Where I Stand: Media and politicians ignore Korean War MIAs’ plight

Friday, May 16, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

MIKE O'CALLAGHAN, a former two-term governor of Nevada, is executive editor of the Las Vegas SUN.

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NOT MUCH MEDIA COVERAGE, other than CNN television, was given last week to the six days of talks between U.S. and North Korea negotiators discussing Americans missing from the Korean War. The discussions, for the first time, included some relatives of the missing men.

U.S. negotiator James W. Wold found little to report about the meetings. "Despite assurances in advance that the talks would deal conclusively with all issues, their delegation was unable to respond constructively to U.S. proposals in any of the three areas," Wold said. The three areas of concern were the excavation and returning of remains and search for missing soldiers and access for American researchers to North Korean military archives.

Only yesterday, the North Koreans were shamed or, because of their famine, starved into reluctantly agreeing to some search cooperation. It will be interesting to see exactly what results from this last agreement. So many past promises have been made and broken by that country it's difficult to predict.

Maybe the continuing stonewalling of the North Koreans has become expected by Americans and therefore news media don't believe what did or didn't take place is newsworthy. It may not seem worthwhile to many media executives, but the missing Americans, 8,000 of them, haven't been forgotten by some families or the rapidly dwindling number of their living military buddies.

President Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger promised to end the Vietnam War and after more than three years in office succeeded. There's little doubt that they sought the stopping of bloodshed and political closure, but willingly left behind several hundred unaccounted-for Americans. Kissinger received international recognition for his peacemaking role.

In 1952 Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, when running for president, promised to personally go to Korea and end the unpopular war. He won the election, went to Korea and seven months after entering office a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, was signed. Four years later, he ran for re-election and used his bringing peace to our country as a campaign issue.

Five years ago, Philip Corso told a special Senate committee that even at that time Eisenhower knew about at least 900 U.S. servicemen, captured in Korea, had been transferred to the Soviet Union. Corso, an intelligence officer with the National Security Council during 1953-57, said Eisenhower agreed "the POWs should be given up for dead because the Soviets would never relinquish them."

Even more recently, the May/June DAV magazine took up the issue about some of the 8,000 Americans missing in Korea being shipped to Soviet labor camps. The article makes clear that following the 1953 cease-fire some Americans still being held were transferred to Siberia. Disabled American Veterans executive David W. Gorman says, "Worse yet, much of the evidence just now seeping out has been known for decades. The U.S. government had it available, but hid the truth from the families of those missing service members and the American people."

The Department of Defense says 7,000 Americans were taken prisoner and 8,177 were listed as missing in action in the Korean War. North Korea returned 4,439 American prisoners and the remains of 1,868 in 1953-54. Very little has been accomplished since then. During the last six years they have handed over the remains of 200 bodies but only a few have been identified.

The magazine article tells us, "In 1953 Lieutenant General James A. Van Fleet, who commanded the U.S. 8th Army in Korea, said he believed that many of the 8,000 American soldiers listed as missing in action were still alive.

"Others also shared that conviction. General Mark Clark, former U.S. commander in Korea, upon his sudden resignation from the Army in 1953, accused the Communists of holding thousands of American servicemen after the prisoner swaps supposedly had been completed. But even the revelations of such well-respected military leaders apparently were swept under the rug."

Since then it has become national policy and media treatment of a sad situation that is seldom spoken of openly. The men lost in the so-called "Forgotten War" continue to be treated as better forgotten than remembered. Out of sight, out of mind is the obvious desire of past policy makers and present-day media executives.