New DPMO Publication:
The Effort to Account for
U.S. Servicemen Missing from the Korean War

DPMO has recently released a 68 page booklet detailing the U.S. Government’s effort to account for men missing from Korea. The Coalition leadership has just received its copy and we have not yet had a chance to review the publication. However, we will do so prior to the next issue of the newsletter and we will report and/or comment on items of interest next time. Of particular interest will be the manner in which the subject of live prisoners, not returned, is treated.

A quick read of the Foreword reveals no mention of this most important aspect of the accounting issue but, in fairness, we will have to wait until we’ve read the whole booklet before we know how this matter is treated on balance. Hopefully the Foreword will give way to a more thorough discussion and analysis of the evidence that men were alive in captivity and held back. A somewhat discouraging beginning is noted in the following statement contained in the Foreword: “The all-important effort to obtain cooperation from our Korean War era adversaries has achieved remarkable results in recent years”.

While we certainly have come a long way with regard to remains recovery, an admittedly important part of the work to be done, North Korea has not cooperated at all on the live prisoner issue. Neither has China. The Russians have allowed access to more people and some records, but those records that would have contained information about the highly secret program to transfer American servicemen to the Soviet Union remain classified and out of our reach. What’s more, the Russians continue to deny that men were taken to the Soviet Union; an assertion that simply does not stand up to the scrutiny of evidence already in hand.

So, without more, a statement that the level of cooperation from the relevant countries has achieved remarkable results is rather misleading. We will have to see what the rest of the booklet says.

DPMO web site:

Coalition Headquarters
P.O. Box 7152
Roanoke, VA 24019-0152
info@coalitionoffamilies.org