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The Authentication of the Quang 1205 Document

The transcript of the document known as the Quang 1205 Document was uncovered by Dr. Stephen Morris, a Harvard Researcher not involved in the PoW/MIA issue.

Dr. Morris knew when he uncovered this document that he had uncovered an important piece of information concerning the candidness, or the lack thereof, of the Vietnamese Government regarding the PoW/MIA issue.

Let's see what several people had to say about the document:

  • Dr. Henry Kissinger said that with regards to the negotiating methods that were being used at the time were exactly as described in the document. He went on to state: "If that document is authentic, and it is hard to imagine who would have forged it, for what purpose, then I think an enormous crime has been committed, and then we should-I do not see how we can proceed in normalizing relations until it is fully cleared up" He also stated: "I don't think we can normalize relations or ease conditions in international agencies until we have cleared up this issue."

  • Former National Security Adviser Brzezinski , talking on MacNeil/Lehrer responding to the question "What convinces you this document is real?" replied, "Its style, its content, the cover note to the Soviet Politburo. One would have to assume a really, very complex Byzantine conspiracy to reach the conclusion that this is not an authentic Soviet document based on a Vietnamese document." He went even further; "As far as Vietnam is concerned, I think if this document is sustained, and it looks unfortunately to be sustainable, we have the right to ask the present Vietnamese government to place those responsible in war crimes trials."

  • Dr. Rudolf Germanovich Pikhoya, the Chief State Archivist of the Russian Federation in August of 1995 said, "I am absolutely certain that the numbers-that is the numbers of POW's cited by General Quang are true. I believe the data still exists in Vietnam which deals specifically with U.S. POW's....I am absolutely positive that the 1,205 figure is absolutely true and correct as far as intelligence data is concerned. As an archivist and someone who has analyzed a great many documents, military and otherwise, I can tell you this is an absolute truth."

  • Colonel General Ladygin, Chief, Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff Ministries of Defense (GRU): "General Tran Van Quang, according to the position he held in the Vietnamese military political leadership in 1982 would have been fully competent in the matters stated in the report and qualified to speak about them at Politburo sessions of the Vietnamese Communist Party Central Committee.

  • Captain 1st Rank Alexander Sivets , Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, GRU: "I will reaffirm that the 1205 document could not have been used for propoganda purposes. It was a top secret document not intended for anyone outside the chambers of the Vietnamese Communist Party to see. The document that was sent to the [Soviet] Central Party Committee is, in fact, an original document and not a fake. We consider that the Vietnamese leaders, in their desire to expolit the POW problem for their own interests, would officially cite a lower figure than the real one. This is something that we do not doubt. We believe there were more [American] POWs then Vietnam was officially admitting to."

  • General Dmitri Volkogonov: "Upon the request of *Senator [Bob] Smith to President Yeltsin, President Yeltsin ordered me to conduct additional research to include in the files of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. I have studied exhaustively the mechanism used to gather this document, and I can state that I do not know of any case where such information could have been fabricated. General Ladygin has stated that General Quang was fully competent to give his report."

    *Senator Bob Smith (R-NC) is probably the best friend that the PoW/MIA community has on the Hill. He had his wife hand deliver a letter to President Yeltsin because he did not trust official channels. What does that tell you?

  • Maj. Genearl Anitiliy Volkov: "The Vietnamese denied this document and said it was put forth to throw cold water on U.S. relations. However, I would say in response that there is an old Russian proverb-you cannot change the words of a song."

    So let's recap; What we have here folks is a General of the Vietnamese Army made a report to the Vietnamese Central Committee, a closed session of that Committe and he was reporting on, in part, the fact that in September, 1972 the Vietnamese were holding 1,205 Americans as Prisoner of War. As we know only 591 came home.

    When Dr. Morris uncovered this document, he did so in early 1993, just after the Clinton Administration took office. When he turned it over to Clinton Administration officials, where was the uproar? Where was the moral indignation? What did the Clinton Administration do with the document? They Classified it! But Dr. Morris also gave a copy of it to the New York Times.

    Dr. Kissinger and Former NSA Brzezinski both felt that the document was authentic and both viewed proceeding further with Vietnam hinged upon getting to the bottom of this document. But the big companies didn't want a little matter of 614 PEOPLE to stand in their greedy ways and pressured and lobbied this administration to lift the embargo and proceed toward normalization, which we have done.

    Interestingly, General Van Tran Quang is still alive and has not been debriefed by US investigators, although he was spoken to by Undersecretary of State Winston Lord several months ago--but NOT about the 1,205 document. Keep that in mind the next time you hear about "excellent" or "superb" cooperation.

    We have the Chief Russian Archivist, the Head of the Russian Intelligence Agency, the equivalent of our own Defense Intelligence Agency, as well as General Dmitri Volkogonov, the equivalent of our Director of Central Intelligence, admitting the authenticity of this document. We also have several officers of the GRU admitting to this documents authenticity. Remember, during the Vietnam War, the Russians were friends of the Vietnamese Government. Why would they lie? What would be their reason?

    It should be stated that the source for the above information regarding those that are quoted comes from the floor of the United States Senate and can be found by obtaining pages S16404 through S16419 of the Congressional Record. Don't just take our word for it, research it for yourself!


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