ACCESSION NUMBER:230341
FILE ID:EP-502
DATE:06/05/92
TITLE:PEROT TO TELL SENATE PANEL OF HIS POW/MIA ACTIVITIES (06/05/92)
TEXT:*92060502.EPF
*EPF502   06/05/92 *

PEROT TO TELL SENATE PANEL OF HIS POW/MIA ACTIVITIES
(Article on Senate committee press release)  (360)
By Jim Shevis
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- Undeclared presidential candidate H. Ross Perot is among a
number of witnesses slated to tell a Senate panel what they know of the
government's efforts to account for missing American servicemen in
Indochina.

Perot is scheduled to appear before the Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs
during panel hearings planned for June 30-July 1.  An earlier round of
hearings is set for June 24-25.

The committee said it will focus on Perot's trip to Southeast Asia in
1969-70 to seek the release of American prisoners of war through private
measures.

The panel said it also intends to question the wealthy Texas businessman
about the Reagan administration's POW/MIA efforts, including its assignment
to Perot and his report, and Perot's continuing, present involvement on
behalf of POW/MIAs.

Witnesses at the second round of hearings include former and present
administration officials as well as Perot.

In a June 5 press release, Committee Chairman John Kerry (Democrat of
Massachusetts) and Vice Chairman Bob Smith (Republican of New Hampshire)
said that the witnesses may have important insights into what the U.S.
government has done in behalf of its missing servicemen since the Vietnam
War ended.

"Each has gained a unique perspective from work dating back to the time when
many of us were serving in Vietnam, and these hearings will enhance the
committee's efforts significantly," said Senator Kerry, a highly decorated
combat officer during the Vietnam War .

"Secrecy has obscured our understanding of how American servicemen were left
unaccounted for," said Senator Smith, who also served in combat during the
Vietnam War and who is also much decorated from that longest war in
American history.

"These hearings are an important step in learning what the U.S. government
knew in 1973 about these men."

One of the issues the committee seeks to resolve is whether the Defense
Intelligence Agency knew of any American servicemen alive in Indochina
after "Operation Homecoming," the 1973 exchange of U.S. and Vietnamese
prisoners.

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