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CRONKITE: These are American prisoners of war in Hanoi. Fliers shot down in bombing attacks over North Vietnam. Some of them have been there a long, long time.

MISS ALVAREZ: You have to remember that my brother was first sent to Vietnam under the Kennedy Administration. He was captured under the Johnson Administration, and he has been used by the Nixon Administration.

CRONKITE: Who is using these men? How and why are they being used? This has become a subject of anguish for their families. The men themselves have become subjects of a campaign of national concern. And they have become political objects of the opposing sides in Indochina.

PRESIDENT NIXON: It is time for Hanoi to end the barbaric use of our prisoners as negotiating pawns and to join us in a humane act that will free their men as well as ours.

XUAN THUY (Through interpreter): It is Mr. Nixon who is using the prisoners as pawns to negotiate. So the fighting will go on and, as a result, more American soldiers will be killed or captured.

MRS. CROW: I just think that those men are caught in the middle. It seems like those men are caught in a vise and we get one side here and one side there and the men in the middle and they're being squeezed from both sides. And it's a terrible, desperate situation.

CRONKITE: The men in the middle. By the differing definitions of Washington and Hanoi, hostages to a settlement of the war. The history of their captivity, their plight, their use by both sides as a major peace issue, these are the subjects of our broadcast tonight.

AITITOUNCER: This is the first of two CBS REPORTS: "The POWs: Pawns of War." With CBS News Correspondent Walter Cronkite.

(ANNOUNCEMENT)

CRONKITE: Good evening. For many months now the Vietnam peace talks in Paris have been stalemated - stalemated in good part over the issue of American prisoners of war. Hanoi has insisted on a U.S. deadline for troop withdrawal before even discussing the POWs. The Nixon Administration has asserted that there will be no total withdrawal until the POW issue is resolved. In a dramatic development this evening the United States Senate injected itself into that deadlock. By a vote of 57 to 42 the Senate accepted Majority Leader Mike Mansfield's plan for withdrawing U.S. troops and releasing U.S. prisoners in stages. The non-binding policy declaration, if approved by the House and accepted by President Nixon, would completely withdraw U.S. military forces from Indochina within nine months, if the POWs are free. Domestic critics of the war have charged Mr. Nixon with using the prisoners

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as a device to blunt criticism of his broader Vietnam policy and to buy time to strengthen the Saigon regime. The Administration denies both charges. Nr. Nixon has never said he will pull out of Vietnam if the U.S. prisoners are released. He's always set a companion condition, that Saigon be given, quote, "at least a chance to defend itself against Communist takeover." And tonight the White House sharply criticised the Senate vote. The White House said it could jeopardize the talks in Paris and noted that it was not binding on the President.

More and more the emphasis by the doves in the Senate and by the President have been on the prisoners.

NIXON (October 7, 1970): I propose the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of war held by both sides.

War and imprisonment should be over for all these prisoners. They and their families have already suffered too much.

(March 4, 1971): As long as there are American POWs - and there are 1600 Americans in North Vietnam jails under very difficult circumstances at the present time - as long as there are American POWs in North Vietnam, we will have to maintain a residual force in South Vietnam.

(April 7, 1971): If the United States should announce that we will quit regardless of what the enemy does, we would have thrown away our principal bargaining counter to win the release of American prisoners of war; we would remove the enemy's strongest incentive to end the war sooner by negotiation.

(April 16, 1971): We have had a very difficult experience with the North Vietnamese who have, without question, been the most barbaric in their handling of prisoners of any nation in modern history. Now, under the circumstances, however, let's put ourselves in the position of North Vietnam. What's in it for them? What's in it for them to get the United States residual force, including our air power, out of that part of the world.

(April 29, 1971): If the South Viet - the North Vietnamese are so barbaric that they continue to hold our POWs regardless of what we do with regard to withdrawal, then we're going to keep a residual force no matter how long it takes.

(June 1, 1971): It always comes back to the same thing. If we end our involvement in Vietnam and set a date, they will agree to discuss prisoners - not release them. Now, we've been around this track before.

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of their lists were known to be in North Vietnam, were captured. We can't say for sure these men are alive; it may be that the explanation is that no others have survived. But the explanation so far is seriously deficient.

CRONKITE: Mrs. Cora Weiss is co-chairman of a peace group called the Committee of Liaison. It is North Vietnam's chosen instrument for mail to and from, and information about, the POWs. She told Bob Schieffer she believed Hanoi's list is accurate.

MRS. WEISS: We have no reason to doubt the completeness of that list, There would be no reason for them to withhold names of men whom they have. It's of no military value. The tragedy is that the government insists on having families hang on to false hopes by stating that there are more men who are actually prisoners, for whom the government has never offered documentation.

SCHIEFFER: So is it your belief that those who are listed as missing in North Vietnam are actually dead?

MRS. WEISS: They are not prisoners of war in North Vietnam.

CRONKITE: In this hour we have looked at the American prisoners as human victims and political pawns of the Vietnam war. Until today, in spite of the anguished attention focused on these men, in spite of the rhetoric, the basic problem, getting the POWs out, was no closer to solution than it was when the Administration decided to make it a public issue more than two years ago. But now, with the Senate's dramatic vote, the White House is on the spot. Secretary of State Rogers' remarks at a news conference last week seemed to foreshadow the dilemma the Administration faces.

ROGERS: I don't have to tell you that it's an extremely difficult proposition because the North Vietnamese have decided undoubtedly that they're going to hold these prisoners to try to achieve political objectives, and in effect they're using them for ransom payment.

Obviously, the United States, although we have tremendous concern for the safety of the prisoners, the - we can't lose sight of our national purposes. And we can't absolutely abandon our - our national objectives to pay ransom.

CRONKITE: So far, most of the relatives of the prisoners have been patient. Many have joined the campaign in behalf of their men. But as the flights to Paris, to Moscow, to Phnom Penh, to Ventiane have produced no results, as the peace talks have gotten nowhere, as the prisoners have become a domestic political issue, their patience has begun to wear thin. They have won sympathy from the most hawkish of hawks and the most dovish of doves. But they have not got their men back. And some of the 
families are talking of new actions.
MRS. FULLER: Well, the New Hampshire primary's in March. And I feel that if those prisoners are not negotiated out of there by then,

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there's going to be a POW wife on every street corner in this country when the campaign is going on. I just - we are the refuse, part of it, that comes out of this war. And we cannot be passed off lightly, we have to get a commitment of some kind from somebody that these men are not going to be left behind.

MRS. MULLIGAN: And this is what we want the country to recognize, there is an urgency, a tremendous urgency for our men. Some of them have been there six, going on seven years. Now I'm sorry, I'm not willing to sacrifice my husband for a cause that no one believes in.

SCHIEFFER: So what's the next step?

MRS. HUGHES: The next step is just simply Washington. We have to meet with these people in Washington and make them realize that the only way we'll ever get our husbands back alive is through' a change in policy. And if it comes now it may save their lives; if it comes next year we may give South Vietnam another year to prepare herself, but this might be the year that will send our hushands down the river forever.

CRONKITE: The anguish of the families; the POWs as a political issue; the nature of the public campaign in their behalf. These are the subjects of our next report, one week from tonight, at this same time.

This is Walter Cronkite, CBS News. Good night.

(ANNOUNCEMENT)

ANNOUNCER: This was the first of two CBS REPORTS: "The POWs: Pawns of War." With CBS News Correspondent Walter Cronkite,

Next Tuesday night at 10:00 Eastern Time, CBS News will present the second part in the series, "POWs: Pawns of War," with CBS News Correspondent Walter Cronkite. It will include interviews with the prisoners' and missing men's families, a detailed account of the elaborate campaign to call attention to their plight and an examination of the emergence of the POWs as a major issue linked to U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. That's Tuesday night, June 29, at 10:00 Eastern Time.