European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 7, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday december 7. 1992 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13more explanations needed on pow Mia Issue Sydney h. Schanberg there a a lot i done to understand about what a happening now on the pow Mia Issue. I done to understand Why All of a sudden the White House and some senators Are in a hell Bent Rush to write off All the unaccounted for men in Vietnam As dead. I do understand that they want to move toward normalization of relations with Vietnam which is a Good idea after two decades of bitterness. But its still Odd that the people pushing for normalization have decided that the Only Way to overcome any political resistance to the idea is to Tell the american Public that none of the missing men Are alive. The senators leading this push make up a majority on the Senate select committee on pow Mia affairs. That a Odd too because it is this committee that has Over the past year brought t Forth 1 undisputed evidence that prisoners were still held in Indochina after the Vietnam peace accords in 1973, 2 Strong intelligence data that prisoners were alive at least into the late 1980s and 3 recent sightings that indicate some of these men May still be alive most Likely in Laos. I guess my question is Why can to we do both a that is take some Steps toward normalization to show our Good Faith while still pursuing the credible pow evidence we could keep our leverage by telling the vietnamese that our economic embargo would be lifted in Small part Only until they provide full accountability on All missing men. But we could also Tell them that if live men Are produced there will be no reprisals for their detention such As a reversal of the normalization process. Instead president Bush and his Senate allies on this Issue such As John Kerry d-mass., and John Mccain r.-ariz., have put the normalization process on a fast track while turning a Blind Eye to the evidence that live prisoners May still be there. The whole Post Vietnam War Story has been a charade from the Start so perhaps we  expect this phase to be any different. The Nixon administration vanish Tus yes Vry a political foot amp All wanted so desperately to get out from under the Burden of Vietnam that it signed the 1973 accords and announced though it knew otherwise that All the prisoners had come Home. The vietnamese also said All the prisoners had been returned even As they held some Back to be used As bargaining leverage for War reparations. Hanoi must have viewed Washington a political burial of the prisoners As an unexpected Public relations Boon for in the years that have followed the communist government when pressed for information on live prisoners responded that our own government had itself declared that none existed. Perhaps the most difficult to under stand part of the performance is the compliance of the press. Though american print and broadcast editors dispatched no less than a few thousand reporters to cover the Vietnam War to my knowledge no major Media organization in the aftermath Ever assigned an investigative team or any significant resources to find out what happened to the missing men. Over the years there have been hundreds of satellite and reconnaissance sightings. Yet somehow the defense intelligence Agency when it finally analyses the imagery always finds that what looked like a distress signal was nothing More than shadows or vegetation. The same Brush off treatment has been accorded to live sightings of pos by indochinese who have emerged As refugees. Many of these witnesses have passed lie Detector tests yet their Evi Dence each and every time has been dismissed As either mistaken or fabricated. Twenty years. Hundreds of sightings. Every last one of them rejected As false. Is this believable so now Kerry is Back from his latest cosmetic tour of Vietnam with a message that he checked everything out and could find no live pos. Did the senator think they were going to walk up to him on the Street and ask for a cigarette but let us suppose for arguments Sake that Kerry is right when he says that none of the prisoners that we know were left behind in 1973 arc still alive. Then when did they die was it 1974? was it 1984? was it 1992? Isnit this Worth finding out before we close the Vietnam coffin c nowadays it s time to unite behind our new president after 15 years of newspaper work i should be Shock proof when Reading the mail a we get so Many crazy letters. Still i am surprised by the nastiness of some of the Post election letters in be seen about president elect Bill Clinton. A i can to even Bear to write the name of that Blooming idiot a one woman wrote. A America you have swallowed a horrendous lie a another person wrote. A now you will gag and choke then fall to your  Call me a patriotic fool but no matter who the new president would be id want to see him do Well. Is it too much to ask that we Stop the name calling Long enough to wish or. Clinton Luck personally in a ready for a bit of cheerfulness and generosity of spirit. We have Good reason to lighten up we May be entering one of the greatest eras in . History. Perhaps my optimism today is a reaction to so Many years of worrying about the country. My earliest political memories Are of assassinations the Vietnam War and Urban riots. In the 1970s, i worried about watergate nuclear proliferation Oil embargoes and hostages. In More recent years i have fretted Over iranian terrorists the a evil Empire and Saddam Hussein. Finally we have reached this Point if the nation is not at War with anyone. The cold War is history. The hostages Are Home. No . Political leaders have been assassinated in a Long time. One might argue that because the Reagan Bush team brought us to this relatively peaceful juncture George Bush earned the right to continue in office. I would disagree. While or. Bush deserves thanks for steering us through the last Days of the cold War he failed to provide a vision for a better future. He was a candidate who had run out of ideas. He had declined As a Leader to the Point where he was trying to win our votes by calling his opponents  now or. Clinton is stepping up to face some enormous problems the jobless rate is Way too High our schools Are an embarrassment the environment needs help millions of americans have no health care insurance drug abuse and Vio Marilyn Geewax Lance Are epidemic too Many children Are disobedient and disaffected aids is spreading and race relations Are deteriorating. Still or. Clinton has aces up his sleeve. With the cold War Over he can Start to slash military spending without threatening our Security. That Means the deficit can shrink without having to gut vital Domestic programs. Interest rates and inflation Are relatively Low. Our economic doldrums have lasted so Long that a real recovery very Likely will take hold next year. I Hope the new president will fuel a positive mood by avoiding partisan Battles. Head go a Long Way toward bringing together the country if head appoint some republicans to his Cabinet a its time for the two parties to pull together for the common Good. Maybe Bill Clinton will turn out to be a great president. Maybe not. But at least for a few months  it make sense for us All to Root for him perhaps we can Stop being democrats and republicans Long enough to remember we re americans. Lets bring out the Best in each other. C Cox nows Sorvick