POWS PROBABLY STILL HELD IN VIETNAM, MCFARLANE SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403960012-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: October 16, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/22 : CIA-RD
ARTICLE APOEA D
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
16 October 1985
P90-00552 R000403960012-8
POWs probably still held in
Vietnam, McFarlane says
By John McCaslin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
President Reagan's national secu-
rity adviser unintentionally has
joined a growing list of past and
present government officials who
have said that U.S. servicemen still
might be held captive in Indochina.
Robert C. McFarlane, assuming
remarks he made last Wednesday at
a forum of political anlaysts and
businessmen were off the record,
said, "I think there have to be live
Americans there.
"There is quite a lot of evidence
given by people who have no ulterior
motives and no reason to lie, and
they're telling things that they have
seen," Mr. McFarlane said.
The national security adviser said
the United States needs "better
human intelligence in Vietnam" and
called present dialogue with the
Hanoi government "a failure."
Mr. McFarlane was unaware that
former one-term congressman John
LeBoutillier, a conservative New
York Republican who at one time
worked closely with the White
House on the POW issue, was
recording his comments and would
later pass them on to a reporter.
His remarks conflict with past
administration statements that the
White House was doing all in its
power to resolve the MIA issue.
More than 2,400 Americans are
listed as missing in action in Indo-
china.
One administration source said
yesterday that it appears as if Mr.
LeBoutillier, in effect, "egged Mr.
McFarlane on and milked the
remarks from him:'
While Mr. McFarlane declined to
comment yesterday, the Pentagon
was quick to erase what officials
appeared to believe was a misrepre-
sentation of the administration's
views. Spokesman Robert Sims said
President Reagan and Defense Sec-
retary Caspar Weinberger have
made the POW-MIA issue a top pri-
ority.
Defense Department spokesman,
and POW specialist Army Maj. Keith
Schneider said in a telephone inter-
view yesterday that he was not
aware of any intelligence infor-
mation that would lead the U.S. gov-
ernment to believe Americans a&
still being held captive in Southeast
Asia.
But Mr. McFarlane is only the
latest official to hint at the possibil-
ity that Americans captured during
the Vietnam War might still be alive
and held captive by Hanoi.
His predecessor, former National
Security Adviser William Clark,
said in 1983 that "information now in
our possession disallows us from
ruling out the possibility that Amer-
icans are still being held against
their will."
The former director of the
Defense Intelligence Agency. Lt.
C: -n. Eugene Tight-- told Congress as
recently as last June that he believed
50 to 60 Americans still might be
held in Communist Prisons.
At the time he left the DIA in 1981,
he said he believed that there were
still American POWs in Southeast
Asia. "I have seen nothing to discour-
age my view," Gen. Tighe said.
Certain accounts given by the last
U.S. serviceman to leave Vietnam,
Robert Garwood, "sounded reason-
able and believable:' Gen. Tighe
said.
Mr. Garwood, a Marine private
first class now on inactive duty while
awaiting an appeal of his court mar-
tial on charges of collaborating with
the enemy, returned to the United
States in 1979.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it
again: I was not the last American
prisoner of war in Vietnam:' Mr.
Garwood said at a news conference
earlier this year. He claims to have
seen 50 to 70 American POWs
between 1973 and 1978 at various
prison camps.
The National Vietnam Veterang
Coalition claims to have o tatned
intelligence documents within the
past year from the CIA, DIA, State
De artment and
which it says prove U.S. soldiers are
still being held against their will_ in
both Vietnam and Laos.
Although Hanoi continues to
insist that no POWs remain in Viet-
nam, after meetings in recent weeks
with U.S. officials, it has agreed to
excavate at least one crash site to
search for the remains of U.S. ser-
vicemen.
Still, Mr. McFarlane in his
remarks last week appeared critical
of U.S. efforts to locate the Ameri-
cans still unaccounted for. "I
wouldn't pretend to you that we have
done enough to start. And that's bad.
And that's 4 failure:' he said.
An embarrassed Rowland Evans,
a syndicated columnist who, with
colleague Robert Novak, sponsored
the McFarlane forum, said yester-
day that he has conducted 28 similar
off-the-record forums, "but this is
the first breach "
Mr. Evans said he sent Mr.
LeBoutillier a message yesterday.
"I think you can imagine what it
said," Mr. Evans said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403960012-8