The country has been watching the Bush Administration unfold, each of us anxious for an indication of how
new policies might affect issues of importance to us. Probably more than most people, families of missing
servicemen wait for the relevant team to be put in place. We stir uncomfortably while new leadership gets
its footing and new policies take shape.
While we recognize the need to be patient, there are also dynamics to the accounting effort that call
for ongoing leadership on the issue. We need clear and determined policies from the beginning of this
Administration that will set a tone of priority rather than lip service. Policies are being formed now
with regard to the relevant countries (most notably China, Russia, North Korea and South Korea). So a
certain sense of impatience lurks about.
In his campaign for the Presidency, George W. Bush promised to ‘maintain a close dialogue with the families
of the missing, as well as the broader public, and enlist their views on how to improve current policy’. The
Coalition leadership has begun the process of communicating its views on various important issues to the Bush
team, and we look forward to working with them to improve current policy. Hopefully, we will begin to see the
POW/MIA accounting effort woven into the very fabric of the broad and complex relationships we have with these
other countries.
During the presidential campaign, we published various statements made by the candidates pertaining to the
accounting effort. A few of the promises George W. Bush made are set forth below. It is worth noting these
statements, because they are the standard the new President has set.
We must have the fullest possible accounting. This must be a high priority, a presidential priority, and it
must come soon.
My administration will make the POW/MIA issue a matter of priority in all relevant departments and agencies.
I will work with Congress to ensure the necessary resources.
My administration will make it clear to those countries whose cooperation is needed to achieve the accounting
we seek that we regard their full cooperation as an issue of the highest importance, and that it is a test of good
faith in their dealings with the United States.
My administration will share what we learn with the families of the missing, every fact we gather, all the
evidence we find about their loved ones.
These words are encouraging, but any new direction for the accounting effort is still in the making. Indeed,
a new Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs has not yet been named. Bob Jones, who was appointed
by President Clinton to that job, left DPMO on March 30th. Alan Liotta is acting in his place until the Bush
Administration officially names someone to the position.
It is our strongest hope and expectation that the Bush transition team will name someone to head the
accounting effort who the families and POW/MIA advocates know to be dedicated to the fullest possible accounting.
It is counter-productive when frustration and mistrust run rampant. President Bush will send a clear signal of
commitment to learning the truth (as opposed to one of managing a potentially troublesome issue) if he appoints
someone who will advocate on all aspects of the POW/MIA accounting, including the live prisoner issue.
We would also like to see this Administration open a dialogue with international organizations that might
help our efforts to account. For example, both the American and the International Red Cross refuse to get involved
in the Korean or Cold War Accounting because our government has an office designated to handle the matter. Yet,
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) chairs the Tripartite Commission on the Gulf War Missing and
its Technical Subcommittee. The U.S. sends a representative. The Coalition’s mission is to account for Gulf War
Missing.
There are more than 8,100 men missing from Korea; 124 from Cold War aircraft shoot-downs. An international
committee, chaired by the ICRC, chartered to account for men missing from these conflicts, might well provide
insights and motivation that somehow are lacking in our bi-lateral relationships with the other countries.
The United Nations Security Council recently interjected itself into the unresolved issue of Kuwaiti POWs
missing from the Gulf War. It was a United Nations conflict in which the 8,100 men still missing from Korea
were lost. It would be appropriate for the U.N. National Security Council to pressure for cooperation on efforts
to account for them.
There are numerous ways in which President Bush and his foreign policy team might infuse the effort to account
for missing American servicemen with vitality and new direction. We hope to see some of them materialize soon.