DELICATE PROBLEM: POW EXCHANGES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300610006-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 1, 1998
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: April 8, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

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Sanitized - Approved For Release :
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CPYRGHT
By MARIANNE MEANS
aL
The failure of all efforts thus far is forcing.
cc.-. ,raisal of the U.S. Government's role in dealing CPYRGHT
i z Behind the scenes of the Viet ".
-Nam war an agonizing attempt goes on to .yti
wap prisoners of war with the Viet Cong.'.
it -1,, the problem of wartime-prisoner exchanges, Is
rings being done?
It is natural that in a war,
ublic concern should. be directed
rimarily at the mounting lists of
lead and wounded.. The !tragic:
light of the prisoners, however,
as recently been dramatized by
he apparent' collapse of a hoped-
or swap of Augustus Hertz, Agency
or International Development offs;
ial, for a Viet Cong. terrorist.
The secret efforts to free Hertz,
ho was seized by Viet Cong in a ? MEANS
aigon suburb last February,' have involved Sen.
bert Kennedy; Chester Cooper, former White'
-louse special assistant; Abba Schwartz, former ad
inistrator of. the Bureau of Security and Consular
ffairs, as well as the distraught Hertz family and
everal private citizens.
The Hertz case focused attention on the fact
hat the U.S. has no apparatus for keeping track of
he fate of prisoners; no.,one. agency or .individual
ith specific 'responsibility for attempting to gain
heir freedom; no system for providing information
r nd guidance, or 'possibly' a ljttle comfort, to their
amilies; and no organized method of coordinating'
he efforts of the U.S. Government arid independent
odies likh the International Red Cross.
The Viet Nam prisoners are the current problem,
ut the way they are' handled sets the pattern for
ossible future difficu'ties elsewhere. There are now
12 U.S. military men: missing and believed to be 1:
risoners of the Viet ? Cong;, Five US . ' civilians are
aptive, including Hertz,;. three missionaries, And.
ouglas s Ramsey, a foreign service official assigned'.
Cooper, who left the White House staff last
;month, would like to see new emphasis on U.S, of-.
forts to free prisoners. He plans to send a report to
,','the State Dept. next week proposing a new inter-
agency prisoner coordinating committee.
Such a committee was first suggested by
A.'Burke Hertz, a Virginia lawyer and the prisoner's.
brother. Hertz felt that a special body Was needed to
stimulate the efforts of the Red Cross and others
and to coordinate the information and Ideas of the ..
State Dept., the Central Intelligence Agency and the
Dept. of Defens . ?
Because of his chairmanship of a subcommittee
on refugees, Sen. Edward Kennedy has also become ' ;
Interested in improving the techniques of attempting
prisoner exchanges. Seli,? Kennedy has insistently.:
1"pressured the State Dept. to' pay more attention to
both the question of caring for refugees and of .
rescuing prisoners in foreign countries.
Sen. Kennedy believes the Red Cross is the best
t;..agency to negotiate an exchange and has.had sev-
eral conferences with Red Cross officials on the sub-
ject. He has promised to dig deeper-Into the problem
','at. a hearing on Vietnamese refugees scheduled for
, early May. '
Officials. realize that 'negotiations' for prisoner, swaps are very sensitive and -must be conducted in
secret. Ana they know that if the Viet Cong is in no
'.'mnood for exchanges, none can' be made, no mittter
What the: U.S. does.
Yet there is ample precedent for exchanges and
?Itherefore enough hope to warrant continued efforts.
During the 'Indochinese .war, for example, the French, .and Vietnamese .were" able 4o,,exthange 'prisoners.
despite their ;bitter hatred.
Sanitized - Approved For Release': CIA-RDP75-00149R0003006.10006-