[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 125 (Friday, September 18, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S10606]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NATIONAL POW/MIA RECOGNITION DAY

 Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Mr. President, Friday, September, 
18, 1998 has been designated this year by our Federal and State 
Governments as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. As we have done for 
nearly 20 years, we reaffirm today our national commitment to obtaining 
the fullest possible accounting for America's POWs and MIAs. This is 
also a day to remember and pay tribute to the ultimate sacrifices that 
have been made by America's finest and bravest service personnel--our 
unaccounted for prisoners of war and missing in action personnel who 
never returned from wartime enemy territory.
  It has been an honor and privilege for me, since my election to the 
Congress in 1984, to assist the POW/MIA families, our veterans, and 
their friends and supporters, with the many efforts that have been 
undertaken to try to achieve a proper accounting for so many of our 
nation's heroes whose fate remains unknown. It has been a difficult and 
emotional task, complicated by on and off-again cooperation by foreign 
governments
  As many of my colleagues know, I served as Vice-Chairman of the 
Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs in 1992, and I currently 
serve as the U.S. Chairman of the Vietnam War Working Group of the 
Joint U.S./Russian Commission on POWs and MIAs. I have traveled to 
North Korea, Vietnam, Russia, Laos, Cambodia, Poland, and the Czech 
Republic trying to assist our Government's efforts to open archives and 
interview people knowledgeable about the fate of our unaccounted for 
captured and missing personnel. I have also made efforts over the last 
year to prod our own U.S. Intelligence Community to provide the 
analysis and support necessary to help shape our policy toward nations 
that hold the answers we seek. Finally, I continue to work to ensure 
that U.S. Government records on this issue are declassified and made 
available to the public.
  Mr. President, today, as I have every year in this Chamber, I urge 
the Administration to take the opportunity National POW/MIA Recognition 
Day provides to rededicate itself to the fullest possible accounting 
mission. I also urge all Americans to continue expressing their 
concerns on this national issue because public awareness is critical to 
the accounting effort.
  In closing, I again want to assure my constituents in New Hampshire, 
my fellow veterans, the POW/MIA families, and the countless Americans 
who have contacted me through the years, that I remain absolutely 
committed to doing everything I can to learn the truth about our POWs 
and MIAs to whom we pay tribute on this special day. 

                          ____________________