Among the numerous analyses of those missing in action in Southeast Asia, this study is the first to concentrate on the process whereby the US military tried to resolve each case. Much of the continuing controversy ignores or refuses to accept the fact that the US Government, through the Joint Casualty Resolution Center and other mechanisms, has made a thorough, sustained, good faith effort to determine the fate of every serviceman declared missing in action in that conflict. The author, who spent more than 15 years in Southeast Asia taking part in those endeavors, tells the story of this unique effort from the point of view of an informed insider.
A member of the MIA search team from the early 1970s through the late 1980s, Paul Mather is well qualified to relate the history of this effort. He covers a wide range of topics, from field work at crash sites and personal interchanges with Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, and Thai officials, through the various international accords that governed the activities of the US investigatory teams. Although political changes in the United States alternately facilitated or hampered search efforts, the attempt to resolve every case never ceased. Colonel Mather faithfully records the efforts of individuals and organizations that played major roles in. this drama: congressional committees; the National League of Families; private citizens who made sincere efforts to help; senior government officials like General John Vessey, who headed a special full-accounting commission; military agencies such as the Joint Casualty Resolution Center and the Army's Central Identification Laboratory; scoundrels and swindlers who exploited the tragedy for personal gain; and self-styled Rambos who acted on their own.
This account should help to wrap up an especially emotional chapter of the Vietnam War. By telling how the process worked for almost two decades, it contributes to the full accounting desired by all.
