U.S. military intelligenceRadio message to five airmen it knew were captive, and their guards, the day after the armistice

“Communists cannot plausibly deny you are alive and must arrange your exchange or be charged with violation of armistice.” The five were Capt. Gilbert Ashley, Capt. Harold Turner, 1st Lt. Arthur Olsen, 1st Lt. John Shaddick III and A2C Hidemaro Ishida. None came home.

Gen. Mark ClarkCommander of all U.S. and U.N. forces in Korea

“We learned that the Chinese and the North Koreans, like the Communists in Russia, had refused to return all the prisoners they captured … I think one reason was that they wanted to hold the prisoners as hostages for future bargaining with us.”

The United States governmentDiplomatic note to Moscow, May 1954

“The United States Government has recently received reports which support earlier indications that American prisoners of war who had seen action in Korea have been transported to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and that they are now in Soviet custody. The United States Government desires to … arrange their repatriation at the earliest possible time.”

Gen. Nathan F. TwiningAir Force chief of staff, later chairman of the Joint Chiefs — 1954

“An apparently substantial number of U.S. military personnel captured in the course of the Korean War … are still being held prisoners by the Communist Forces.” Twining asked the CIA to mount covert operations to rescue them. The agency refused.

A Pentagon intelligence officerDefense POW/MIA Office background paper on Korean War live-sighting reports, March 1996

“The [Pentagon POW office] concludes that there are two groups of Americans in North Korea … a small group of defectors and a larger group of 10-15 possible POWs.”

The U.S. side of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAsThe Pentagon’s own investigators, 1996

“There is a high probability that during the Korean War American POWs were transferred from Korea to the Soviet Union.”

Secret Pentagon memo, 1955To the State Department, on the 1950, 1952 and other reconnaissance losses

“Air Force crews…are probably held by the Soviet Union. …The missions on which these aircraft were flying, while related to the Korean War, are highly classified…The US should not be surprised … if a number of completely unrecorded Americans are ultimately found to be alive…”

The U.S. State DepartmentNote to Moscow, 1956

“(The U.S. is)…compelled to believe that the Soviet Government has had and continues to have under detention crew members from the Privateer… Members of the crew of this United States aircraft were, and are, detained in Soviet detention places in the Far Eastern area of the Soviet Union.” Nothing came back.

James R. SchlesingerDirector of Central Intelligence, later secretary of defense — Senate testimony, 1992

Asked whether men were left behind in Southeast Asia, including Laos: “I can come to no other conclusion, Senator … in 1973, some were left behind.”

President Richard NixonLetter of protest to North Vietnam, 2 February 1973

“The list of American prisoners held in Laos which was presented in Paris on February 1, 1973, is unsatisfactory. U.S. records show that there are 317 American military men unaccounted for in Laos and it is inconceivable that only ten of these men would be held prisoner in Laos.” Weeks later, Washington gave in and accepted peace with no requirement to account for this group of missing Americans.

The Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA AffairsFinal report, 13 January 1993

“There is evidence, moreover, that indicates the possibility of survival, at least for a small number, after Operation Homecoming.”

A Pentagon officialNote of a Defense Intelligence Agency briefing on intercepted communist messages, December 1979

“Col. Picinich [of the DIA] was visibly excited about recent events. It is the opinion of that office that U.S. POWs are in fact still alive in SEA [Southeast Asia].” The Nhommarath reporting →