Order Code IB92101
CRS Issue Brief for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
POWs and MIAs:
Status and Accounting Issues
Updated October 13, 2004
Robert L. Goldich
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

---

CONTENTS
SUMMARY
MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Areas of Congressional Interest
Definition of Terms
U.S. POWs and MIAs in 20th Century Wars: Statistics
Vietnam War POWs and MIAs
Vietnam POW/MIAs: U.S. Government Policy and Organization
U.S.-Vietnamese Interaction on POW/MIA Issues: Recent Developments
and Issues
U.S. Policy and the Remains Issue
Congress and the POW/MIA Issue, 1993-2004 (FY1994-FY2005)
Vietnam POW/MIAs: Were Americans Left Behind? Are Any Still Alive?
The “Coverup” Issue
Have Americans Remained in Indochina Voluntarily?
Are the Vietnamese, Laotians, or Cambodians Still Holding the Remains of
Dead Americans?
Korean War POWs/MIAs
POWs and MIAs from Cold War Incidents
Post-Cold War POW/MIAs
The Persian Gulf War of 1991 (Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm)
The Speicher Case
The 2003 Iraq War: POW/MIA Matters
World War II POWs and MIAs: Soviet Imprisonment of U.S. POWs Liberated from
the Germans
FOR ADDITIONAL READING
CRS Products

---

IB92101
10-13-04
POWs and MIAs: Status and Accounting Issues
SUMMARY
There has been great controversy about
ber of Americans still listed as unaccounted
U.S. prisoners of war (POWs) and those
for, although this may be due to some U.S.
missing in action (MIAs) during (and in one
policies as well as Vietnamese non-coopera-
case after) the Cold War. While few people
tion.
familiar with the issue feel that any Americans
are still being held against their will in the
There is considerable evidence that
remaining communist countries, more feel that
prisoners from the end of World War II, the
some may have been so held in the past in the
Korean War, and “Cold War shootdowns” of
Soviet Union, China, North Korea, or North
U.S. military aircraft may have been taken to
Vietnam. Similarly, few believe there was a
the USSR and not returned. The evidence
“conspiracy” to cover up live POWs, but few
about POWs from Vietnam being taken to the
would disagree with the statement that there
Soviet Union is more questionable. There is
was, at least during the 1970s and 1980s, U.S.
also evidence that Navy pilot Scott Speicher,
government mismanagement of the issue.
shot down on the first night of the 1991 Per-
sian Gulf War, and until recently listed as
Normalization of relations with Vietnam
“killed in action” rather than “missing in
exacerbated this longstanding debate.
action,” was almost certainly captured by the
Normalization’s supporters contend that
Iraqis. Information about his fate has not yet
Vietnamese cooperation on the POW/MIA
been discovered by U.S. and coalition forces
issue has greatly increased. Opponents argue
in Iraq. All eight American soldiers captured
that cooperation has in fact been much less
by the Iraqis during the war that began March
than supporters say, and that the Vietnamese
19, 2003, and in which “major combat opera-
can only be induced to cooperate by firmness
tions” had ended by May 1, were returned to
rather than conciliation. Those who believe
U.S. control; all others ever listed as MIA
Americans are now held, or were after the war
were redesignated as killed in action due to
ended, feel that even if no specific report of
recovery of their remains. No more Ameri-
live Americans has thus far met rigorous
cans became POWs until April 9, 2004, when
proofs, the mass of information about live
one American soldier was captured by enemy
Americans is compelling. Those who doubt
Iraqi insurgents. There has been no word
live Americans are still held, or were after the
about his fate since his POW status was con-
war ended, argue that despite vast efforts, only
firmed by DOD on April 23; reports of his
one live American military prisoner remained
death that surfaced in late June have not been
in Indochina after the war (a defector who
confirmed. A U.S. Marine who was first
returned in 1979). The U.S. government says
discovered to be missing from his unit on June
the possibility of Americans still being held in
19 was returned to U.S. control in Lebanon in
Indochina cannot be ruled out. Some say
July 8. Allegations that he had deserted rather
Americans may have been kept by the Viet-
than being captured against his will remain
namese after the war but killed later.
unproved (he has denied such allegations), and
Increased U.S. access to Vietnam has not yet
the entire matter is still under investigation by
led to a large reduction en masse in the num-
U.S. military authorities.
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

---

IB92101
10-13-04
MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
On October 6, 2004, the military commander of the Iraq Survey Group testified before
the Senate Armed Services Committee that it had “exhausted all in-country leads regarding
the fate of” Captain Michael Scott Speicher, USN, a Navy pilot shot down on the first night
of the 1991 Persian Gulf War whose fate, including the strong likelihood that he was
captured by the Iraqis, remains unclear. However, the Survey Group commander also stated
that some leads could not be fully investigated due to possible danger from enemy insurgent
action. On October 8, 2005, the FY2005 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) (H.R.
4200, 108th Congress)was reported out of conference. Section 582 of the bill mandates that
Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) staffing and funding levels be
maintained at FY2003 levels, and that GAO study the adequacy of DPMO resources in light
of its mission.
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Areas of Congressional Interest
This issue brief summarizes numbers of U.S. POWs and MIAs lost during the Vietnam
War (1961-1975) and the Korean War (1950-1953), compares these losses to other 20th
century American wars, and describes the POW/MIA investigation and policy process. It
discusses whether some POWs from these wars were not returned to U.S. control when the
wars ended, and whether some may still be alive. Further, it discusses whether Americans
were captured by communist countries during Cold War incidents, or after being liberated
from German POW camps at the end of World War II, and whether any such Americans are
still alive. It also summarizes POW/MIA matters and controversies related to post-Cold War
U.S. military operations, particularly the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the Iraq war that began
on March 19, 2003. Finally, the issue brief describes legislation and congressional oversight
concerning the POW/MIA issue. For information on other aspects of U.S.-Vietnam relations,
and on the current controversy over the attempt by some American former POWs held by the
Japanese during World War II to obtain compensation from Japanese corporations, see the
For Additional Reading section at the end of this issue brief.
Definition of Terms
The following terms are frequently encountered in analyses of the POW/MIA issue:
! POW (Prisoner Of War): Persons known to be, or to have been, held by the
enemy as a live prisoner or last seen under enemy control.
! MIA (Missing In Action): Persons removed from control of U.S. forces due
to enemy action, but not known to either be a prisoner of war or dead.
! KIA-BNR (Killed In Action-Body Not Recovered): Persons known to have
been killed in action, but body or remains not recovered by U.S. forces, such
as an aircraft exploding in midair or crashing or a body lost at sea.
CRS-1

---

IB92101
10-13-04
! PFOD (Presumptive Finding Of Death): An administrative finding by the
appropriate military service Secretary, after statutory review procedures, that
there is no current evidence to indicate that a person previously listed as
MIA or POW could still be alive.
— Unaccounted For: An all-inclusive term — not a legal status — used to indicate
Americans initially listed as POW, MIA, KIA-BNR, or PFOD, but about whom no further
information is yet known.
Names are shifted, usually from the most uncertain status, MIA, to more certain
categories, during and after hostilities, based on new information, or, in the case of a PFOD,
lack of new information over time that indicates an individual is still living.
U.S. POWs and MIAs in
20th Century Wars: Statistics
Statistics on U.S. POWs and MIAs in Vietnam and past wars are often mutually
irreconcilable. The procedures and terminology used for classifying what we would now
refer to as POW, MIA, KIA-BNR, and PFOD were different — or did not exist — for
previous wars. However, data in the following tables provide a basis for some
generalizations. The data in both tables, and that in Table 3, also below, are not necessarily
compatible in detail; such statistical comparisons always include mutually irreconcilable
figures that preclude precise interchangeability of data.
Table 1. U.S. POWs, World War I (1917-1918)
through the Iraq War (2003-Present)
Afghan-
WWI
WWII
Korea Vietnam Persian Somalia Bosnia Kosovo
Iraq
istan
Total
1917-
1941-
1950-
1961
Gulf
1992-
1995-
1999-
2003-
2001-
1918
1945
1953
-1973
1991
1994 Present Present
Present
Present
Captured &
142,233
4,120
130,201
7,140
725
23
1
0
3
0
10
Interned)
Returned to
U.S. Military
125,208
3,973
116,129
4,418
661
23
1
0
3
0
9
Control
Refused
21
0
0
21
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Repatriation
Died while
17,004
147
14,072
2,701
64
0
0
0
0
0
0
POW
Still officially
held by
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1*
enemy forces
Sources: All data except for Iraq from Stenger, Charles A., Ph.D. American Prisoners of War in WWI, WWII, Vietnam,
Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan: Statistical Data Concerning Numbers Captured, Repatriated, and
Still Alive as of January 1, 2003. Prepared for the DVA [Department of Veterans Affairs] Advisory Committee on Prisoners
of War. Mental Health Strategic Care Group, VHA [Veterans Health Administration], [by] the American Ex-Prisoners of War
Association. Iraq data obtained from DOD documents and press releases, and regular press reports.
*Reports of the death of this POW, first listed as missing on April 9 and confirmed as a POW on April 23, have not been
confirmed, he is still listed as captured by U.S. military authorities..
CRS-2

---

IB92101
10-13-04
Table 2. Americans Unaccounted For,
World War I through the Korean War
World War I (1917-18) a
Unidentified remains
1,648
World War II (1941-45) b
Remains not recovered
78,794 c
Korean War (1950-53) d
PFOD
4,735
KIA-BNR
1,107
MIA
24 e
Total Korean War MIA
5,866
Total Korean War Unaccounted For
f
a. Bruce Callender, “The History of Arlington’s Silent Soldiers.” Air Force Times,
June 19, 1984: 23.
b. Source: U.S. Congress, House, Select Committee on Missing Persons in
Southeast Asia. Americans Missing in Southeast Asia, Final Report,
December 13, 1976. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1976 (94th
Congress, 2nd session. H.Rept. 94-1764): 73-74.
c. An estimated 9,000-17,000 were subject to the equivalent of a PFOD. See ibid:
74.
d. Ibid: 75.
e. Still carried as MIA as of Sept. 30, 1954; known to be in Chinese prisons; all
later either released alive or subject to a PFOD.
f. Current DOD statistic; breakdown not available and does not correlate with any
other statistics in Tables 1 and 2. As stated above (note c, Table 1), Korean
War POW/MIA statistics are a mass of inconsistencies. A Rand Corp. study
prepared for DOD itemizes Korean War unaccounted-for Americans
somewhat differently, but along lines that are broadly similar to those stated
here: 8,140 KIA-BNR, of which the deaths of 5,945 were witnessed or
otherwise well-documented, leaving 2,195 whose death cannot be explicitly
established, although many were undoubtedly killed. Cole, Paul M.
POW/MIA Issues: Volume 1, The Korean War. Report no. MR-351/1-USDP.
Santa Monica, CA, National Defense Research Institute, The Rand
Corporation, 1994: xv-xvi.
Vietnam War POWs and MIAs
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong (South Vietnamese Communist; the so-called
“National Liberation Front”) authorities returned 591 POWs to U.S. control within the
specified two-month period after the signing of the Vietnam War peace treaty on January 27,
1973. 67 U.S. civilians, not part of the official list of Americans unaccounted for, were
trapped or stayed voluntarily after South Vietnam fell in April 1975. All were released by
late 1976. Since 1976, some Americans have been imprisoned in Vietnam (almost all for
civilian offenses) and eventually released. Most Americans now in Vietnamese prisons for
criminal offenses (some of which would be characterized as “political” crimes by the
Vietnamese authorities) are naturalized Americans of Vietnamese birth or ancestry. Since
1973, only one U.S. military member has returned alive from Vietnam. Marine Corps PFC
CRS-3

---

IB92101
10-13-04
Robert Garwood was listed as a POW by U.S. authorities — but never by the Vietnamese
— in 1965 and returned voluntarily to the U.S. in 1979. He was convicted of collaboration
with the enemy, but his light sentence included no prison term.
After the return of the 591 POWs, 2,583 Americans were unaccounted for (not counting
civilians trapped in Vietnam after the South fell, or who later visited Vietnam). Identified
remains of 734 Americans have been returned from Vietnam (511), Laos (192), Cambodia
(28), and China (3) since the war ended on January 27, 1973. Of the 1,849 still listed as
unaccounted for, DOD is still actively seeking to recover the remains of 1,186. DOD
believes that, based on currently available information and its analysis, it will be unable to
ever recover the remains of the other 663. Examples of the latter would include the 468 men
lost over water, as stated in the note to Table 3, which summarizes data on Americans
currently unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. Another example would be those crewmen of
aircraft that, at the time, were observed by both Vietnamese and Americans to have exploded
without any sign of the crew ejecting; and similar situations.
Vietnam POW/MIAs: U.S. Government Policy and Organization. Since 1982,
the official U.S. position regarding live Americans has been as follows: “Although we have
thus far been unable to prove that Americans are still being held against their will, the
information available to us precludes ruling out that possibility. Actions to investigate
live-sighting reports receive and will continue to receive necessary priority and resources
based on the assumption that at least some Americans are still held captive. Should any
report prove true, we will take appropriate action to ensure the return of those involved.”
Table 3. Americans Unaccounted for in Southeast Asia
(as of September 23, 2004)
Country of Loss
Service
N. Viet.
S. Viet.
Laos
Cambodia
China
Total
Army
9
459
97
24
0
589
Navy
263
90
19
0
7
379
Marine Corps
22
188
16
8
0
234
Air Force
197
161
237
18
0
613
Coast Guard
0
0
0
0
0
0
Civilians
1
20
8
5
0
34
Total
492
918
377
55
7
1,849
Source: Department of Defense. All U.S. servicemembers are currently listed by DOD as KIA-BNR or, if
formerly listed as a POW or MIA, a PFOD has been made. Until 1994, one POW, a pilot whose capture and
POW status were verified, remained listed as a POW for symbolic reasons. His status was changed to KIA-
BNR at the request of his family. The total of 1,849 personnel includes 468 lost at sea or over water.
CRS-4

---

IB92101
10-13-04
The Director of the DOD Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO), who also
serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs
(DASD POW/MIA), provides overall direction and control of DOD POW/MIA matters,
both for previous conflicts and the formulation of policies and procedures for future
circumstances in which U.S. military personnel could become POWs or MIA. Indochina
activities are supervised by DOD’s Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA),
headquartered in Hawaii, which maintains POW/MIA files, conducts research and interviews
in Indochina and elsewhere in Asia with refugees and others, and staffs U.S. POW/MIA
operations in Indochina. The U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CIL-
HI) identifies returned remains from around the world. The Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA) also has its own POW/MIA-related intelligence organization, established totally
separate from the DPMO at congressional direction.
POW/MIA information comes from refugees and other human contacts and assets,
physical evidence (such as “dog tags” worn by U.S. military personnel, photographs, and
aircraft debris), communications intelligence and aerial reconnaissance, and open sources.
Between the fall of South Vietnam in April 1975 and September 23, 2004, according to
DOD, 22,519 reports “possibly pertaining to Americans in Southeast Asia” have been
acquired by the U.S. government, including 1,956 alleged first-hand sightings. Of the 1,956,
fully 1,942 (99.28%) have, according to DPMO, been resolved. More specifically, 68.56%
(1,341) correlate with persons since accounted for (i.e., returned live or known dead); another
28.43% (556) have been determined to be fabrications; and 2.30% (45) correlate to wartime
(pre-mid 1975) sightings of Americans, either military or civilian. The remaining 14,or
0.72%, involve sightings of Americans in either a captive (13) or non-captive (1)
environment, and “represent the focus of DPMO analytical and collection efforts.” Of the 14,
11 were reported to have occurred prior to 1976; two between 1976 and 1980; and one as
recently as sometime during the period 2001-present.
U.S.-Vietnamese Interaction on POW/MIA Issues: Recent Developments
and Issues. Since 1991, the U.S. has gained substantial access to aircraft crash sites,
Vietnamese records, and Vietnamese civilians, and has established a substantial permanent
presence of military and civilian personnel. For several years, the Vietnamese have allowed
U.S. personnel some access to their government archives and permitted some interviews with
senior Vietnamese military leaders from the war. This increased access, however, has not
yet led to large numbers of Americans being removed en masse from the rolls of people who
are unaccounted for (between September 3, 1991 and September 23, 2004, the total number
dropped by 422, from 2,271 to 1,849, or about 32 per year). Much of the material or
information obtained in Vietnam has turned out to be redundant, already in U.S. hands, or
pertaining to resolved cases. In addition, DPMO has stated that a “Vietnamese Government
disinformation program has been associated with recent reporting on missing Americans.
Those reports all pertain to the alleged recovery of remains and identifying data (i.e., dog
tags) by Vietnamese citizens.” [Cited in recent editions of the Vietnam-Era Unaccounted For
Statistical Report of the DPMO, located at the DPMO website.]
Some involved with the POW/MIA issue argue that Vietnamese cooperation on the
POW/MIA issue has actually been spotty and uneven at best, arguing that the U.S.
government has tended to equate activity with results and resource inputs with true outputs
in terms of the fate of unaccounted-for Americans. They suggest that the true cost of all U.S.
military and diplomatic activities associated with post-Vietnam War POW/MIA-related
CRS-5

---

IB92101
10-13-04
activities is much higher than stated DPMO budget outlays of approximately $15 million
yearly, perhaps as much as $50-100 million yearly. They allege that Vietnam and North
Korea charge extraordinarily high fees for providing support to DPMO/JTF-FA operations,
such as logistical support, aviation costs, food and lodging, and the like, and that the services
received are by no means as lavish as the bills presented indicate.
During June and July of 2004, Assistant Secretary of Defense (POW/Missing Personnel
Affairs) Jerry Jennings and his staff completed two sets of talks with Vietnamese officials,
including the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, which were characterized as resulting in
“clear and concrete positive steps” on POW/MIA matters from the Vietnamese. The latter
agreed to greater access to Vietnamese Defense Ministry archives and discussions with
“senior wartime Vietnamese leaders;” preparations for underwater POW/MIA search and
recovery operations; access to the southern Vietnamese Central Highlands, where many U.S.
military operations took place and which had been previously closed to foreigners due to
“sporadic local unrest” against the Vietnamese Communist government; and participation
in a regional, U.S.hosted Indochinese POW/MIA conference in late July 2004. In return, the
United States furnished Vietnam with “hundreds” of documents related to Vietnamese dead
and missing from the war.
U.S. Policy and the Remains Issue. As noted above, DPMO believes that of the
1,849 Americans listed as unaccounted for as of September 23, 2004, 663 are definitely dead,
and that further investigation could result in no more evidence or remains being found. Such
cases include those resulted from aircraft explosions, drowning, or simple disappearance.
Some believe that the Vietnamese have documentary evidence about the fate of at least some
of them. It appears that concerns over public reaction, more than disagreements on the part
of American analysts that the individuals concerned really are dead, are holding up the
decision to close these cases. The question may be as follows: if evidence other than remains
is not conclusive, what use is it, if no remains are available? However, the number of cases
listed for “No Further Pursuit” DPMO dropped from 659 to 657 in early March 2004,
indicating that, even though DPMO thought that these two individuals would never be able
to be proved as conclusively dead by the identification of remains, such identification was
in fact possible. However, in July 2004, the “No Further Pursuit” category increased to 663,
indicating that even more cases were unresolvable. So the issue remains fluid and uncertain.
Congress and the POW/MIA Issue, 1993-2004 (FY1994-FY2005).
2004 (FY2005) Congressional Action. The conference version of the FY2005
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), H.R. 4200, 108th Congress, reported October
8, 2004, includes a provision (Sec. 582) which would require DOD to maintain the number
of military and civilian personnel in the DPMO at 46 and 69, respectively, and the FY2005
budget at $16.0 million, those levels in effect in FY2003. It also requires the GAO to study
the adequacy of DPMO funding and personnel levels in relation to the missions it has to
perform. This provision appears to have been engendered by congressional concern over
DOD efforts to decrease the resources allocated to the DPMO, both personnel and funding.
This provision essentially incorporates the House version of the bill, with some minor
changes; the Senate version included no similar provision.
2003 (FY2004) Congressional Action. Section 588 of the FY2004 National
Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 108-136, November 24, 2003; 117 Stat. 1392) expressed
CRS-6

---

IB92101
10-13-04
the sense of the Congress that the United States should aggressively pursue the case of MIAs,
with particular reference to Speicher, and authorized a $1 million reward to individuals who
provide information leading to the resolution of the Speicher case and others (see below, “A
Persian Gulf War POW/MIA Case”).
2002 (FY2003) Congressional Action. The FY2003 National Defense
Authorization Act (P.L. 107-314, December 2, 2002; 116 Stat. 2458), included two
provisions related to POW/MIA matters. Section 551 prohibited DOD from reducing
personnel or budget levels of the DPMO (this appears to have resulted from planned
reductions of at least 15% in the size of the DPMO staff as part of a general effort to reduce
headquarters staffs). Section 583 required the Secretary of Defense to submit a
comprehensive report on the Speicher case (see below, “A Persian Gulf War POW/MIA
Case”) to Congress within 60 days after the bill became law.
1993-2001 (FY1994-FY2002) Congressional Action. From 1993 through 1997
(FY1994-FY1998 legislation), the annual defense authorization bill included POW/MIA-
related sections with considerable policy significance and, frequently, political controversy.
However, during 1998-2001 (FY1999-FY2002 legislation), Congress arguably “took a
breather” on POW/MIA matters. None of the National Defense Authorization or Intelligence
Authorization Acts of the latter period contained significant POW/MIA-related provisions
or report language with broad policy implications.
Vietnam POW/MIAs: Were Americans Left Behind? Are Any Still Alive?
Those who believe Americans are still held, or were held after the war ended, feel that even
if no specific report has thus far been proved, the numbers unaccounted for, and the
cumulative mass of information about live Americans is compelling. Frequently, people
holding this view suggest that throughout the 1970s, in the bitter and sour aftermath of the
Vietnam War, there was a lack of will in the government, which reflected that of the country
as a whole, to continue investigating the POW/MIA issue. They posit that this contributed
to “a mindset to debunk” reports of live Americans, as well as a desire on the part of
successive Administrations to wash their hands of the issue.
Those who doubt Americans are still held, or were when the war ended, argue that
despite numerous reports, exhaustive interrogations, and formidable technical means used
by U.S. intelligence agencies, no report of an unaccounted-for live American (with the
exception of Garwood) has been validated as to who, when, and where the individual is or
was. They believe that much of the “evidence” cited relates to already accounted-for
Americans, wishful thinking, or fabrication.
Most U.S. government analysts, many of whom have worked on the issue for several
decades and have access to the huge amounts of information that the intelligence community
and other agencies have amassed on POW/MIA matters, have come to believe that it is
extremely unlikely that the North Vietnamese kept U.S. prisoners after the end of the war,
or transferred any to the USSR. They appear to appreciate the repressive nature of
totalitarian communist regimes — that the Vietnamese could have opted to keep some
Americans. They just feel that their examination of the evidence indicates that they did not.
Significantly, the progressively increasing penetration of Vietnam by a large American
official presence (JTF-FA and full diplomatic representation), as well as commercial
interests, American tourists, and many Europeans, has failed to disclose any indications that
CRS-7

---

IB92101
10-13-04
American POWs were kept behind in the early 1970s, let alone are still being held. It would
seem unlikely that a secret of such magnitude could have continued to be concealed
throughout the 1990s and into this decade, as thousands of Americans have visited Vietnam
and some have taken up extended residence there.
The “Coverup” Issue. Some say the U.S. government has engaged in a “coverup”
of evidence about live Americans still being held in Indochina; they attach greater credence
to some sources than does the government, and suggest that the criteria set by the
government for validating reports of live Americans are unreasonably, and perhaps
deliberately, high. The government responds by stating that such assertions are based on data
that is inaccurate or fraudulent. It also asserts that numerous investigations have cleared
DIA of coverup charges and that the ability to maintain a coverup strains credulity in an era
of press leaks and openness. Since 1982, it has been U.S. policy to provide intelligence to
families of unaccounted-for Americans that pertains or may pertain to their missing men.
Have Americans Remained in Indochina Voluntarily? Some Americans
stayed in Indochina voluntarily, Garwood being the best known. Another, Army PFC
McKinley Nolan, defected to the Viet Cong in 1967 and was killed by the Khmer Rouge
(Cambodian communists) in 1975 or 1976. Ideology, collaboration with the enemy and a
fear of punishment upon return to the U.S., personal problems, a home, a local wife and
children, “brainwashing” by captors, or a combination of these factors, all could have played
a role in other Americans remaining in Indochina voluntarily. The Vietnamese have always
left room for such by denying Americans are living in areas “under their control.” In
addition, the U.S. government policy cited above on live Americans is careful to refer to
“Americans ... still being held against their will.”
Are the Vietnamese, Laotians, or Cambodians Still Holding the Remains
of Dead Americans? Few question the proposition that for many years the Vietnamese
had a stockpile from which they released remains as they saw fit. The DPMO believes that
this stockpile may have been exhausted by August 1990; after that month, none of the
returned remains identified as Americans had the chemical characteristics that would indicate
prolonged storage. Whether the Vietnamese hold other remains that, for whatever reason,
they have not returned is not known. In general, while the intelligence community is
convinced that a stockpile did exist, there is no consensus on more specific characteristics
of this stockpile. Vietnamese officials say they have provided detailed records to the U.S.
that we have not released. Others suggest the Vietnamese have not released remains that
would indicate mistreatment of POWs and/or that some were alive when the war ended but
died in Vietnamese custody thereafter (although such mistreatment is well known).
The large number of Americans lost in or over Laos, the number of known discrepancy
cases, and the few Americans returned who had been captured in Laos suggest that the
Laotians know more about the fate of unaccounted-for Americans than they have yet stated.
On the other hand, most Lao governments, communist or not, have exercised little control
over large parts of their country, due to Vietnamese occupation and their own lack of
resources. This suggests the Laotians may not have the ability to provide many answers
about missing Americans, and such answers may be better found from the Vietnamese. Laos
is, however, one area where searches of aircraft crash sites have resulted in the recent
identification of some unaccounted-for Americans. Until 1990, U.S. efforts to obtain
Cambodian cooperation met with no response. However, during 1990-1992, U.S. personnel
CRS-8

---

IB92101
10-13-04
received 11 sets of remains at Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital; four have been identified
as American. In addition, the remains of several Americans who were unaccounted for after
the operations connected with the recovery of the ship Mayaguez in Cambodian waters in
May 1975, shortly after the fall of South Vietnam, have been identified.
In June 2004, Assistant Secretary of Defense (POW/Missing Personnel Affairs) Jerry
Jennings conducted two days of talks with Laotian and Cambodian officials that were
announced as leading to increased cooperation on POW/MIA matters. These are planned to
include increased access to material in Laotian archives and increased participation by both
Laos and Cambodia in regional Indochinese POW/MIA consultations and exchanges of
information.
Korean War POWs/MIAs
Since the Korean War ended in 1953, there have been rumors Americans captured by
the North Koreans or Chinese were, or still are, held against their will in North Korea, China,
or Russia/the former USSR. There is little doubt that the communist powers involved in the
war have withheld much information on POW/MIA from the United States, probably much
more by the North Koreans and Chinese than Russia.
DPMO states that although there is no first-hand, direct evidence of Korean War POWs
being transferred to the Soviet Union, the cumulative weight of circumstantial evidence is
so compelling that they believe that at least small numbers of Americans were in fact so
transferred. There are indications that some sightings of Caucasians by foreign nationals in
North Korea may be of American soldiers who defected to North Korea in the post-Korean
War era. At least four such Americans who defected in the 1950s or1960s are known to be
alive. In recent years, an issue regarding one such defector has arisen involving not only
North Korea and the United States, but Japan. The Japanese wife — herself kidnapped by
North Korean agents many years ago — of a U.S. Army deserter who defected to the North
in 1965 was recently returned to Japan. She, and the Japanese government, requested that
the United States allow the deserter, Charles Robert Jenkins, to leave North Korea with the
couple’s two children, and join his wife in Japan, without prosecuting him for desertion.
Jenkins was allowed to leave North Korea on July 9 for Indonesia and thence to Japan. Since
July 15 he has been hospitalized in Tokyo. The U.S. government has not yet stated what
action, if any, it plans to take regarding Jenkins. In mid-August 2004, both Jenkins and
another U.S. soldier who was still living in North Korea after defecting in 1962 confirmed
that two other U.S. soldiers who defected in 1962 and 1963 had since died of natural causes.1
Some U.S. POWs were not released by China until 1955, two years after the war ended.
Two civilian CIA aircrew members shot down over North Korea during the war, in 1952,
were imprisoned for 20 years and not released until 1972. Declassified U.S. documents
indicate that the U.S. government maintained an intensive interest in live POWs from the
Korean War throughout the 1950s. The documents are more explicit than anything yet
1 Hoo, Stephanie. “British film crew finds 1962 U.S. defector in N. Korea,” Army Times.com, Aug.
16, 2004, downloaded Aug. 17, 2004; “Two former soldiers died in N. Korea, Jenkins says,” Army
Times.com, Aug. 11, 2004, downloaded Aug. 12, 2003.
CRS-9

---

IB92101
10-13-04
released regarding the Vietnam War. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the Soviets, Chinese,
and North Koreans maintained labor camps containing millions of political prisoners. The
end of the Korean War in 1953 was followed by intensely bitter relations between the U.S.,
the North Koreans, and the Chinese. This suggests that the two communist enemies of the
United States during the Korean War, as well as a Stalinist Soviet Union, were inclined to
hold live Americans — perhaps more so than Vietnam in the 1970s.
During the mid-1950s, the U.S. demanded the North Koreans and Chinese account for
missing Americans. After 1955, due to the lack of response by the communists (except for
the return of 1,868 remains in 1954), the issue abated, although the United States periodically
raised the issue. In 1957, House Foreign Affairs Committee hearings on the Korean MIA
issue aired frustrations similar to those raised since 1973 on Indochina MIAs. Although the
issue of Korean MIAs began to get more attention in the early 1980s, concrete results of
contact with the North Koreans were minimal until 1996. Between mid-1996 and mid-1997,
negotiations took place in which United States and North Korea agreed on parameters for
conducting field investigations and archival research for U.S. MIAs. Since 1996, U.S.
personnel have completed 27 visits to North Korea that have resulted in some additional
information and the return of 190 remains, of which 14 have been identified positively as
Americans.
In November 2003, U.S. and North Korean negotiators, meeting in Bangkok, Thailand,
concluded discussions arranging for five further joint recovery operations on North Korean
soil to be held in 2004. On February 12, 2004, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced
that agreement had been reached with North Korea, in negotiations held in Bangkok,
Thailand, “to improve markedly several areas of cooperation in operations to recover the
remains of American soldiers missing in action from the Korean War.” These areas related
primarily to logistical support and administration of the search operations [in particular,
remains and supplies will be allowed to move across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
separating the two Koreas, rather than having to move by air], and the issue of live
Americans remaining in North Korea. Therefore, the first 2004 joint recovery operations,
which began in April , took place amidst an improved climate of cooperation with the North
Koreans. On July 1, remains, believed to be those of an American soldier missing in action
near the Changjin Reservoir in North Korea since December 1950, were returned to U.S.
control.
There has been some controversy about the payments the U.S. has made to North Korea
for POW/MIA-related search activity. Since 1993, DPMO has paid North Korea about $15
million for recovery operations; “as with joint recovery operations in Vietnam, Laos, and
other countries, the payments are calculated by negotiating the compensation provided for
the workers, materials, facilities, and equipment provided by” the North Koreans. Payment
is made in cash, literally, containers of U.S. paper currency, throughout the year, as the joint
recovery operations take place. Some have alleged that the sums are a form of disguised
subsidy and provide little benefit, in terms of remains found, for the amount North Korea
charges, although it may be that the extremely austere conditions in North Korea make any
sort of operations there difficult and expensive by American standards.
For further information, see CRS Report RL31785, U.S. Assistance to North Korea.
CRS-10

---

IB92101
10-13-04
POWs and MIAs from Cold War Incidents
During the Cold War (1946-1991), some U.S. military aircraft were shot down by the
USSR, Eastern European countries, China, and North Korea. Some of these aircraft were
performing intelligence missions near or actually inside Soviet airspace; others were
definitely in international airspace and/or were not involved in intelligence operations.
While virtually all such aircraft losses were acknowledged at the time, often with
considerable publicity, their intelligence functions were not.
Between 1946 and 1977, according to a DOD list released in 1992, there were at least
38 such incidents and one involving a ship (the seizure of the U.S.S. Pueblo, by the North
Koreans in early 1968). Of the 364 crewmembers, 187 were eventually returned to U.S.
custody, the remains of 34 were recovered, 11 were known to be dead from eyewitness
reports but remains were not recovered, and 132 were “not recovered, fate unknown.” In
1956, the U.S. asked the USSR about the crews of two aircraft shot down by Soviet forces
in 1950 and 1952, citing intelligence reports (apparently obtained from German and Japanese
POWs from World War II, several hundred thousands of whom were not released by the
Soviets until 1954-1955) that some crewmembers of these aircraft had been seen and spoken
to in Soviet concentration camps.
After the Cold War ended in 1989-1991, the United States began to receive substantial
Russian cooperation about Soviet involvements in Cold War shootdowns. In addition to
voluminous archival materials, some remains have been recovered. The first were returned
to U.S. control in 1994, when U.S. and Russian investigators found the remains of a U.S.
officer who had been a crewmember of a U.S. plane shot down by the Soviets while
performing an intelligence mission near Soviet territory in 1952. In September 1998,
remains from a U.S. plane shot down by the Soviets over Armenia in 1958 were buried in
Arlington National Cemetery; some had been returned in 1958, and others had been gathered
during U.S. POW/MIA recovery operations in Armenia in 1993. However, there is little
doubt that the Russians have not released all available information, due to varying levels of
obstructionism by Russian officials still sympathetic to communism and the former Soviet
Union.
A second type of “Cold War incident” involves kidnapping of U.S. personnel in or near
Soviet-occupied territory in Europe after the end of World War II, by Soviet intelligence
agents. Some were allegedly identified as Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s by
German POWs who were kept by the Soviets until 1954-1955. Most, however, were
defectors, or had wandered into Soviet-occupied areas for nonpolitical reasons (romantic
entanglements, drunkenness, and the like). The full story of such kidnappings may well not
have been told and may never be. DPMO staff is aware of some such kidnappings, but has
not yet acquired any evidence that these were permanent abductions. There is no question
that numerous West Germans were kidnapped by Soviet and East German intelligence
agencies in the late 1940s and early and mid-1950s.2
2 See Smith, Arthur L., Jr. Kidnap City: Cold War Berlin. Westport, CN, Greenwood Press, 2002.
CRS-11

---

IB92101
10-13-04
Post-Cold War POW/MIAs
The Iraq war that began on March 19, 2003, provides the most recent illustration that
the POW/MIA issue is not merely one of historical interest. Congressional concerns over
Americans unaccounted for during the Cold War have been an integral component of the
discussion about how to account for Americans missing or captured since then. The largest
conflicts since the Cold War began to end in 1989 were the two wars with Iraq.
The Persian Gulf War of 1991 (Operations Desert Shield and Desert
Storm)
A total of 49 American military personnel were initially listed as missing in action
during the Persian Gulf War. Of these, 23 were captured by the Iraqis and released after the
war ended, the remains of 13 were recovered, and another 13 were eventually determined to
be KIA-BNR. However, the status of one of the latter 13 was changed back to MIA in
January 2001, based on evidence that he may have survived and been captured, as discussed
below.
The Speicher Case. On January 10, 2001, the Navy changed the status of Lt. Cdr.
Michael Scott Speicher from KIA to MIA. Speicher was the first U.S. pilot shot down
during the Persian Gulf War, on the night of January 17, 1991. His body was never
recovered. There is no doubt his aircraft was shot down and crashed in Iraq about 150 miles
southwest of Baghdad. Issues include the lack of remains, resultant questions about whether
he was in fact killed upon impact, and some evidence, from a variety of sources, that he was
taken prisoner by the Iraqis when in relatively good physical condition.
A joint DOD/CIA report prepared at the request of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, and first publicized in 2001, stated that “We assess that Iraq can account for
LCDR Speicher but that Baghdad is concealing information about his fate. LCDR Speicher
probably survived the loss of his aircraft, and if he survived, he almost certainly was
captured by the Iraqis” (CRS italics). The report did not explicitly address the likelihood of
his still being alive and imprisoned by Iraq at the time the report was completed. It merely
suggested the strong possibility that he could have survived the crash of his aircraft and been
captured alive at that time. It also stated that technical analysis of many of the objects found
at the crash site, as well as the site itself, indicates that the Iraqis had been at the site,
recovered a great many things, and then returned to “plant” some of them, including the
flight suit, in an attempt to mislead U.S. investigations.
Since early 2002, coverage of the Speicher case in the media has been steadily
increasing, which has raised its profile among the American public and Congress. The
FY2003 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 107-314, December 2, 2002; 116 Stat.
2458) required the Secretary of Defense to begin submitting periodic reports on the Speicher
case to Congress within 90 days after the bill becomes law. DIA has stated that, as with
Vietnam War reports about live Americans, it has been receiving such accounts about
Speicher several times a year. In addition, as noted above, the FY2004 National Defense
Authorization Act contains a provision, and accompanying report language, expressing the
sense of the Congress to aggressively pursue the case of MIAs, with particular reference to
Speicher, and authorizes a $1 million reward to individuals who provide information leading
CRS-12

---

IB92101
10-13-04
to the resolution of the Speicher case and others. Significantly, the occupation of Iraq by
U.S. and other coalition forces since March 2003, has not, so far, led to more substantive
information about the Speicher case. Press reports indicate that various prewar aspects of
the case, which U.S. intelligence organizations have pursued since the occupation of Iraq
began, have provided no significant leads on Speicher’s fate.3 The Iraq Survey Group headed
by Charles Duelfer, whose primary mission was to investigate the issue of weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) in Iraq and recently reported to the Congress on its findings, also
investigated the Speicher case. On October 6, 2004, the military commander of the Iraq
Survey Group testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that “the Speicher team
exhausted all in-country leads regarding the fate of Captain Speicher.” However, he also
stated that some leads could not be pursued due to the security threat to team operations
posed by the Iraqi insurgency.4
The 2003 Iraq War: POW/MIA Matters
On April 13, 2003, the seven remaining American soldiers known to have been captured
by the Iraqis since the war began on March 19 were recovered by U.S. troops. An eighth was
rescued by U.S. special operations forces on April 1 (this was the widely reported case of
Army PFC Jessica Lynch). A maximum of 21 U.S. military personnel were listed as MIA
during the initial stages of the war. On April 28, 2003, DOD announced that the remains of
the last remaining American listed as MIA at that time had been positively identified. There
was clearly some mistreatment and abuse of the POWs, but it is not yet clear if it was as
systematic and brutal as the torture inflicted on virtually all U.S. and Coalition POWs by Iraq
during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. It was reported, shortly after their recovery in April 2003,
that the bodies of five American soldiers, and Iraqi TV images of the bodies of two British
soldiers, suggested that they had been killed after capture. However, there has been no
further discussion of this issue in the public press since the spring of 2003.
On April 9, 2004, an American soldier was captured by Iraqi insurgents. He is the first
prisoner taken by the enemy in Iraq since the eight captured in the early part of the war were
liberated by U.S. forces in April 2003. Although there were rumors in late June that he had
been killed, these reports were not confirmed and have since died down; U.S. officials say
they have no reason to think he is not still a POW.
On June 19, a U.S. Marine of Lebanese extraction was determined to be absent from his
unit in Iraq; he was declared missing on June 21 and classified a POW on June 28. There
has been some speculation that he deserted (and was turned over to enemy forces by Iraqis
who helped him desert and promised to assist him in traveling to relatives in Lebanon), but
there has been no official statement to this effect. On July 9, he turned up at the U.S.
Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, denied that he had deserted, and stated that he had in fact been
taken prisoner and held against his will. He was later taken to U.S. military hospital facilities
3 See, for example, Scarborough, Rowan. “U.S. team concludes Navy pilot died in Gulf war,”
Washington Times, July 22, 2004: A3.
4 “No Clues to Fate of Missing Pilot,” AP Story downloaded from
[http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_pilot_100704.00html?ESRC=eb.nl] on October
8, 2004. This is an unofficial, commercial military news website oriented toward concerns of
military personnel.
CRS-13

---

IB92101
10-13-04
in Germany and then returned to the United States. He has since been released from
hospitalization and is assigned to and working at a Marine Corps base in the United States.
The results of investigations as to the exact circumstances surrounding his absence have not
been publicly released, or even speculated on by the press to any appreciable extent, since
he was returned to U.S. custody on July 9.
World War II POWs and MIAs: Soviet Imprisonment of
U.S. POWs Liberated from the Germans
There are allegations that the USSR failed to repatriate up to 25,000 American POWs
liberated from the Germans after World War II ended in Europe on May 8, 1945. This
appears to have no foundation in fact and results in large part from an apparent lack of rigor
and care in analyzing the issue. Archival research in the United States and Russia, combined
with interviews in Russia, appears to establish conclusively that virtually all such prisoners
were returned. In addition, the large flow of information on Soviet concentration camps of
the Stalin era, beginning in the early 1960s, both in writing and from emigre accounts, has
provided no indication of mass imprisonment of Americans.
Some U.S. citizens of German birth who served in the German armed forces or lived
in Germany were taken prisoner by the Red Army as it advanced into Central Europe; in
addition, the Soviet secret police singled out Americans with German, Russian, or Jewish
names for special attention. Both figures are consonant with other knowledge of the arbitrary
and brutal nature of the Stalinist USSR. Accounts of U.S. dealings with the USSR during
and immediately after World War II on the POW issue are replete with accounts of Soviet
obfuscation, truculence, and reluctant cooperation. The Joint U.S.-Russian Commission on
POWs/MIAs investigating these issues has obtained a good deal of information. However,
as was noted above in the section on Cold War shootdowns and similar incidents, there has
been considerable hesitancy and obstruction of the Commission’s work by officials still
sympathetic to communism and the former Soviet regime. See also the DPMO website
[http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/special/gulag_study.htm].
On April 13, 2004, U.S. and Russian historians and archivists began a three-day meeting
at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, MD, with the stated
purpose of improving U.S.-Russian cooperation in using those archives to obtain information
about any U.S. military personnel removed to the former Soviet Union during the Cold War
(1946-1991). “The conference will examine issues of declassification of military and
political documents; technical aids to improve the operation of a modern [Russian] archive;
Korean and Vietnam War documents held in Russian archives; and other issues of
importance to the American effort to account for missing U.S. servicemen.”5 These meetings
were followed by talks held during September 20-22, 2004, between Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense (POW/Missing Personnel Affairs) Jerry Jennings and Russian officials
in Moscow regarding U.S.-Russian cooperation on POW-related matters of both countries.
This latter meeting, while having no negative connotations whatsoever, seems to have been
5 U.S. POW/MIA Office Hosts Russian Archivists. Department of Defense News Release 311-04.
April 12, 2004.
CRS-14

---

IB92101
10-13-04
more of a routine affair than one designed to announce major new initiatives in U.S.-Russian
POW/MIA cooperation.
FOR ADDITIONAL READING
Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office. Extensive statistical breakdowns, lists of
individuals, and studies and analyses on POW/MIA matters from World War II to the
present. [http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo]
Keating, Susan Katz. Prisoners of Hope. New York, Random House, 1994. 276 p.
Nenninger, Timothy K. “United States Prisoners of War and the Red Army, 1944-45: Myths
and Realities.” The Journal of Military History, July 2002: 761-82.
Swift, Earl. Where They Lay: Searching for America’s Lost Soldiers. Boston, Houghton
Mifflin Co., 2003. 307 p.
U.S. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. POW/MIA’s. Report.
January 13, 1993. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1993 (103rd Congress, 1st
session. S.Rept. 103-1). 1223 p.
Yarsinske, Amy Waters. No One Left Behind: The Lt. Comdr. Michael Scott Speicher Story.
New York, Dutton/Penguin Putnam, Inc., July 2002. 292 p.
CRS Products
CRS Report RL30606. U.S. Prisoners of War and Civilian American Citizens Captured and
Interned by Japan in World War II: The Issue of Compensation by Japan.
CRS Issue Brief IB98033. The Vietnam-U.S. Normalization Process.
CRS-15

---