[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 31 (Thursday, March 19, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2345-S2346]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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          POW/MIA COOPERATION FROM FORMER EASTERN BLOC NATIONS

 Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Mr. President, as you know, 
earlier this week the full Senate began to deliberate expanding the 
NATO treaty to include the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. While I 
have already presented some opening remarks on the floor about my 
concerns with moving forward now on this matter, I want to update my 
colleagues on a closely related issue which I personally think has some 
degree of relevance to what we are considering.
  In July, 1997, I was pleased to be a leader of a delegation to Prague 
and Warsaw whose primary mission was to seek information about missing 
American servicemen from the Cold War period. I was joined on this trip 
by my House colleague, Congressman Sam Johnson of Texas--himself a 
former POW from Vietnam--and also by one of our former Ambassadors to 
the Soviet Union, Malcolm Toon. Together, we are all members of a Joint 
Commission with Russia on the POW and MIA issue which was established 
by President Bush and President Yeltsin in 1992. One of our goals last 
summer was to broaden our search to the former communist Eastern Bloc 
nations who were allied with North Vietnam, North Korea, and the Soviet 
Union during the Cold War period.
  During our trip, we were received by the President of the Czech 
Republic, Vaclav Havel, and the President of the Republic of Poland, 
Aleksander Kwasniewski. We also met with various ministers in each of 
these two countries. I want my colleagues to know that we were very 
impressed with the pledges of cooperation we received at all levels 
during all of our meetings. It appeared to us at the time that Poland 
and the Czech Republic clearly understood the importance that Americans 
attach to resolving lingering questions about the fate of our 
unaccounted for POWs and MIAs. These nations had suffered their own 
tragedies under communist domination, and we believed there would be a 
sincere, thorough effort to assist us with our humanitarian mission.
  I might also add that although we did not personally visit Hungary 
during that trip, we did send staff representatives to Budapest, and we 
later received similar pledges of cooperation from the Hungarian 
Embassy in Washington.
  Unfortunately, Mr. President, I must report that the follow-up 
actions that we had hoped would take place have not been satisfactorily 
fulfilled by these three nations. This is especially disturbing and 
troublesome to me as the full Senate now considers whether to guarantee 
putting more American military lives on the line for these republics in 
the former Eastern Bloc.
  It has been said by some NATO expansion advocates that we have an 
opportunity to ensure the Cold War never resurfaces in this part of the 
world. Yet, we still cannot seem to get the cooperation we need from 
this region to address vital questions about our missing and captured 
Americans from this same Cold War period. We still are not able to 
resolve this Cold War problem.
  If their pledges were indeed genuine, as I believed they were, then 
I, frankly, question Mr. President why the leaders of these countries 
cannot convince their respective bureaucracies to open

[[Page S2346]]

their Cold War communist files and make relevant personnel available to 
us for interview. To me, this apparent inability to follow through on 
commitments has serious implications which we should be considering in 
the context of the NATO expansion debate.
  Since last summer, there have been follow-up communications by our 
Commission support staff at the Department of Defense and also by my 
own office with each of these nations urging them to follow through on 
their commitments. Most important is the fact that, based on current 
leads available to us, our Commission believes there is relevant 
information which likely exists in Eastern Europe, especially in the 
military, intelligence, security, and communist party archives of these 
three nations which we are considering bringing into NATO.
  We should remember that the Eastern Bloc was an active ally and 
supporter of the communist North Vietnamese and North Korean regimes 
during those respective U.S. wars. They had a significant presence in 
Asia and were probably privy to information about communist policy 
toward the disposition of American POWs, to include whether any were 
transferred to the territory of the former Soviet Union as we now 
suspect.
  Mr. President, today I appeal once again to the leaders of the Czech 
Republic, Poland, and Hungary to follow through fully with the 
commitments they have made to help us search for our missing American 
servicemen from the Cold War. And I urge my colleagues, on behalf of 
our veterans and POW/MIA family members, to join with me in continuing 
to push for more progress on this humanitarian issue.
  We simply cannot afford to lose sight of this issue of highest 
national priority in the context of the current NATO expansion debate. 
It has important ramifications which we should carefully 
consider.

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