Vietnam War POW/MIA issue

U.S. service members unfold a U.S. flag over transfer case containing the remains of unidentified U.S. service members in Vietnam, at Hanoi.

The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue concerns the fate of United States servicemen who were reported as missing in action (MIA) during the Vietnam War and associated theaters of operation in Southeast Asia.

Following the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, 591 U.S. prisoners of war (POWs) were returned during Operation Homecoming. Many of those missing were airmen who were shot down over North Vietnam or Laos. Investigations of these incidents have involved determining whether the men involved survived being shot down; if they did not, the U.S. government made efforts to recover their remains. Progress in resolving these cases was slow until the mid-1980s, when relations between the United States and Vietnam began to improve and more cooperative efforts were undertaken. Normalization of the U.S. relations with Vietnam in the mid-1990s was a culmination of this process.

Considerable speculation and investigation have been devoted to a hypothesis that a significant number of missing U.S. service members from the Vietnam War were captured as prisoners of war by communist forces and kept as live prisoners after U.S. involvement in the war concluded in 1973. A vocal group of POW/MIA activists has maintained that there has been a concerted conspiracy by the Vietnamese and U.S. governments since then to hide the existence of these prisoners. The U.S. government has steadfastly denied that prisoners were left behind or that any effort has been made to cover up their existence. Popular culture has reflected the "live prisoners" theory, such as in the 1985 film Rambo: First Blood Part II. Several congressional investigations have looked into the issue, culminating with the largest and most thorough, the United States Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs of 1991–93, which found "no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia."[1]

The fate of those missing in action has always troubled belligerent nations as a consequence of any war.[2] In this case, the issue has a strong emotional charge to those involved, fuelling intense debate.[3][4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference report-exec was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Edkins, Jenny (2011). Missing: Persons and Politics. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. pp. xii, 131ff.
  3. ^ Greenway, H.D.S. (1991-07-21). "Rage, questions continue for families". The Boston Globe.
  4. ^ "Vietnam 15 Years Later". Time. 1990-04-30. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012.