Vietnam MIA's...Dialing For Dollars

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The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency estimates there are more than 1500 MIA's from the Vietnam War. Since 2016 that agency has spent $86 million, but resolved only 25 cases.

Vietnam used to be a French colony so the country has a well developed bureaucracy skilled in producing paperwork. The Vietnamese have plenty of combat after action reports including eyewitness data. Also, the government has documents taken from captured or deceased U.S. personnel. The Vietnam communist government charges the DPAA up to $10,000 for a single relevant document for an individual search. They then restrict digging to 50 centimeter "test pits".

It is suspected that Hanoi still has "warehoused" remains of American POW's and MIA's that are used to "salt" suspected MIA sites Also,. Hanoi runs disinformation operations where they flood U.S, intelligence with fake reports of found "dog tags".

Continued DPAA work is therefore limited by the prohibitive costs imposed by the Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Persons.

Vietnamese officials are allowed access to U.S. military archives at no cost,

 

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THIS IS A VERY SAD SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES.

 

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As always, the troops are trapped in geopolitical imperatives over which they have no control.

The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia observe that the U.S. has done trade deals, favorable tariffs, and military understandings with Vietnam. Vietnam doesn't like China and the U.S. is trying to obtain their cooperation as a bulwark of defense in the neighborhood. The concerns of families of MIA's are a distant secondary consideration.

Even more sinister, MIA advocates say there is substantial intelligence that the Vietnamese government had (and perhaps still has) captured Americans that they failed to return after Operation Homecoming in 1973.

The National League also feels that DPAA has shifted priorities to "all wars" to make up for its' poor showing in Southeast Asia.