnam. He provided us with limited information on the POW-MIA issue, but enough for the U.S. specialists to return for a follow-up interview,” Collins said. “We also talked with a younger communist cadre who served as the Secretary of a District Party Committee during the war who did provide us with information concerning one American soldier reportedly captured alive in 1971. He provided information that can assist in finding the remains of other missing Americans. But public security officials were present during this interview session and I felt that the officer didn’t say all that was on his mind,” Collins said. “With further follow-up in the coming weeks, this individual may reveal additional information to help find our missing service members.” Collins prepared for the trip by working closely with the Department of Defense and the National League of POW-MIA Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Action in Southeast Asia regarding the records of the Americans still missing and unaccounted for in Vietnam. There is serious skepticism here in the U.S. about the degree to which the Vietnamese are being truly forthcoming, particularly in terms of archival records. Collins was aware of the considerable challenges that the Vietnamese government would present both before and during his visit to Vietnam. “I submitted several requests, prior to my trip, to view certain records and interview three Vietnamese wartime communist cadre,” Collins said. “Communist officials granted two of my three war personnel interview requests, a positive action on their part. These were interviews that had been requested as long as 14 years ago by U.S. government officials, but access was never allowed. “The success of this trip will be measured in the future,” Collins added. “Continued dialogue could lead to more information about American MIAs from other Vietnamese military personnel who may now be more inclined to share relevant information as to where our MIAs are located. But, there is no question that they could be more helpful.” Collins admonished the Vietnamese to be more cooperative about the remains of POWs and MIAs. “The Vietnamese have extracted U.S. taxpayer dollars for years and apparently intend to continue doing so,” he said. “I stressed to them that time is of the essence and that the POW-MIA issue needs to be resolved. The Vietnamese need to be held accountable if they want to continue to have American trade opportunities.” According to the Defense Department’s POW/MIA Office, at the end of the Vietnam War, there reportedly were 2,583 unaccounted for American prisoners, either missing or killed in action, or their bodies never recovered. The Paris Peace Accords were signed by the United States and North Vietnam Jan. 27, 1973. Those accords called for a cessation of hostilities and a repatriation of war prisoners and the accounting for the missing within a 60-day timeframe. During that period, 591 American POWs returned home. Both the Nixon administration and the Vietnamese government insisted that all living POW/MIAs had been returned, but in fact there were many Americans last known alive in captivity or alive on the ground and in immediate proximity to capture who did not return. Trade was another issue that arose during Collins’ discussions with Vietnamese officials. “I informed them Americans are tired of ‘free trade’; it is now ‘fair trade,’” he said. Vietnam and the United States restored full diplomatic relations in 1995. The two countries began exchanging Ambassadors in 1997 and normal trade relations ensued. Yet despite repeated assertions during the 1990s that Vietnam was cooperating fully, U.S. expectations on POW-MIA accounting have not been met.
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