VIETNAM AGREES TO JOINT MIA SEARCH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807300008-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: October 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807300008-9
ARTICLE
Team to Excavate Site of U.S. Bomber Crash During War
WASHINGTON POST
26 October 1985
Vietnam Agrees to Joint MIA Search
sponded for the first time to specific
refugee reports of living Americans
in Vietnam, Cossey said. Previous-
ly, Hans had issued blanket denials
when asked about such "live sight-
ings:" In September, however, of-
ficials claimed that they investi-
gated reports of three sightings and
found them untrue, he said.
in action in Vietnam.
Vietnamese -officials, meeting
with U.S. representatives late last
month in Hanoi, anndunced their
decision to permit a "joint excava-
tion" of a site east of Hanoi. where a
B52 bomber crashed irj December
1972, said Commodooq James D.
Cossey.
Hanoi's representatives also re-
total of 1,802 are listed as missing States, he said. At the same session, Cossey said,
remains of missing servicemen. A penses will be borne by the United most open and cordial" to date.
By Michael sey said while the issue of missing Y I~eisskopf "unrelated' permission to dig up crash sites in
Ww ,a?PON* aw . U.S. servicemen is to Vietnam since "technical tal s on
normalization, Hanoi's help may missing U.S. troops began in De-
The Vietnamese government has 'lay a foundation" for reconciliation. cember 1982.
agreed for the first time to let U.S. Cossey said the first crash-site At talks in July, the U.S. team
technicians search for the remains exploration in Vietnam will take was provided the names of 24 miss-
of missing American servicemen at place in the "near future" after U.S. ing servicemen and allowed to Ion-
a site where a U.S. bomber crashed and Vietnamese officials work out duct a preliminary excavation sur-
during the Vietnam wur, a Defense technical details. vey at a B52 crash site outside Ran-
Department official said yesterday. He said the United States will oi.
The agreement is considered a provide supplies, equipment and Formal permission for the exca-
significant step in U.S. efforts to military engineers and technicians vation came in the ninth session of
gain access to hundreds of crash to work alongside Vietnamese in ' talks, Sept, 25 to Sept. 29 which
sites that are thought to be the digging up the site and searching ,. the Pentagon described as the
largest single concentration of the for remains of servicemen E
"We are hopeful that this exca- 1Vietnam denied three reports of
vation, if it can proceed successful- live sightings of Americans, in-
ly, will be the first of many to occur eluding one of a black man. Author-
in Vietnam," said Cosset', acting ities claimed he is a "black Khmer,"
one of Southeast Asia's ethnic
deputy assistant defense secretary
for East Asian and Pacific affairs. groups, Cossey said. He said the
He said he did not know which U.S. team considered that "very
bomber crashed at the site to be unusual" and will raise the?ssue at
,excavated or how many men were the next meeting.
aboard. But he estimated that the But, he said, Vietnamese willing-
remains of about 500 U.S. service- ness to discuss specific cases of
men are burled in. crash sites in sightings is "a very hopeful sign." At
Vietnam. the same time, he said, J.S. offi-
An 11-member .U.S. team con- cials have "no evidence" bf Amer-
ducted the first excavation in Viet- icans living in Vietnam.
nam in February, recovering the Almost- 800 reports of IivinA
remains of 13 servicemen at a site Americans have streamed in since
in Pakse, Laos, wJ ere an _AC130 the fall of Saigon in 1975. Cosset'
gunship crashed in 1972. said U. S. intelligence tries to deter-
A total of 2,446 American ser- mine their accuracy but that "ulti-
vicemen
e
ill
ar
st
reported missing mately, the resolution of this issue
i1 of Vietnamese troops from Cam- in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and epen mostly on coope ration
bodia as the prerequisite for nor- China 10 years after the war ended. from the Indochinese govern-
malizing relations with Hanoi. Cos- U.S. officials have been seeking ments.
Washington demands a withdraw-
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807300008-9