Two decades after the Vietnam War ended, the Pentagon has concluded that more than 500 cases of American servicemen missing in action will never be fully resolved "regardless of any future effort."
In a report released Monday, the Defense Department said it sees reason to hope for, and will continue to work toward, resolution of about 1,500 other cases of missing.These conclusions are based on a yearlong review of individual cases of U.S. troops missing in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia - all of whom the Pentagon says were killed but whose remains were not recovered for a variety of reasons.
It is the first time the Pentagon has reviewed each case and concluded that, for a specific number, it was hopeless to continue trying to recover the remains. It has long said, more generally, that some cases would go unresolved.
The Defense POW-MIA Office, which conducted the review, concluded that of the 2,202 MIA cases on the books as of July 21, there was sufficient information available to continue actively pursuing 1,476. It said action on 159 cases was being "deferred" until additional information was found, and that for 567 cases, there was "virtually no possibility" of ever finding the remains "regardless of any future effort put forward by" the U.S. or other governments.
Bev Baker, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the 2,202 figure has since fallen to 2,170 because additional remains have been identified and repatriated since July 21.
Declaring 567 cases to be hopeless is a sensitive matter. Many MIA activist groups and some in Congress assert that the Clinton administration has done too little to find the missing servicemen and that some may still be alive.