This article is a list of US MIAs of the Vietnam War in the period 1961–1965. Read More: Lost Tuskegee Airman’s Body May Have Been Found. [50] Helms stated that the "deeper story" was a possible "deliberate effort by certain people in the government to disregard all information or reports about living MIA-POWs. "[75], Personnel Recovery and Accounting: POW/MIA Accounting. In April 2014, however, a Vietnamese citizen contacted U.S. officials about possible remains found in Kon Tum Province. [26][27] Bailey never produced any prisoners and the boat spent years never leaving its dock in Songkhla in Thailand, but the effort proved adept at bringing in money through the Virginia-based Eberle Associates direct mail marketing firm. In doing so, the administration exaggerated the number of POWs at issue, at one point stating that there were "fifteen hundred American servicemen" held throughout Southeast Asia. Still, the issue of MIAs remains a controversial one, with accusations of government cover-ups continuing to foster distrust among families of the missing, particularly surrounding repatriation efforts in Korea and Vietnam. I frankly don't feel it's appropriate to publicly make these charges without public substantiation. All market data delayed 20 minutes. [2] In this case, the issue has been a highly emotional one to those involved, and is often considered the last depressing, divisive aftereffect of the Vietnam War for the United States. [31] The U.S. National Security Council would eventually say of him: "Throughout his years of involvement, Mr. Gritz contributed nothing of value to the POW/MIA issue. When the search and rescue helicopter approached the area they were unable to make radio contact with him, Weapons Systems Operator on F-4C #63-7700 shot down during a low-altitude strafing run, the aircraft crashed and exploded. Jessica Pearce Rotondi is the author of What We Inherit: A Secret War and a Family’s Search for Answers. These searches met with limited success, recovering and identifying 63 … He has also been removed from six separate retirement homes. A Cop goes undercover as a Hitman to bring down a criminal organization. Colonel James Braddock is an American officer who spent seven years in a North Vietnamese POW camp, then escaped 10 years ago. [28]  The senators made these statements after being part of an intense Senate investigation into the Vietnam POW/MIA issue, in which a senate select committee issued a detailed report that “held out the possibility that some U.S. soldiers had languished in [Vietnamese] hands for at least a period of time after the hostilities ended.”[29]  Senator Smith even went so far as to say that he believed “that POWs and MIAs have been alive, or were alive [in Vietnam], up through 1989.”[30]. He founded the Sky Hook II Project, dedicated to recovering living U.S. POWs in Southeast Asia. The Paris Peace Accords marking the end of the Vietnam War were signed on January 27, 1973. [44] The committee's work included more visits to Vietnam and getting the Department of Defense to declassify over a million pages of relevant documents. They were forgotten because the press and most Americans turned away from all things that reminded them of Vietnam. [18]  Further, another often-touted theory involves the Vietnamese government sending American POWs to their allies in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and North Korea to share with these allied powers the POWs’ knowledge of American military tactics and weapons systems. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Colonel James Braddock is an American officer who spent seven years in a North Vietnamese POW camp, then escaped 10 years ago. The Escape (1986) and Dog Tags (1990) that shared similar conceits. General Disclaimer - This is a private sector project developed by Crafted Knowledge.Although we enter into collaborative associations with many supporting organizations, this site is not owned or operated by any Government body. [34] The National League of Families ended up accusing him of exploiting the MIA issue for personal gain, as one wife had mortgaged her house to fund him. Mason Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic, By Spring 2018 M-VETS Student-Advisor Steven Brantley, In February of 1994, almost 20 years after the end of American involvement in the Vietnam War, President Bill Clinton lifted the decades-old trade embargo that the United States of America had in place on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. [12]  Despite this apparent congressional indifference, the mystery of live American POWs left behind in Vietnam, or, rather, held back by the Vietnamese government at the end of the War, has persisted since the end of the War and continues to have a dedicated following among many Vietnam Veterans and their families. [33] Dan Boyer, Obama lifts ban on selling U.S. arms to Hanoi in a bitter irony for Vietnam veterans, The Washington Times (May 22, 2016), https://www.washingtontimes.com /news/2016/may/22/obama-weighs-selling-us-arms-to-hanoi-in-bitter-ir/. [50] (This and other personnel matters led to Helms firing Lucier in January 1992. New York Congressman John LeBoutillier, who served one term in the early 1980s, became interested in politics due to POW matters. POW/MIAs. It was led by Ann Mills Griffiths. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Nobody wanted to talk about the veterans who had been ignored.”. [30] The Vietnam war POW/MIA issue was also explored in some U.S. television series. These missions were heavily publicized, controversial and widely decried as haphazard—for instance, as some commentators stated, few successful secret missions involve bringing to the border towns women openly marketing commemorative POW-rescue T-shirts. His F-8D was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and crashed into the sea, no ejection or parachute was observed, His F-105D crashed, no ejection or parachute observed, Ejected from his F-105D and captured by the Pathet Lao. Vietnam War veteran Bob Kakuk helped lead the fight to have government buildings fly the flag of prisoners of war and missing in action.