The Vietnam-Era Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in-Action Database

Subject: Vietnam-Era Unaccounted for Statistical Report

CURRENT AS OF: February 14, 2001

BACKGROUND: The Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Service, and the Department of State report the current numbers of Americans who are unaccounted for in Southeast Asia:

AMERICANS UNACCOUNTED FOR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

VN = VIETNAM, NORTH VS = VIETNAM, SOUTH CB = CAMBODIA

CH = CHINA LA = LAOS

* INCLUDES 459 AT SEA/OVER WATER LOSSES

ACCOUNTING FOR U.S. PERSONNEL: The Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii reports that since 1973, the U.S. has accounted for 596 Americans from Southeast Asia.

AMERICANS ACCOUNTED FOR POST-1973

REPATRIATED BY:

NOTES:

* 34 remains from the Official Died in Captivity Lists provided by the Vietnamese in 1973.

** 2 ashes returned from China.

*** 4 remains were recovered and turned over to the U.S. by indigenous personnel; 1 from North Vietnam and 3 from Laos. They are included in the country count.

U.S. GOVERNMENT EFFORTS: Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, the U.S. Government has acquired 21,731 reports possibly pertaining to Americans in Southeast Asia:

SUMMARY OF REPORTS

Of the 1,909 firsthand reports received since 1975, 1,896 (99.32%) reports are resolved.

• 1,318 (69.04%) reports were equated to Americans who are accounted for (i.e., PW returnees, missionaries, civilians jailed at various times for violation of Vietnamese codes).
• 45 (2.36%) reports were correlated to wartime sightings of military personnel or pre-1975 sighting of civilians who remain unaccounted for.
• 533(27.92%) reports were determined to be fabrications.

The remaining 13 (0.68%) unresolved firsthand reports represent the focus of the U.S. Government analytical and collection efforts:

• 12 (0.63% pertain to Americans reported in a captive environment.
• 1 (0.05%) reported sighting of an American in a non-captive environment (i.e. working as truck drivers; married with Vietnamese family).

The following timeline presents an overview of unresolved firsthand sightings by the year of the sighting:

TIMELINE: UNRESOLVED LIVE SIGHTING REPORTS

SUBJECT: VIETNAM-ERA UNACCOUNTED FOR STATISTICAL REPORT

BACKGROUND: The Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Service, and the Department of State report the current numbers of Americans who are unaccounted for in Southeast Asia:

AMERICANS UNACCOUNTED FOR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA*

* Status as of Homecoming

Figure 2 summarizes all unaccounted for Americans in Southeast Asia by components:

U.S. LOSSES BY SERVICE COMPONENT

KEY OBSERVATION ABOUT REPORTING: A Vietnamese Government misinformation program has been associated with recent reporting on missing Americans. Those reports all pertain to the alleged recovery of remains and identifying data (i.e., dog tags) by Vietnamese citizens.

Since mid-1982, 9,752 "dog tag" reports on 8,275 individuals reveal the following trends:

7,719 (93.28%) of those names reported are individuals who returned to the U.S. alive;

386 (4.66%) of the reports correspond to U.S. remains that have been recovered/identified and buried in the U.S.

170 (2.05%) relate to individuals who remain unaccounted for.

In all instances, dog tag reports receive thorough investigative attention, to include informing the military services of those reports with valid names so next of kin can be advised as appropriate.