Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume VII, Vietnam, July 1970–January 1972

106. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon¹

Washington, January 20, 1971.

SUBJECT

• POW Developments

I thought you would be interested in being brought up to date on recent developments concerning the POW issue.

In the Paris Meetings on January 14, Ambassador Bruce hit hard on the POWs.² Pointing to South Vietnam’s release of sick and wounded POWs and its openness to international inspection, he focussed on North Vietnam’s long standing and unconscionable violation of its legal and moral obligations in withholding information on the POWs. The Ambassador called particular attention to the other side’s record on POWs held in South Vietnam and Laos, where North Vietnam has not even provided a simple list; has not allowed any flow of mail, any inspections or any releases of sick and wounded; and where it continues to hold completely innocent civilians including missionaries, medical personnel and journalists.

Ambassador Bruce then attempted to provide the North Vietnamese with an updated list of 1,534 American servicemen missing in action, but this was rejected outright by the other side. Ambassadors Bruce and Habib therefore read for the record the names of the 156 additional Americans missing since a similar list had been provided to the North Vietnamese at Paris in December 1969. Ambassador Lam followed with details of the Government of Vietnam’s repatriation of 50 North Vietnamese POWs scheduled for the Tet holiday on January 24.³

At the January 14 meeting, Xuan Thuy and Madame Binh of North Vietnam and the PRG presented their standard line calling for total U.S. withdrawal, an end to Vietnamization, and the end of Southeast Asia airstrikes. Thuy’s liaison officers refused to accept the new list. Madame Binh asked whether the U.S. representative had come to Paris to negotiate or as a public entertainer. Ambassador Bruce reacted vigorously both during and after the meeting to Madame Binh’s statement and characterized the other side’s rejection as reflecting a very cynical attitude.

U.S. media comment on January 15th gave considerable play to the Paris meeting. The New York Times, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and the CBS TV Evening News (Roger Mudd) reported that the Communist negotiators had refused to accept a new list of American military men missing in Southeast Asia and that Madame Binh ridiculed Ambassador Bruce as “a public amuser.” The CBS World News Roundup on the morning of January 15 carried a broadcast from Paris by Peter Kalischer which stressed Ambassador Bruce’s handling of the POW issue.

Ambassador Bruce and the Mission in Saigon suggest that future efforts might focus on the good performance record of the South Vietnamese, and on the particularly bad record of the North Vietnamese in Laos and South Vietnam. In addition, the Mission suggests that our side might (1) challenge the PRG to issue a list of POWs held by the Viet Cong; (2) request the return of remains of deceased POWs; (3) offer specific data concerning circumstances of the loss of those missing in action; (4) suggest alternate parties in addition to International Red Cross to inspect POW camps in North Vietnam; and (5) offer to supply medicine, food, etc. to U.S. POWs via third parties. These approaches and others will be considered by a small interagency/NSC “ad hoc” POW committee which has been set up with General Hughes as Chairman to provide guidance on POWs and to stimulate wider press attention.

Current third party support for the U.S. POW effort includes moves by the British, the ICRC, the Vatican, Sweden and Poland, who have all indicated some interest in appealing to the North Vietnamese on behalf of U.S. prisoners of war in Indochina. The degree of support and interest ranges from the British, who are asking Moscow and the other countries concerned to intervene unilaterally with Hanoi and define POWs in such a way that it includes all U.S. and Free World prisoners captured everywhere in Indochina, to Sweden which is skeptical about the possibility of getting positive responses from the DRV.

1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 121, Vietnam Subject Files, Viet (POW), Vol. II. Secret; Sensitive. Sent for information. A stamped notation on the memorandum reads, “The President has seen.” The President wrote the following note at the bottom of the first page: “Keep it up—We need a good story once every week or 10 days.”
2. For the text of Bruce’s statement at the 99th plenary session on Vietnam held at Paris, January 14, see Department of State Bulletin, February 1, 1971, pp. 136–137.
3. South Vietnam released 37 sick and wounded prisoners that the ICRC had determined were willing to be repatriated to the North on January 24. While the North accepted them, they made no public comment. (Vernon Davis, The Long Road Home: U.S. Prisoner of War Policy and Planning in Southeast Asia, pp. 268–270)