[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S716-S719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




RECOGNITION OF MEMBERS OF ARMED FORCES HELD AS PRISONERS OF WAR DURING 
                            VIETNAM CONFLICT

  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of Senate Resolution 177, 
submitted earlier today by Senators Coverdell, Cleland and others.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 177) recognizing, and calling on all 
     Americans to recognize, the courage and sacrifice of the 
     members of the Armed Forces held as prisoners of war during 
     the Vietnam conflict and stating that the American people 
     will not forget that more than 2,000 members of the Armed 
     Forces remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam conflict and 
     will continue to press for the fullest possible accounting 
     for all such members whose whereabouts are unknown.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the immediate 
consideration of the resolution?
  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, colleagues, I rise on this 25th 
anniversary of the return of the first American POWs from Vietnam to 
recognize the National League of Families of American Prisoners and 
Missing in Southeast Asia and the many years and tireless hours Ann 
Mills Griffiths, the National League of Families' Executive Director, 
and JoAnne Shirley, Chairwoman of the League's Board and a fellow 
Georgian, have spent fighting for the return of American POW's and 
MIA's.
  The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in 
Southeast Asia was incorporated in the District of Columbia on May 28, 
1970.

[[Page S717]]

 Voting membership is comprised solely of the wives, children, parents 
and other close relatives of Americans who were or are listed as 
prisoners of war, missing in action, killed in action/body not 
recovered and returned Vietnam War U.S. POWs. Associate membership is 
comprised of extended relation of POW/MIAs who do not meet voting 
membership requirements and concerned citizens. The League is a non-
profit, non-partisan organization financed by contributions from the 
families, veterans and concerned citizens. The League's sole purpose is 
to obtain the release of all prisoners, the fullest possible accounting 
for the missing and repatriation of all recoverable remains of those 
who died serving our nation during the Vietnam War.
  The League originated on the west coast in the late 1960's. The wife 
of a ranking POW who believed that the U.S. Government's policy of 
keeping a low profile on the POW/MIA issue and encouraging the families 
to refrain from publicly discussing the problem was unjustified, 
initiated a loosely organized movement which evolved into the National 
League of Families.
  In October 1968, the first POW/MIA story was published. As a result 
of that publicity, the families began communicating with each other, 
and the group grew in strength from 50 to 100 to 300 and upward. Small 
POW/MIA family groups flooded the North Vietnamese delegation in Paris 
with inquiries regarding the prisoners and missing; the first major 
activity in which hundreds of families participated.
  Eventually, the necessity for formal incorporation was recognized. In 
May 1970, a special AD HOC meeting of the families met at Constitution 
Hall in Washington, D.C. During this meeting the League's charter and 
by-laws were adopted.
  A seven-member board of directors meets regularly to determine League 
policy and direction. The board is elected by the voting membership 
which now stands at approximately 1,000. Regional coordinators, 
responsible for activities in multi-state areas, and state coordinators 
also represent the League in most of the fifty states.
  The League's national office is now staffed by only one full-time 
employee, augmented by concerned citizen and family member volunteers. 
The executive director, the sister of a soldier MIA and the 
organization's chief executive officer, is responsible for management 
of the League and Implementation of policies established by the 
membership and board of directors.
  In 1971, Mrs. Michael Hoff, an MIA wife and member of the National 
League, recognized the need for a symbol representing our POW/MIAs. 
Prompted by an article in the Jacksonville, FL Times-Union, Mrs. Hoff 
contacted Norman Rivkees, VP of Annin & Company, which had made a 
banner for the newest member of the UN, the People's Republic of China, 
as a part of their policy to provide flags to all UN member states. 
Mrs. Hoff found Mr. Rivkees very sympathetic to the POW/MIA issue, and 
he along with Annin's advertising agency, designed a flag to represent 
our missing men. Following the National League's approval, the flags 
were manufactured for distribution. On March 9, 1989, a flag which flew 
over the White House on the 1988 National POW/MIA Recognition Day, was 
installed in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, as a result of legislation 
passed overwhelmingly during the 100th Congress. On August 10, 1990, 
the 101st Congress passed U.S. Public Law 101-355, which recognized the 
National League's POW/MIA flag and designated it ``as the symbol of our 
Nation's concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the 
fates of Americans still prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in 
Southeast Asia, thus ending the uncertainty for their families and the 
Nation.'' This POW/MIA flag is now recognized world wide, by all 
concerned, as the universal symbol of the ``UNACCOUNTED FOR''.
  Mrs. Ann Mills Griffiths serves as Executive Director of the National 
League of POW/MIA Families, a position held since August, 1978. Mrs. 
Griffiths' brother, Lt. Commander James B. Mills, USNR, has been 
missing since September 21, 1966, when the Navy F4C on which he served 
as a Radar Intercept Officer was lost on a night mission over North 
Vietnam.
  Prior to assuming her position as executive director, Mrs. Griffiths 
was an elected member of the League's board of directors for four 
years, serving as legislative chairman. During its existence from 1980 
through 1992, she played an active role in the U.S. Government's POW/
MIA Interagency Group, representing the families' views in development 
of official policy to resolve this humanitarian issue.
  Mrs. Griffiths has traveled extensively for discussion with senior 
officials of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, as well as the countries of 
ASEAN. She was instrumental in facilitating high level negotiations 
between Vietnam and the United States in 1983 and participated in 
fourteen U.S. Government policy-level POW/MIA delegations to Hanoi 
since 1982, plus two League delegations in 1982 and 1994.
  Acknowledged as an expert on the POW/MIA issue, Mrs. Griffiths 
regularly meets with senior administration officials and members of 
congress, appears before congressional committees, addresses national 
and international audiences, participates in appropriate policy 
seminars, publishes articles and newsletters, and is a frequent 
spokeswoman on network and cable television programs.
  Within policy established by the membership and elected board of 
directors, Mrs. Griffiths has been instrumental in building the League 
from a small POW/MIA family group into a nationally recognized, non-
profit organization that influences U.S. policy to resolve the 
humanitarian POW/MIA issue. In administering the Leagues' affairs, Mrs. 
Griffiths supervises League operations, manages a successful direct-
mail program and plans the League's yearly convention that includes the 
highest levels of the U.S. Government. With the assistance of their 
staff and volunteer state and regional officials, Mrs. Griffiths also 
coordinates a nation-wide awareness program on the issue.

  Mrs. JoAnne Shirley has been serving as Chairman of the Board of 
Directors since June 1995. Her brother, Maj. Bobby Marvin Jones, M.D., 
USAF Flight Surgeon, was shot down November 28, 1972, near DaNang, 
South Vietnam.
  Mrs. Shirley is married to Dr. Rudy Shirley, MS., and ENT doctor, and 
they reside in Dalton, Georgia, with their three children Bobby, Rhett 
and Chrissie. She served on the School Board for 10 years, and has been 
a volunteer in many community, county and state sponsored projects.
  Mrs. Shirley co-founded the Georgia Committee for POW/MIA, Inc in the 
1980s and served as Georgia State Coordinator for the National League 
of Families from 1983-1993. She served as Secretary of the National 
League of 1993-94, and then as Vice-Chairman from 1994-95. In 1997, 
Mrs. Shirley, by herself, raised $15,000 to fund her and Mrs. 
Griffiths' trip to Southeast Asia.
  Mr. President, these two women who are wives, mothers, and involved 
citizens have spent countless hours, money and resources keeping 
accountability alive. Nothing strikes a louder chord with Americans 
than the thought of our soldiers in the hands of our country's enemies. 
It is important that we recognize the work of organizations such as the 
National League of Families and of people such as Ann Mills Griffiths 
and JoAnne Shirley who have worked hard to ensure we do not forget 
those soldiers who were left behind.
  Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Mr. President, I am pleased to be an 
original cosponsor of the Senate Resolution which recognizes the 25th 
anniversary of the return of 591 American POWs from communist Vietnam 
in February and March, 1973, and reaffirms our national commitment to 
seek answers about missing Americans from the Vietnam War.
  I have been privileged through the years to come to know many of the 
Americans POWs held for so many years by the Communist side and finally 
released in 1973. This includes heroes in the Congress like 
Representative Sam Johnson of Texas, and Senator John McCain of 
Arizona, and other heroes like Admiral James Stockdale, Ambassador Pete 
Peterson, Red McDaniel, Orson Swindle, Ted Guy, Giles Norrington, and 
Mike Benge, to name a few.
  Today marks the 25th anniversary of the return of the first group of 
American POWs from Hanoi during what was known as Operation Homecoming. 
This first group included Congressman Sam

[[Page S718]]

Johnson, someone who I have been honored to work closely with through 
the years to obtain answers about those still missing from the war. 
Several other groups of POWs were released later in February, 1973, and 
throughout March, 1973, with the last American acknowledged by Hanoi to 
be a POW being returned on April 1st.
  A few years ago, one of these returned POWs I mentioned earlier, 
Captain McDaniel, wrote a book about his experience as a POW entitled 
``Scars and Stripes.''
  I want to quote just a small passage from that book which describes 
the feelings of the POWs as they were being led from their prisons to 
the airport in Hanoi for repatriation.
  ``I saw a familiar C-141 aircraft waiting for us on the field. At 
that moment, something broke inside me and the tears came easily. 
Somehow I had managed to restrict my tears to those rare times, in the 
nights under my mosquito net, when Hanoi Radio had gotten to me and I 
was down. But here, seeing that airplane waiting, I just let go, 
because I suddenly realized that my country had not let me down. And 
that great Scripture came to me, the Lord's words: I will never leave 
thee, nor forsake thee.

       Even as God had stayed at my side through all that time and 
     taught me the things that were to change my life completely 
     about His reality and His presence in suffering, somehow that 
     American plane socked home some of the things that made 
     America and God great.
       Then I was on that airplane, and pandemonium broke lose. As 
     those wheels lifted off, the cheers shook the plane. And when 
     the plane crossed over water on the way south, we all 
     shouted, ``Feet wet!''--we were no longer over North Vietnam. 
     Those mouths opened in a wild cheer--some with teeth missing, 
     some with faces showing physical and emotional scars, some 
     who cried while they cheered. No matter what anyone would say 
     in the future about Vietnam, somehow we had won a little 
     piece of something that no man would take away from us.

  Mr. President, what true patriots these men were. How fitting that we 
honor them today with this Senate resolution commemorating the 25th 
anniversary of their release.
  With this resolution, we also call attention to the important last 
mission of the war which is still unresolved--the mission to obtain the 
fullest possible accounting for those whose whereabouts and fate are 
still unknown. Our thoughts go out to the families of those missing 
men, and we reaffirm our national commitment to learning the truth so 
we can remove the uncertainty these families face.
  I have been personally involved with searching for answers on the 
POW/MIA issue, as my colleagues know, for several years now. I want to 
take this opportunity today to again call on the Governments in 
Southeast Asia, North Korea, China, Russia, and the former Eastern bloc 
to do more to open up their archives and make key witnesses available 
so we may advance the accounting effort. There is much work still to 
do, and I appreciate that this resolution before us today recognizes 
that fact.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I want to take a special moment here to 
thank my colleague from Georgia, a cosponsor of this resolution and 
himself a veteran of the Vietnam war; Senator Smith of New Hampshire; 
Senator Lott, the majority leader; and Senator Hagel, a Vietnam veteran 
from Nebraska. I am especially delighted to be joined by Senator 
Cleland who, as I said, is himself a testament to the courage and 
sacrifice made by so many men and women in American uniform during the 
Vietnam conflict.
  The resolution also directs itself to two of our colleagues who were 
themselves long-held prisoners of war, Congressman Sam Johnson, who is 
specifically noted in the resolution, and our own Senator John McCain 
of Arizona.
  Senator McCain and I have known each other for some extended period 
of time and I have always marveled at what he endured and, I might add, 
that it was almost a double endurance. What I mean is that the North 
Vietnamese, recognizing that he was the son of a U.S. Navy admiral, 
tried to break him away from his colleagues and send him home. He made 
the choice not to accept, not to accept this unique tension in 
deference to his colleagues, his father and the Navy.
  I was reminded earlier today that when these veterans were returned 
and disembarked from the aircraft--of course we all remember the scenes 
of them kneeling down and kissing the ground--but then to stand up and 
thank America for the privilege to have served her. It was an 
incredible act of courage, an act of care and love, of the country 
whose uniforms they had worn.
  Interestingly enough, unbeknownst to me just earlier, I was with a 
young man who said but for the brief chance of fate he would have been 
a pilot in Vietnam. This was just moments ago and he was here when 
these POW's returned, and he had a chance to be among them. At that 
time he was about 33, which was the age of many of these POW's, the 
difference being, of course, that he still looked 33 and they looked 50 
or older because of what they had endured. He was reminded about how 
moving the moment was to see these Americans who had returned, who had 
endured so much, who had become the epitome of courage and 
perseverance. He says whenever he is reminded of it, it still sends 
chills down his back. How much we owe these men and women. It is 
important that we remember.
  Whenever a nation embarks on something like this--and perhaps it is 
uniquely important that we are remembering, considering the discussions 
that are underway here this very week, discussing the eve of a major 
conflict--we remember what these men and women did for America.
  Of course, today marks the 25th anniversary of the return of the 
first POWs from North Vietnam. Following the signing of the peace 
accords, 591 United States prisoners of war were released. The 
operation was dubbed ``Operation Homecoming.'' Today, as was noted in 
the resolution, there are still 2,000 members of our Armed Forces who 
remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam conflict.
  This resolution recognizes that despite the brutal mistreatment these 
prisoners received, they nevertheless devised a means to communicate 
with one another, to support one another by a code transmitted by 
tapping on the wall. The resolution refers to Commander James B. 
Stockdale, U.S. Navy, who upon his capture on September 9, 1965, became 
the senior prisoner of war officer in what became dubbed the ``Hanoi 
Hilton.'' He delivered the following message to his men to sustain 
their morale: ``Remember, you are Americans. With faith in God, trust 
in one another, and devotion to your country, you will overcome, you 
will triumph.''
  This resolution resolves that the Senate expresses its gratitude for 
and calls upon all Americans to reflect upon and show their gratitude 
for the courage and sacrifice of the brave men who were held prisoners 
of war during the Vietnam conflict, particularly on the occasion of 
this, the 25th anniversary of Operation Homecoming, their return from 
captivity. It also resolves that the Senate, indeed America, will not, 
must not, forget the more than 2,000 members of the United States Armed 
Forces that remain unaccounted for in the Vietnam conflict, and that 
the Senate will continue to press for the fullest possible accounting 
for such members.
  Mr. President, again, I thank my colleague from Georgia, Senator 
Cleland, for his cosponsorship, more importantly for his service, his 
long service, Senator Smith, Senator Lott and Senator Hagel of 
Nebraska.
  In closing I simply say on behalf of all Americans, this American 
says to all who served under such difficult circumstances, a grateful 
Nation says thank you.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the resolution 
be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be 
laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the resolution 
appear at the appropriate place in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 177) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, is as follows:

                              S. Res. 177

       Whereas participation by the United States Armed Forces in 
     combat operations in Southeast Asia during the period from 
     1964 through 1972 resulted in several hundreds of members of 
     the United States

[[Page S719]]

     Armed Forces being taken prisoner by North Vietnamese, Pathet 
     Lao, and Viet Cong enemy forces;
       Whereas the first such United States serviceman taken as a 
     prisoner of war, Navy Lt. Commander Everett Alvarez, was 
     captured on August 5, 1964;
       Whereas following the Paris Peace Accords of January 1973, 
     591 United States prisoners of war were released from 
     captivity by North Vietnam;
       Whereas the return of these prisoners of war to United 
     States control and to their families and comrades was 
     designated Operation Homecoming;
       Whereas many members of the United States Armed Forces who 
     were taken prisoner as a result of ground or aerial combat in 
     Southeast Asia have not returned to their loved ones and 
     their whereabouts remain unknown;
       Whereas United States prisoners of war in Southeast Asia 
     were routinely subjected to brutal mistreatment, including 
     beatings, torture, starvation, and denial of medical 
     attention;
       Whereas United States prisoners of war in Southeast Asia 
     were held in a number of facilities, the most notorious of 
     which was Hoa Loa Prison in downtown Hanoi, dubbed the 
     ``Hanoi Hilton'' by the prisoners held there;
       Whereas the hundreds of United States prisoners or war held 
     in the Hanoi Hilton and other facilities persevered under 
     terrible conditions;
       Whereas the prisoners were frequently isolated from each 
     other and prohibited from speaking to each other;
       Whereas the prisoners nevertheless, at great personal risk, 
     devised a means to communicate with each other through a code 
     transmitted by tapping on cell walls;
       Whereas then-Commander James B. Stockdale, United States 
     Navy, who upon his capture on September 9, 1965, became the 
     senior POW officer present in the Hanoi Hilton, delivered to 
     his men a message that was to sustain them during their 
     ordeal, as follows: Remember, you are Americans. With faith 
     in God, trust in one another, and devotion to your country, 
     you will overcome. You will triumph.;
       Whereas the men held as prisoners of war during the Vietnam 
     conflict truly represent all that is best about America;
       Whereas two of these patriots, Congressman Sam Johnson, of 
     Texas, and Senator John McCain, of Arizona, have continued to 
     honor the Nation with devoted service; and
       Whereas the Nation owes a debt of gratitude to all of these 
     patriots for their courage and exemplary service: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) expresses its gratitude for, and calls upon all 
     Americans to reflect upon and show their gratitude for, the 
     courage and sacrifice of the brave men who were held as 
     prisoners of war during the Vietnam conflict, particularly on 
     the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Operation Homecoming, 
     their return from captivity; and
       (2) acting on behalf of all Americans--
       (A) will not forget that more than 2,000 members of the 
     United States Armed Forces remain unaccounted for from the 
     Vietnam conflict; and
       (B) will continue to press for the fullest possible 
     accounting for such members.

                          ____________________