[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 125 (Thursday, September 18, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1808]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        POW/MIA RECOGNITION DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 18, 1997

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remind my colleagues of the 
importance of National POW/MIA Recognition Day, which falls on 
September 19, 1997. I urge my colleagues to participate in recognizing 
America's heroes, those who are presumed missing in action.
  Our Nation has fought six major conflicts in its history. In those 
wars, over 500,000 Americans have been taken prisoner of war. Those 
service men and women experienced numerous hardships and treatment 
which could often be described only as barbaric during the course of 
captivity. Those Americans imprisoned by the Japanese during World War 
II faced the worst possible conditions in captivity and were firsthand 
witnesses to the utter depravity of their fellow men.
  I have been a strong advocate of an accounting of our POW/MIA's since 
I first came to the Congress in 1973. I proudly supported the creation 
of the Select Committee on Missing Persons in Southeast Asia, the 
National POW/MIA Recognition Days, and POW/MIA legislation because I 
believe the families of those who are missing in action deserve no 
less. Hopefully 1996 will be the last year that such an occasion will 
be necessary. My hope is that by this time next year, our Government 
will have obtained a full accounting of those brave American's whose 
fates, at this time, are still unknown.
  Permit me to focus special recognition on those POW/MIA's from Korea 
and Vietnam. Despite the administration's best assurances to the 
contrary, many of us remain unconvinced that the Governments of North 
Korea and Vietnam have been fully cooperating with the United States on 
this issue. Regrettably, by normalizing relations with Vietnam, I 
believe that we have withdrawn our leverage over the Vietnamese 
Government on this issue.
  In recent years, we have learned from testimony presented to 
congressional committees that Soviet and Czech military doctors 
performed ghastly medical experiments on United States POW's in North 
Korea during the Korean war. These experiments were used to test the 
psychological endurance of American GI's, as well as their resistance 
to chemical, biological, and radioactive agents. Moreover, Soviet and 
Czech intelligence agents helped organize shipments of POW's to the 
U.S.S.R. during the Vietnam war, and that 200 were sent between 1961 
and 1968.
  It is my hope that this information will lead to a further 
clarification regarding the safe return of any living POW's who may 
still be in captivity in Korea or elsewhere.
  Americans should bear in mind the love of country that America's 
veterans have demonstrated as well as their personal sacrifices, 
convictions, and dedication to freedom that they have courageously 
exhibited.
  In a portion of President Abraham Lincoln's letter to a mother who 
lost five sons on the battlefield, he stated: ``I cannot refrain from 
tendering to you the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray 
that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, 
and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the 
solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon 
the altar of freedom.''
  May it be of some solace to the families and loved ones of our 
missing and POW's that there are many of us in the Congress committed 
to a full and final accounting of our missing and will continue to seek 
such a resolution.

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