National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia Literature

Item

Other Media: s-leg_475_007_001_tr.txt

Extent (Dublin Core): 1 Page
File Name (Dublin Core): s-leg_475_007_001
Title (Dublin Core): National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia Literature
Date (Dublin Core): 1971
Date Created (Dublin Core): 1971
Congress (Dublin Core): 92nd (1971-1973)
Topics (Dublin Core): See all items with this value Prisoners of war; See all items with this value Missing in action; See all items with this value Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Policy Area (Curation): Armed Forces and National Security
Creator (Dublin Core): National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia
Record Type (Dublin Core): press releases
Rights (Dublin Core): http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/
Language (Dublin Core): eng
Collection Finding Aid (Dublin Core): https://dolearchivecollections.ku.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=14&q=
Physical Location (Dublin Core): Collection 003, Box 475, Folder 7
Institution (Dublin Core): Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Archival Collection (Dublin Core): Robert J. Dole Senate Papers-Legislative Relations, 1969-1996
Full Text (Extract Text): This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas
http://dolearchives.ku.edu

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We are not asking our Congress and Country to pass new legislation, we are not asking them to stop the EST or ban the automobile, we are asking them only to fulfill that obligation which already by law demands that they do everything in their power to ensure North Vietnam's respect for the Convention.

In 1968, if we would stop the bombing North Vietnam said that they would discuss questions concerning both sides. After three years of discussions they stated if we set a date of withdrawal they would immediately discuss the release of captured military men. The North Vietnamese have been asked to explain the word "discuss". Elaborating, they now state that not only must we withdraw our troops and but we must stop all future military and economic aid, overthrow the present south Vietnamese government, and dismantle all of our military bases.

As Vietnamization continues and our forces are reduced to 25 to 50 thousand troops, Hanoi will see no reason to negociate the prisoners of war for such a small troop force. To make our demands meaningful, we must put a stumbling block in the path of what the communists want. A meaningful stumbling block would be no more troop withdrawals without a proportional release or internment in a neutral country of prisoners of war.

We left 389 American POWs, not missing but confirmed prisoners in Korea. We recently learned from a North Vietnamese official who defected that North Vietnam trong s'y still holds at least 300 French from the French Indo China War. We must thoroughly assure ourselves who out of the 1600 Americans POWs/MIAs are prisoners ("before we can negotiate for their return" handwritten into sentence). This can only be accomplished by the inspection of POW camps by an international humanitarian body such as the League of Red Cross Societies ("League of Red Cross Societies" crossed out and replaced with "International Committee of the Red Cross"). This inspection is guaranteed by the Geneva Convention and our Country is obligated to do everything in its power to ensure that North Vietnam permits these inspections. Even though 339 Americans (a number know to be incomplete) have been identified by North Vietnam as POWs, as many men are missing in Laos and South Vietnam as in North Vietnam. These men have not been even
positively ("positively" crossed out and replaced with "partially") identified. Is the tangible assurance of the return of the men our Country sent to the battlefield too much for our Country ("for our country" crossed out) to demand?

To get action we have the following plan:

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