LETTER TO WILLIAM J. CASEY FROM STEPHEN J. SOLARZ

Document Type: 
Collection: 
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
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
June 7, 1985
Content Type: 
LETTER
File: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon CIA-RDP88G00186R000901180006-1.pdf311.94 KB
Body: 
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 Orb 11 June 1985 TqI (N.m omc* symbol. room number, buHding. Agency/Post) EO /DDA Inkials ( Date IL 14Q-- a 1)1)9 "*and Return For Clearance Per Conversation R uesbd For Correction Pre ti For Your Information see me InvosthWe Signature ination n Justi (FROM: (Name, ord. symbol. Agency/Post) OPTXM& bpyy FORM 41 (Rev. 7-76) GPO: 1983 0 - 181-529 (232) FFMR (41 CFR) 101-11.206 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 Ex F ('l'"I I V F: SF:('R F:"FAR 1. I" I'O( III,(. SI.II' 3 EXDIR 4 D;ICS 5 DDI 8 DDS&T r 9 Chm/NIC 10 GC C~1 IG 12 Compt 4 D/PAO 15 VC/NIC 16 -C/EA/DO-__ 17 I8 19 20 21 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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 i IT ,lun R5 Dae Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1 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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/16: CIA-RDP88GO0186R000901180006-1