Clinton's visit offers hope to MIAs' families

In this story: Clinton offers help to find all MIAs A politically sensitive issue in U.S. California family hopes son is alive RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

HANOI, Vietnam -- A California mother believes her son who disappeared 32 years ago during the Vietnam War may still be alive.

"I've had dream after dream after dream that he's standing by my bed," Gladys Fleckenstein told CNN.

In Vietnam, a mother whose son disappeared during a 1972 battle still looks for her son's grave, using tattered U.S. Army maps to aid her in her search.

• Overview • U.S.-Vietnam ties • America at 25 • Remembering Kent State • A soldier's diary • The boat people • Covering two wars • Dien Bien Phu • About the War • Vietnam Guide • Photo Gallery • Postcards • Vietnam's Neighbors  VIDEO The relatives of some U.S. servicemen reported missing in action during the Vietnam War have not given up hope, CNN's Jim Hill reports Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     MESSAGE BOARD Clinton's trip to Vietnam

"All mothers who lose sons in war share the same pain," Phan Kim Hy told CNN.

For both mothers, U.S. President Bill Clinton is offering hope during his historic three-day visit to Vietnam. He's the first American president to visit Hanoi -- an enemy capital 25 years ago, during the Vietnam War.

During his visit, Clinton is trying to further narrow the divide between the two former enemies.

An estimated 300,000 Vietnamese and 1,498 Americans remain missing in action. For families on both sides, the uncertainty associated with these losses remains an open wound, as Clinton has acknowledged.

The president discussed the issue of MIAs -- Americans and Vietnamese -- during separate meetings with the Vietnamese president and prime minister as well as in a speech at Hanoi's National University.

On Saturday, Clinton plans to visit a rice paddy where searchers are looking for human remains from a U.S. warplane downed 33 years ago.

Clinton offers help to find all MIAs

To aid the search for missing Vietnamese, Clinton said more than 1 million pages of U.S. documents will be given to Vietnam by the end of the year.

Earlier, Clinton presented 350,000 pages of documents to help in the search for Vietnamese MIAs.

Clinton also praised Hanoi's cooperation in tracking down missing Americans. This made it possible, he said, for his administration to end a trade embargo in 1994, open formal diplomatic relations in 1995 and sign a new trade agreement this year.

"No two nations have ever before done the things that we are doing together to find the missing from the Vietnam conflict," Clinton said Friday in a speech at National University, the major address of his three-day visit.

"We will continue to offer our help and to ask for your help as we both honor our commitment to do whatever we can for as long as it takes to achieve the fullest possible accounting of our loved ones," Clinton said.

The documents being turned over to Vietnam include records from U.S. medical units that treated mortally wounded Vietnamese. In addition, the records contain information on where battles took place and on the number of people reported to have been killed on each side, said Sandy Berger, Clinton's national security adviser.

Accounting for missing Americans is a complex process, combining hi-tech science and old-fashioned detective work.

"You are excavating as an archeologist would, and it's almost like police work, searching for a hidden body," said anthropologist Ann Bunche, part of a U.S. military team aided by dozens of Vietnamese.

At the spot where a U.S. Air Force F-105 jet crashed 35 years ago, searchers sifting through the mud found bone fragments, perhaps enough for a DNA match.

The U.S. military mounts ten operations like this every year.

A politically sensitive issue in U.S.

For Americans, the Missing in Action question is politically sensitive, with families of the missing, veterans groups and members of Congress constantly pressing for a full accounting.

Berger said the Vietnamese have given the United States 800,000 documents to aid in the MIA operation.

"This is an unfinished business," Berger said. "This is a part of the old chapter in our relationship that we cannot close."

During the last eight years, 283 missing U.S. servicemen have been accounted for -- nearly half the total accounted for since 1973, when U.S. troops completed their withdrawal and the last known prisoners of war were sent home.

California family hopes son is alive

Larry Stevens, a U.S. Navy pilot, was not among them. Thirty-two years ago, his plane was shot down over Laos.

His mother and step-father still say he may be a prisoner of war, and they keep an archive of evidence supporting their hope. It includes their son's flight manual, which they say is on display in a Hanoi war museum.

"I may go to my grave never knowing (my son's fate)," said Gladys Fleckenstein. "But I will keep fighting to find out what happened to that boy. It's my life, and it always will be."

Her husband, Jack, says that President Clinton, in the past, has not done enough to help families of missing Americans. Over their rustic home in Big Bear Lake, California, a POW-MIA flag flies in memory of the U.S. missing and prisoners of war.

In Vietnam, Phan Kim Hy says that, as the mother of an MIA, she understand the pain of American families.

"My son at least died in his own country. I think the pain of American mothers must be even greater," she said.

CNN Hong Kong Bureau Chief Mike Chinoy, CNN Correspondent Jim Hill, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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National League of POW/MIA Families
Federal Research Division --- POW/MIA Home Page
Vietnam veterans home page
Vietnam veterans of America

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