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U.S. Government Continues Search for Vietnam MIAs

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KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: This week marks the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. The conflict caused deep divisions within the U.S. and some wounds still linger today.

As CNN's Tom Mintier reports, one of the most emotional issues is the search for Americans still missing from the war.

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TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It started way back when news footage was shot with black and white film. Somewhere over North Vietnam another American pilot is shot down. Now more than three decades later the U.S. government is still seeking answers to what might have happened. There are more than 1,500 Missing-In-Action or MIAs in Vietnam, far fewer than the nearly 8,000 who died in just a few hours during the invasion of Normandy, but still a high priority for the U.S. government.

More than half were U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots who make up a larger list of those still missing in Southeast Asia.

(on camera): Although the war has been over for 25 years, U.S. officials say they won't close the book on Vietnam until each and every American has been accounted for, a process that could take another 25 years or even longer.

(voice-over): U.S. officials describe Vietnam's cooperation on the MIA issue as excellent, it hasn't always been that way. In the beginning the Vietnamese withheld records and information crucial to dozens of MIA cases. Five hundred and ninety-one POW's were released by Vietnam in 1973, not everyone is convinced that all POWs were released.

The current U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam was himself a POW, while not willing to declare the issue closed, he says it is unlikely that any POWs were held back.

PETE PETERSON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO VIETNAM: There just isn't the evidence that would suggest or support the position that there is one or two or three or four or five, I don't know. But at the same time, you never give up that hope until we make that final determination.

MINTIER: That determination starts here, at the U.S. MIA office in Hanoi. U.S. soldiers have been working in Vietnam on the MIA issue since 1985, they call it "The Ranch." Next month a half-dozen teams will fan out across Vietnam seeking to recover the remains of those still listed as Missing-In-Action.

LT. COL. FRANKLIN CHILDRESS, JOINT TASK FORCE/FA: Until we are told by the highest of the U.S. command authorities to cease and desist doing this mission, we believe it's a sacred honor to actually get out there and do this. It's important to the families to have that closure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This will bring up all the records that you're looking for with a specific name. If someone reports a name...

MINTIER: Information on MIA cases is now computerized. Teams in the field have the complete file from a database at the central records facility in Hawaii. When this task first started everything was handwritten.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We generate a tremendous amount of information and our ability to handle it is increased with technology.

MINTIER: What has increased more slowly is the number of MIA cases that have been successfully closed. U.S. officials say those that remain are among the most difficult to resolve.

Tom Mintier, CNN, Hanoi, Vietnam.

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