The following undated report was located at the National Archives. It provides interesting background information on attempts to get North Korea and China to account for American Servicemen known to be alive in captivity

"Under the Korean Armistice Agreement each side agreed to repatriate or otherwise account for all POWs and deceased combatants of the other side of whose fate it had any knowledge. The efforts of the U. S. Government to get the Communists to fulfill their commitments in this regard have been continuous, persistent, frustrating and largely unrewarding. Shortly after the official exchange of POWs had been completed in September of 1953 officials of the UN Command handed the Communist side a list of 3404 names of missing UN Command personnel including the names of 944 U. S. servicemen of whom we had reason to believe the Communists should have some knowledge. At the outset I should like to make it clear that in placing this demand for an accounting on the Communists, the UN Command did not intend to imply that we were charging the Communists with holding this large group of Americans alive and against their will. Rather, under the terms of the armistice agreement we were demanding an accounting for missing UN Command personnel of whom we had reason to believe the Communists should have some knowledge of their whereabouts if alive, or the circumstances of their death and the location of their remains, if deceased.

Our belief that the Communists should have knowledge of these individuals was based upon several sources of information:

First, interviews with repatriated personnel who stated that they had seen certain named individuals who had not been repatriated, who had not been otherwise accounted for, and who had been alive and in Communist hands; secondly, Communist radio broadcasts giving the names of certain U.N. Command, personnel and admitting that they were under Communist control; thirdly propaganda pictures in our possession which had been taken by the Communists and circulated for propaganda purposes showing American military personnel on forced marches taking part in parades in Communist held cities (undoubtedly against their will) fourthly. mail which had been written by POWs to their friends and relatives in the U.S. attesting to the fact that they were in a PW status; fifthly, air crews who had seen our airmen parachute from disabled aircraft and after safe landings, surrounded by enemy forces or civilians. In addition. other intelligence reporting supported our contentions.

The point I am trying to make here is that there is considerable circumstantial evidence from which to draw the conclusion that these individuals were alive and under Communist control in relatively stable situations, removed from battle and at periods ranging from several days to many months after they had become missing in action from their own UN command units.

This demand on the Communists for an accounting produced a superficial and totally unacceptable reply. On several subsequent occasions similar demands were placed upon the Communist side through the Military Armistice Commission for an accounting. The results have been essentially negative. In addition to efforts to secure an accounting through the Military Armistice Commission, the Grave Registration Units of the UN Command continue their investigations, the military services continue the sifting of thousands of reports, interviews with returned POWs. and the interrogation of friendly sources of Korean and other nationalities, attempting to piece together all available information which would throw light on the fate of the missing.

Through the unilateral efforts of the U. S. Government which I have just mentioned, the list of 944 has been reduced to 526 by August 1954. This reduction came about because the efforts we had made produced conclusive evidence of death for 418 of the original list.

Even though the Communist side under the terms of the armistice agreement owed us an accounting for the complete 944, we presented them with a revised list of 526 in the fall of 1954, hoping that the reduced list might result in a more satisfactory accounting by the Communists. Such was not the case.

In the meantime, in June of 1954, at the Geneva Conference on Korea and .Indo-China, the Department of State initiated certain actions which will be described to you by the Department of State representative here today. Due to these actions by State, plus further efforts to uncover additional information, the list was further reduced to 450.

For the past several years the Department of Defense and the Department of State have worked jointly and cooperatively in continuing efforts to secure from the Communists a satisfactory accounting. In support of the efforts of the Department of State. the Department of Defense and the Military Services have concentrated on an intensive effort to collect every scrap of information and intelligence regarding the unaccounted for 450. The Military Services under a

quarterly report requirement have been producing individual dossiers on each case. These dossiers have been made available to Ambassador U. Alexis Johnson for his negotiations with representatives of the Chinese Communist regime at Geneva.

A breakdown of the 450 unaccounted for personnel is as follows:

By way of examples of the circumstantial evidence upon which we base our insistent demands for an accounting from the Communists I shall cite the following cases:

(a) An Air force Major, Pilot of a B-29 that was shot down on 9 September, 1950. He was taken prisoner and held for a time in a jail in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Later the same year the Agency "Soviet Picture" released a picture of this flyer together with the statement that he had been taken prisoner by Communist forces. In one of the inadequate accountings furnished by the Communist side, they stated that they had no data regarding the fate of this pilot.

(b) A U.S. Army Captain, pilot of a liaison plane shot down October 1952. This Captain was taken prisoner and held by the Communists. From the statements of fellow prisoners later repatriated, we know that he had lost one leg when shot down, and by November 1952 his other leg had been amputated. In the so-called "accounting given by the Communists it was stated that this Captain "escaped." Note that by this time the Captain was a double amputee.

(c) A U. S. Army Private, taken prisoner by the Communists in August 1950. Several months later a Communist radio station broadcast a number of messages to mothers in the U.S. From POWs held by their side. This Army Private's mother was one of those to whom such a message was addressed. In the so-called accounting the Communists stated they had no data regarding the fate of this soldier.

On the other hand, many of those named on the list of 450, if we draw the logical conclusion from the circumstantial evidence are dead. There are cases where other repatriated POWs have certified to the fact that individuals

were badly wounded and receiving inadequate medical attention, suffering from malnutrition or exposure, and were on the verge of death. There are cases where repatriated POWs have stated that they saw some of these prisoners die. In the majority of cases, however, these deaths occurred a varying lengths of time after capture. and in relatively stable situations removed from the battle field. Under such circumstances any responsible military force of a responsible government would have, and should now be able to furnish to us, data regarding the circumstances of death and the whereabouts of the remains of such individuals, particularly in view of the fact that the North Koreans and the Chinese Communists agreed to abide by the terms of the Geneva Conventions on Prisoners of War.

Due to the inevitable confusion at the time the exchange of POWs was completed in Korea (September 1953) and due to a certain amount of inaccurate reporting the subject of missing POWs, the impressions is still current among some segments of the American public that the U.S. Government believes that a large group of American military personnel are alive and still held in Asian countries by Communist captors. While the possibility exists that there may still be some personnel held, alive and against their will, we do not have any further positive information or intelligence from any source that such is the case. Because of the lack of positive information to to support the contention that any of our military are still held as well as a lack of conclusive information to indicate that they are all deceased, I am sure you will realize the difficulty we face in attempting to comfort the next of kin and to satisfy the understandable and patriotic concern which has been expressed by so many Americans on this subject.

We are in the extremely difficult position of not being able, in all honesty to hold out much hope, what at the same time we cannot in good conscience foreclose the possibility that some may still be alive. In any event, the information we demand can only come, in the final analysis, from the Chinese Communist or North Koran authorities. Our efforts are concentrated in that direction.