MIAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85M00364R002003820036-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 6, 2008
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: January 19, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2008/05/06: CIA-RDP85M00364R002003820036-1
MIC 515-83
National Intelligence Council
19 January 1983
MFMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
THROUGH Chairman, National Intelligence Councill~
Assistant NIO for East Asia
1. Your memorandum of 15 January asked for details on 465 eyewitness
claims cited in a "USA Today" article.
2. A full accounting is attached. The key sentence is;
"To date there has been no information to confirm any of the
sightings."
3. As you may recall, the US in 1980 and 1981 raised with the PRC
our interest in
information on MIAs. The Chinese never responded. Presumably for this
reason, Secretary Shultz is not planning to initiate discussion of MIAs
with the Chinese. (I have confirmed this with State.)
DIA review completed.
SECRET
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 Approved For Release 2008/05/06: CIA-RDP85M00364R002003820036-1
MEMORANDUM FOR: Assistant National Intelligence Officer for
East Asia
SUBJECT : MIA Eyewitness Reports
1. Reference, 12 January 1983 USA Today article
entitled "Group to Fight MIA Missions."
2. Official figures for MIA's are unclassified. DIA,
which has the primary responsibility for accounting for the
missing servicemen, holds 2,494 as unaccounted for. There
are 478 first hand live sightings (the USA Today figure of
465 was probably accurate when the information was
collected). Of these live sightings, more than half or 258
have been resolved. (186 ((38%)) were determined to be
sightings of accounted for individuals, e.g. persons known
to have remained in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon or
persons such as , (61 ((12%)) were tentative
correlations to accounted for individuals), and (11 ((2%))
were definitively determined to be fabrications. 220 cases
(46%) remain unresolved, and DIA considers them to be open
cases. Some are as thin as a sighting of a Caucasian
passing in a truck and it will be difficult, if not
impossible to ever track such information. To date there
has been no information to confirm any of the sightings.
3. DIA collates all MIA data and interviews all
available sources both in the United S atps and nvPrcPac
In reso ving cases, DIA applies strict criteria 25X1
which account for the large number of "unresolved cases."
5. DIA this month forwarded an unresolved case to CIA
for assistance. The case is unique in that the US resident
alien (ethnic Lao) has twice passed the DIA-administered
25X1
LZDAI
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polygraph concerning his belief that he saw US Servicemen in
1977. (Inexplicably the Lao refugee did not pass other,
areas of the polygraph, notably his personal history).
DIA continues to investigate the other
unresolved cases, none of which seems promising.
Approved For Release 2008/05/06: CIA-RDP85M00364R002003820036-1