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I offer the following – – John J. Anayannis, LCDR, USN(ret) concerning the “Living Pearls” as the Viet Nam government calls our POWs.

Below I have captured a “snap shot” of a Congressional hearing 11 years after the end of the Viet Nam conflict where General Eugene Tighe, Director of the DIA from 1974 – 1981 is questioned by the subcommittee of Asian Affairs in 1986.

To ask if any American Service men remained alive after the end of the conflict is self evident in the testimony below. Today, any surviving Service men would be 80 to 90 years old.

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The Tighe Report on American POW’s and MIA’s, October 15, 1986 before the:

“Subcommittee on Asian And Pacific Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs House of Representatives, Ninety-Ninth Comgress, Second Session on H.Con. Res 129“

General Eugene Tighe was Dir. of the DIA from 1974-1981 examined the procedure employed by the DIA to account for missing Americans in SE Asia.

DIA Dir. General Leonard Perroots “...genuine desire to see that this lingering legacy of the Indochina war – the fate of over 2,400 Americans – be resolved as quickly and in as comprehensive a manner as possble.“

(Keep in mind the year is 1986….11 years after the Viet Man conflict concluded.)

Concerning the lapse of time since the end of the Viet Man conflict and today Gen Tighe responsed:

“I have come across recently some 1954 Congressional Records in which a young Congressman, Tip O’Neill, asked his colleagues in the House to pay attention to a resolution by the city of Boston, MA that begs for an accounting – this is 1954 – of those MIA’s/POW’s who were known to have been alive after the conclusions of the Truce with North Korea and had not returned. So the question as to whether or not you can quickly resolve this issue I think is moot when you realize that the U.S. Government is reported to have gone back to Panmunjom in 1986 and asked again of their counterparts across the negotiating table there in North Korea to account for those known to have been alive at the end of the Korean war and not returned to United States custody. I wish that I could believe that this issue will not be an issue for a very long time. I am afraid that ball is in Hanoi’s court. It is not the United States that is dragging its feet, but it is Hanoi’s reluctance to cooperate, in my judgement. It keeps us from resolving that issue until they agree to cooperate.“

1986 Subcommitte Chair question:

“Having had renewed access to DIA’s files, how has your opinion changed, if it has changed at all, from your original testimony on this issue before this subcommitte in 1979 and again in 1985? Did you come to any new conclusions in this report that you have not already stated publicly in the past?”

Gen. Tighe:

“Mr Chariman, during my testimony before you on June 25, 1981, you asked: “In your view, given your personal judgement as you are about to leave this assignment, does the weight of evidence suggest to you, taking everything into consideration, that American servicemen are still living in Indochina?” “My response is yes.”

You continued. “And that there are still – and this is a somewhat different question – American servicemen being held against their will in Indochina?”

Gen. Tighe: “My convictions would be yes in answer to both questions, sir. After the passage of five years and review of and almost entirely new, different and convincing set of reports which I recently reviewed, my opinion – my conviction on this issue has not changed, but is reinforced – stronger now, by far than in 1981.”

1986 Subcommitte Chari question:

“Did any members of the review panel with whom you worked dissent from any of the findings in you report?”

Gen. Tighe:

“No sir – -ours was a unanimous report, stated in our conveyance to General Perroots, at the request of Task Force members and reiterated in strong terms by the Senior Panel.”

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