LETTER TO WILLIAM J. CASEY FROM STEPHEN J. SOLARZ

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88G00186R000901180006-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: June 7, 1985
• Content Type: LETTER

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11 June 1985
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GPO: 1983 0 - 181-529 (232) FFMR (41 CFR) 101-11.206
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Remarks To 13: P1 s have response prepared for DCI
signature. Also, this letter should be shared with
DoD 1tfIAT liaison - their views should be solicited
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OANTE B FASCELL, FLORIDA, CHAIRMAN
LEE H HAMILTON, INDIANA WILLIAM S. BROOMFIELD, MICHIGAN
GUS YAIRON, PENNSYLVANIA
STEPHEN J SOLARZ. New YORK
DON BONKER. WASHINGTON
EGERRY E. STUDDS. MASSACHUSETTS
DAN MICA, FLORIDA
MICHAEL D BARNES. MARYLAND
HOWARD WOLPE. MICHIGAN
GEO. W CROCKETT, JR., MICHIGAN
SAM GEJDENSON. CONNECTICUT
MERVYN U. DYMALLY. CALIFORNIA
TOM LANTOS, CALIFORNIA
PETER H. KOSTMAYER. PENNSYLVANIA
ROBERT G. IORRICELLL, New JERKEY
LAWRENCE J. SMITH, FLORIDA
HOWARD L BERMAN. CALIFORNIA
HARRY REID, NEVADA
MEL LEVINE, CAUFORNIA
EDWARD F FEIGHAN. OHIO
TED WEISS. New YORK
GARY L ACKERMAN. New YORK
BUDDY MACKAY. FLORIDA
MORRIS K. UDALL ARIZONA
ROBERT GARCIA, NEW YORK
BENJAMIN A GILMAN, NEW YORK
ROBERT J LAGOMARSINO. CALIFORNIA
JIM LEACH. IOWA
TOBY ROTH. WISCONSIN
OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, MAINE
HENRY J. HYDE, ILLINOIS
GERALD B.M. SOLOMON. New YORK
DOUG BEREUTER. NEBRASKA
MARK D SILJANDER. MICHIGAN
ED ZSCHAU, CALIFORNIA
ROBERT K. DORNAN. CALIFORNIA
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New JERSEY
CONNIE-MACK. FLORIDA
MICHAEL DEWINE, OHIO
DAN BURTON, INDIANA
JOHN MCCAIN. ARIZONA
JOHN J. BRADY, JR.
CHIEF Of STAFF
Mr. William J. Casey
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs,
which has jursidiction over POW/MIA issues, I read with great interest
the attached April 24, 1985 Wall Street Journal article.
I was particularly disturbed by the author's claims that "there
is reason to believe that the CIA knows for a fact that Americans are
still being held against their will", and that in a private letter
shown to him, "a CIA expert on Laos says the U.S. goventrment already
has a list of 25 or so missing Americans who are living today in
Laos". He states further that, according to the CIA official's letter,
"Americans are now working for the enemy, fairly openly and married to
local women with children in most cases". According to the article,
this official's information was derived from former South Vietnamese
military officers.
The information in the article fundamentally contradicts
conclusions presented to me by the DIA and CIA in the many public
hearings and private briefings I have attended. DIA officials have
given me the impression that while many live sightings of Americans in
Indochina have been reported, none have been confirmed.
In an effort to get to the bottom of this apparent contradiction,
I have contacted the author, Mr. Bill Paul, and have asked him to turn
his information over to the Subcommittee. Thus far, he has not been
cooperative. I am considering the possibility of subpoenaing Mr. Paul
to testify under oath before the Subcommittee and possiblity citing
him for contempt of Congress should he refuse to share his infomation.
Before I do so, I would appreciate your comments on the alleged
list of Americans. Have you seen such a list? Do you know whether it
exists? Do you have information that Americans are still being held in
Southeast Asia? What would your opinion be if the Subcommittee
subpoenaed, Mr. Paul refused to divulge his source and the Forei
Affairs Commitee voted to cite Mr. Paul for contempt of Congres
Mr. Paul has made a serious claim--one that merits our immediate'
attention. If his information is accurate, it means that there are
1
1991
Congress of the 'United Zt-a-tes
Committee on , orti n affairsi
douse of Representaabes
Washington, ABC 20515 -
June 7, 1985
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living Americans, some of whom may be held there against their will,
still in Vietnam. Our obligation, as I see it, is to do everything we
can to find out the truth--so we can determine how best to fulfill our
responsibility to the men who fought for our country but who are still
missing-in-action ten years after the end of the war in Indochina.
I would appreciate receiving your comments.
Subcommit-t_e~on Asian and
Pacific Affairs
irma
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POWs Won't Be F(
As soon as a White House reception last
December for new Republican congress-
men was thrown open to questions, Califor
nia._Rep. _Robert_Dornan-leaped to his
feet.
Mr. Doman begged President Reagan
to intensify government efforts to ascer-
tain whether U.S. prisoners are still being
held by Vietnam. Mr. Reagan responded,
as Mr. Doman recalls, that every time the
U.S. pursues a lead on POWs, It turns out
to be a dead end.
That is what the president has been told
by his advisers-most recently at a brief-
ing he was given by Defense Intelligence
Agency officials just days after Rep. Dor-
nan's outburst.
But critics of the government's efforts
to investigate reports of POWs-notably
Mr. Doman's fellow conservative Republi-
cans, North Carolina Rep. William Hendon
and former New York Rep. John LeBoutil-
lier-have repeatedly charged that the
president is getting bad information and
the U.S. effort to account for its nearly 2,-
500 men still missing in Southeast Asia is
seriously flawed.
'Disclaiming Good Reports'
The critics appear to be right. There is
reason to believe that the Central Intelli-
gence Agency knows for a fact that Ameri-
cans are still being held against their will.
There also is reason to believe that mili-
tary analysts have squandered some prom-
ising leads, leads that, if they had been
properly pursued, might by now have
proved the continued presence of U.S.
POWs in Southeast Asia. -
Gen. Eugene Tighe, who worked on the
POW issue at DIA from 1974 until he re-
tired, as director, in September 1981, says,
It may be time for an independently spon-
sored presidential commission to examine
the U.S. POW effort."
Gen. Tighe, who has remained close to
the issue, adds: "Some people linvolved in
the U.S.'s effort] have been disclaiming
good reports labout remaining American
captives] for so long that it's become
habit-forming." Moreover, "I continue to
run into civilians in the U.S. government)
associated with this issue who tend to think
that military personnel are expendable."
A former intelligence analyst who re
cently retired after working daily on the
POW issue for two years also gives a dis
'turbing view of the U.S. effort to account
for its missing. "There are a lot of pres
sures not to believe" that Americans are
still held prisoner, he said in an interview.
"If we recover one, it's a travesty because,
for 12 years, we've completely and abso
lutely ignored these people.'
A CIA expert on Laos says the U.S.
government already has a list of 25 or so
missing Americans who are living today in
Laos. This man, who was intimately in-
volved in the U.S.'s "secret war" in Laos,
made the statement tour months ago in a
private letter shown to me.
The CIA official states in his letter that
the Americans "are now working for the
enemy, fairly openly, and married to local
women with children in most cases." in
Some DIA analyses of r,
impeach the refugees rather t
describing one of them, the letter states
that he "has some freedom but not much."
Further, the letter states that this individ-
ual "apparently has no desire to return to
the USA because of his 'probably' (being)
forced to work for the enemy in order to
stay alive this long."
The CIA official indicates that his infor-
mation comes from "a few reliable" for-
mer South Vietnamese military officers
who now conduct resistance activities
against the Communists. The informers
aren't paid for this information, he says.
Gen. James A. Williams, current head
of the DIA, says he hasn't ever seen or
heard of such a list. A CIA spokeswoman
says there isn't such a CIA list, adding that
the notion is "nonsense."
Those running the Reagan administra-
tion's effort to account for the missing
think the program is making progress, de-
spite a general lack of cooperation by the
Vietnamese. In testimony before a House
committee last August, Richard Armitage,
assistant secretary of defense, said the
Reagan administration has increased the
intelligence resources devoted to resolving
the POW question.
Many Americans don't believe that the
Indochinese Communists still hold U.S.
prisoners. Vietnam denies it has any U.S.
captives. But in three wars, Communist
nations have demonstrated a willingness to
keep their prisoners after the shooting
stops.
The Soviet Union finally released nearly
10,000 German prisoners in 1955, 10 years
after the end of World War II, claiming
they had been criminals, not prisoners.
Thousands more German prisoners simply
vanished.
U.S. Gen. Mark Clark, who commanded
United Nations forces in Korea, wrote in
his 1954 autobiography "From the Danube
to the Yalu" that he had "solid evidence'
that the Communists helms on to hundreds
of U.S. pnsoners after the l .N-Communise
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Fund Without Cost
prisoner exchanges. "How many more
U.N. POWs," Gen. Clark wrote, "may `we
expect the Communists to yield, possibly
seven or eight years from now' And how
many may we never see again who will die
in_the -wastes of Korea-Manchuria-Sibe-
ria?" (A few fliers were released by the
Chinese soon thereafter, but many Ameri-
can prisoners in Korea apparently never
did come home.)
In what is now an obscure footnote to
Ff ugee reports seem aimed to
han lead to probes.
the Vietnam War, Hanoi nearly succeeded
in holding on to nine U.S. prisoners in 1973.
The men, captured in Laos, were released
after Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
reportedly wouldn't complete the pre-
viously negotiated U.S. troop withdrawal
from Vietnam until several remaining pris-
oners in Laos were accounted for. Only af-
ter some from his list were freed, along
with others the U.S. had listed simply as
missing in action, did the U.S. learn that
the nine had been moved to Vietnam a
year earlier and held there apart from the
other U.S. POWs who were released during
1973's "Operation Homecoming."
According to the Defense Department's
POW-MIA Fact Book, evidence of Amer-
icans still being held against their will
must be "convincing" before the U.S. acts.
By convincing, the Fact Book explains, the
evidence must be recent and specific, and
it must come either from a refugee whose
sighting report "can be strengthened and
supported through technical means," or
from two or more refugees whose reports
match up.
But the former intelligence analyst says
the Fact Book is misleading. He says that
for evidence to be judged convincing by
U.S. experts, it must be developed by the
U.S.'s own technical means: i.e., aerial
photographs from satellites or high-alti-
tude aircraft. "Humint," the acronym for
human intelligence, isn't enough, this ana-
lyst says, because the feeling within the
U.S. intelligence community is that people
i can and do lie.
U.S. officials have testified before Con-
gress that the vast majority of their POW
information comes from human sources-
refugees. If refugees' reports aren't
enough, how then can the U.S. ever prove
that POWs are still in Indochina'
Gen. Williams, the current head of the
DIA, insists that humint can be enough to
act upon. But the fart is that the only
known time the US. matte an arm^~ Iurtir
Sion to try to rescue men it thought wer(
POWs-the So-called Nhom Marat missyon
in 1961-the intelligence that led to the
foray came from aerial photographs.
Some DIA analyses of refugee reports
seem aimed to impeach the refugees
rather than lead to investigations.
For example, refugee Nguyen Thi Xuan
told U.S. officials that in November 197,
she saw four Americans working in a held
near Bien Hoa City, about 20 miles frorr:
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. The
DIA concluded that her report was "suspi
cious" because "the Communists would b(
unlikely to place four detained Americans
in an open field next to a major highway
while at the same time publicly denying
that they hold Americans."
Gen. Tighe, the retired head of the DIA,
says this analysis "shows a mind-set to de-
bunk." (Gen. Tighe is chagrined that poor
analyses were done while he headed the
DIA. He says that, as director, he didn't
review most individual reports.)
Might Be Alive
Another, more recent, account came
last year from a Vietnamese doctor who
gave the U.S. a list of names of Americans
he said he treated in Vietnam who are still
POWs. This report has been written off as
a fabrication by U.S. officials who ascribed
it to the man's self-serving motivations.
But consider:
The DIA acknowledged that "it isr t
precisely known" how the doctor got the
Americans' names. The DIA suggested
that he may have gotten them off a pub
licly available list of America's missing,
but the analysis also stated that some on
the doctor's list were servicemen believed
to have died in action whose bodies weren't
recovered. Thus, at least some names
wouldn't have appeared on any MIA list.
and those men in particular might still be
alive.
If the continued presence of POWs in
Southeast Asia were ever publicly ac
cepted, it would provoke a foreign-pohc%
dilemma. Americans would demand t a~
Washington act, but what could the U.S
do? A military operation might ge: s. pit
prisoners out, but the rest might they. tr
put to death, perhaps after show trials N(
gotiations could easily dissolve into a ku,d
of Iran hostage crisis, with Washing,,ti
looking weak.
Yet while a military action seems sc;f
defeating, entering into talks is a chance
worth taking. Vietnam's econorm is a
shambles, offering the makings of a de::;
Getting the men back would demonstrate
moral commitment few nations posses.
Mr. Paul is a reporter in the Jour 7,,,:,,
New York bureau
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