Report of the US-Russia Joint Commission
U.S. - Russia
Joint Commission on POW/MIAs
Joint Commission Support Directorate (JCSD)
REPORT OF THE
U.S. - RUSSIA JOINT COMMISSION ON POW/MIAs
April 2001
This report has been reformatted for viewing on the Internet and includes
only the English text.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
SUMMARY OF WORK 1995-2000
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
WORLD WAR II WORKING GROUP
COLD WAR WORKING GROUP
KOREAN WAR WORKING GROUP
VIETNAM WAR WORKING GROUP
APPENDIX
FOR MORE INFORMATION
FOREWORD
We hereby present the latest report on the work of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission
on POW/MIAs (hereinafter, the "Commission"). The Commission is a
group of senior American and Russian executive- and legislative-branch officials
that periodically conducts plenary sessions and working-level meetings to
assess and to coordinate policy, research and investigative efforts on clarifying
the fate of missing American and Russian servicemen. The Commission first
issued a joint report to the President of the United States and the President
of the Russian Federation in May 1995, on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary
commemorating the end of World War II in Europe. It outlined the results of
the Commission's work, its achievements and the challenges which remained
for the future.
In the five years since its initial report, the Commission has done a significant
amount of work. A large volume of documentary information related to U.S.
and Russian servicemen unaccounted for from World War II, the Korean War,
the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the war in Afghanistan has been identified
and analyzed. In addition, several thousand interviews have been conducted
with veterans and other personnel who participated in the historical events
within the Commission’s purview. This report provides a detailed description
of the Commission's efforts to clarify the fate of missing Russian and American
servicemen. Essentially, the report is an account of joint efforts over the
five-year period, 1995-2000. We believe much has been done; yet a large amount
of work remains. In that regard, in a final, forward-looking section of the
report, we recommend that the work of the Commission continue and identify
priority areas for future research.
We express heartfelt thanks to our American and Russian colleagues on the
Commission. The successes we have attained are a measure of their dedicated
efforts. Additionally, we praise the work of the Commission staffs on both
the American and Russian sides. Their diligence has kept the work moving steadily
forward. Finally, we thank the many citizens of Russia, the United States
and other nations who have helped us in our mission. Together we honor the
memory of our missing servicemen and continue our efforts to clarify their
fate.
//Signed//
Major General Roland Lajoie
United States Army (Retired)
U.S. Co-Chairman
//Signed//
General Major Vladimir Zolotarev
Russian Co-Chairman
State Councilor of the Russian
Federation - First Class
INTRODUCTION
Commission Leadership and Composition
In January 1992, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the President
of the United States, George Bush, and the President of the Russian Federation,
Boris Yeltsin, agreed to establish the United States-Russia Joint Commission
on POW/MIAs. The creation of the Commission underscored each side’s commitment
to work together cooperatively in a new, post-Cold War environment in an attempt
to resolve long-standing historical questions on the fate of missing servicemen.
The Commission was led by U.S. Co-Chairman Ambassador Malcolm Toon and Russian
Co-Chairman General Dmitrii Volkogonov. On the Russian side, President Yeltsin
appointed General-Major Vladimir Zolotarev in January 1996 to succeed the
late General Volkogonov as Russian Co-Chairman. In December 1998, President
William Clinton appointed Major General (retired) Roland Lajoie to succeed
Ambassador Malcolm Toon as U.S. Co-Chairman. The Commission has continued
its efforts to acquire information on the fate of missing American and Russian
servicemen.
The Commission's Co-Chairmen: General-Major Vladimir Zolotarev (L) and Major
General (Ret.) Roland Lajoie
Senior government officials who comprise the U.S. side of the Commission are
two members of the United States Senate: Bob Smith (R-New Hampshire) and John
Kerry (D-Massachusetts); two members of the U.S. House of Representatives:
Sam Johnson (R-Texas) and Lane Evans (D-Illinois); two senior executives from
the Department of Defense: A. Denis Clift (President, Joint Military Intelligence
College) and Robert L. Jones (Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing
Personnel Affairs); a representative from the Department of State: Seth Winnick;
and a representative from the U.S. National Archives: R. Michael McReynolds.
The executive secretary of the U.S. side of the Commission is Norman Kass
of the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO). Analytical resources,
as well as logistical, administrative and other support are provided to the
Commission by DPMO.
The Commission is a group of senior American and Russian executive- and legislative-branch
officials
The Russian side of the Commission includes: Deputy Chairman, Colonel Konstantin
Viktorovich Golumbovskiy, from the Administration of the Russian Federation
Security Council; General-Major Nikolai Maksimovich Bezborodov, Deputy, Russian
Federation State Duma and Vietnam War Working Group Co-Chairman; Colonel (retired)
Aleksandr Semyonovich Orlov, Russian Ministry of Defense Institute of Military
History, and Korean War Working Group Co-Chairman; Colonel Nikolai Ivanovich
Nikiforov, Russian Ministry of Defense Institute of Military History, and
World War II Working Group Co-Chairman; and Colonel Vladimir Konstantinovich
Vinogradov, Deputy Chief, Federal Security Service Directorate of Archives
and Registration, and Cold War Working Group Co-Chairman. Noteworthy contributions
to the Commission's work also have been made by Vladimir Petrovich Kozlov,
Chief Archivist of the Russian Federation; Colonel Sergei Ivanovich Chuvashin,
Director of the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense (Podolsk); Captain
First Rank Sergei Petrovich Tarasov, Director of the Central Naval Archives
(Gatchina); Rear Admiral (retired) Boris Gavrilovich Novyy; Colonel (retired)
Viktor Viktorovich Mukhin, former official at the Military Memorial Center;
Yuriy Ivanovich Kalinin, Deputy Minister of Justice; and Colonel (retired)
Sergei Nikolaevich Osipov of the Ministry of Justice.
On October 6, 2000 President Putin signed an executive order constituting
the membership of the Russian Federation Presidential Commission on Prisoners
of War, Internees and Missing in Action. (See list at Annex 1.) Those nominated
to serve on the commission include senior members of the Russian executive
and legislative branches who will represent part of the larger, formal structure
of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs.
The Commission continues successfully to fulfill its role today, concentrating
bilateral efforts on resolving questions related to the POW/MIA issue.
The Commission's leadership meets in Moscow in November 1999
Commission Meetings
During its existence, the Commission has met in plenary session a total of
17 times, 15 meetings were held in Moscow and two in Washington. In addition
to the plenary sessions, three other high-level meetings between principal
U.S. and Russian commissioners have taken place, as have numerous working-group
consultations on specific issues. The U.S. side of the Commission has traveled
to the capitals of each of the newly independent nations of the former Soviet
Union, the Baltic states, and to a number of countries in Central Europe.
In each capital the U.S. Co-Chairman met with and explained the Commission’s
mission to senior-level government officials and requested their assistance.
Concurrently, appeals to the general public for information on POW/MIAs were
conducted. Similar efforts were conducted by the Russian Co-Chairman during
visits to the United States. Staff personnel continue to follow up on information
generated by these initiatives.
After the initial plenary meeting, during which the Commission defined the
scope of issues before it, permanent working groups on World War II, the Korean
War, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War were formed. The Commission continues
to organize its work around these four working groups. Issues chronologically
or substantively outside the scope of the working groups are addressed in
general plenary session.
General Zolotarev (L), Dr. James Connell, the Chief of the U.S. side's Moscow
office and U.S. Ambassador James Collins (R) confer in Moscow
Moscow-Based Investigative Unit
To conduct and manage the Commission’s wide-ranging and multi-faceted
research and investigative programs, and to facilitate effective and timely
coordination between the U.S. and Russian sides, an element of the U.S. side’s
staff is permanently based in Moscow. Members of this Moscow-based unit and
their Russian counterparts have traversed the Russian Federation and other
states of Eurasia in pursuit of relevant information. In addition to the archival
research work and interviews which the group has conducted, site visits have
been made to prisons, former prison camps and psychiatric hospitals in an
effort to discern information on unaccounted-for American servicemen. The
Moscow unit, led by retired Navy Captain James Connell, continues earnestly
to pursue important information and remains the focal point of Commission
efforts.
The Russian side does not have a permanent representative in Washington. During
visits to the United States, however, the leadership of the Russian side conducts
work in archives, the U.S. Library of Congress, and with other organizations
related to the Commission's issues.
Dr. James Connell (L) discusses archival materials with Dr. Yevgenii Bazhanov,
the Deputy Director of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs
Sources of Information
Archival records and oral history are the two primary sources of information
of significant value to the work of the Commission. Archival research relating
to Commission objectives has been conducted in Russia, the United States and
many other countries. More than sixteen thousand pages of documentation have
been identified, acquired, analyzed, and translated, as required. An intensive
archival research program continues. Likewise, more than three thousand interviews
with veterans, current and former government officials, and other knowledgeable
individuals have been conducted throughout Russia, the United States and many
other countries. The Commission continues to identify potential witnesses
through its active interview program.
Information collected by the Commission is analyzed to obtain pertinent details
on missing servicemen and to provide follow-on leads for additional research.
Once processed, information on American losses becomes part of DPMO's overarching
repository of POW/MIA data and is used in conjunction with information from
various sources worldwide to provide more complete analysis and follow-up.
Mr. Danz Blasser (R), a U.S. staff investigator interviews a Russian Korean
War veteran
May 1995 Commission Report
In May 1995, on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary commemorating the end
of World War II in Europe, the Commission issued a joint report describing
the positive results achieved in the first three years of its work and outlining
areas for further investigation. In the report, three priority objectives
were identified for the Commission’s work.
The first objective was to determine if any American POW/MIAs were still being
held against their will in the former Soviet Union. The conclusion of a Russian
investigation into this question was President Yeltsin’s definitive statement
that no American citizens, either military or civilian, were being held against
their will on the territory of Russia. The Commission’s extensive research
efforts, media appeals and numerous "live sighting" investigations
conducted prior to the May 1995 report discovered no definitive information
to dispute Russia’s official statements on this question. Since 1995,
significantly more archival research has been conducted. Hundreds of additional
interviews with veterans and other knowledgeable people have likewise been
conducted. The large volume of additional information accumulated in the last
five years of the Commission’s work supports the earlier conclusion that
no basis exists to dispute the assertion that no missing American service
personnel are currently being held -- or, throughout the life of the Commission,
have been held -- in Russia. Nevertheless, the investigation of alleged sightings
of unaccounted-for American servicemen on the territory of the former Soviet
Union remains the top priority in the Commission’s work.
The second Commission objective as stated in the May 1995 report has been
to determine the fate of unaccounted-for members of the U.S. Armed Forces
who were located on the territory of the former Soviet Union during and after
World War II, and to determine what information the Russian side possesses
about missing American servicemen from conflicts since World War II. Significant
information has been gained on Americans unaccounted for from World War II,
the Korean War and the Cold War. The results of the last five years’
work to this end are reported below in the general section summarizing the
Commission’s recent work and in the appropriate Working Group reports.
Continued pursuit of information on unaccounted-for American servicemen remains
an important task in the Commission’s work.
Mr. Norman Kass, U.S. Executive Secretary, presents the Commission's 1995
report to former Co-Chairmen Ambassador Malcolm Toon (L) and General-Colonel
Dmitrii Volkogonov for signature
The third Commission objective has been to clarify, in those cases where information
may exist on the American side, the facts pertaining to the loss of Soviet
military personnel since World War II about whom no information has been available.
Noteworthy in this context has been the Commission’s work on Soviet MIAs
from the Cold War period including the war in Afghanistan. Voluminous research
has also been conducted in an effort to clarify the details and circumstances
surrounding the thousands of Russian persons displaced during and immediately
after World War II. Details of these facets of the Commission’s work
are provided in the working group reports.
SUMMARY
OF WORK 1995-2000
In the five years since the publication of the Commission’s first joint
report, the continued commitment of countless individuals - Russians and Americans
alike - has resulted in further progress in this important humanitarian issue.
Several key issues in the Commission's work have been discussed at the highest
levels of the U.S. and Russian governments. The Commission appreciates the
support of the U.S. Vice-President, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary
of State, the Russian Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, Minister of Foreign
Affairs and their staffs.
We have amassed a voluminous amount of data which has provided insights into
a period of history when military conflict was unfortunately a recurrent theme
and prisoners of war and personnel missing in action were regrettable consequences.
This data has allowed us to resolve, in some cases, the fate of formerly unaccounted-for
service members from both the United States and Russia. In numerous other
cases, the data has allowed us to clarify the circumstances surrounding the
loss of many of our service members.
Photograph of Korean War-era downed American plane located in Russian archives
Recognizing the paramount importance of the Commission’s humanitarian
role, we have worked to find accommodation in those instances where our respective
approaches to issues or interpretations of events have not coincided. One
such topic is that of the reported transfer of American servicemen into the
former Soviet Union at various times during the Cold War period. At the Commission’s
16th Plenary Session, held in Moscow in November 1999, General Lajoie officially
passed to General Zolotarev excerpts from the "Memoirs" of a former
Soviet citizen which provided information from a variety of sources stating
that American POWs had been held in the Soviet Union. At the suggestion of
the Commission's American Co-Chairman, the "Memoirs" were included
as a discussion item on the agenda of the working groups. Since the 16th Plenary
Session, both sides have analyzed in detail the contents of the "Memoirs."
Discussions on how best to proceed with the continuing investigation are currently
underway.
Former Soviet-era camp from the Gulag system
To investigate the many reports that U.S. servicemen were sighted in the Soviet
Gulag, the U.S. side has compiled a lengthy study (hereinafter, the "Gulag
Study") which organizes the detailed reports and has asked the Russian
side to recommend a cooperative research plan to examine this information
fully. Currently, both sides of the Commission are reviewing the Gulag Study
and plan to formulate a cooperative research effort to investigate the many
leads contained therein.
Guided by a mutual commitment to resolve the fate of missing and unaccounted-for
servicemen, the U.S. side has provided important information on Soviet servicemen
unaccounted for from Afghanistan and humanitarian assistance to aid the identification
of Russian servicemen killed during the 1994-1996 war in Chechnya. Based on
the Commission’s recommendation, DPMO sponsored consultations between
U.S. and Russian forensic identification specialists who met to exchange technical
information on current DNA identification techniques. Subsequently, in 1997,
the U.S. side provided 3,000 DNA blood identification kits to assist Russian
efforts to identify, through DNA analysis, unknown soldiers who died in Chechnya.
Humanitarian cooperation on the difficult issue of accounting for servicemen
killed in action during the 1994-1996 war in Chechnya underscores the Commission’s
obligation and commitment to resolving the fate of unknown servicemen.
To accomplish its objectives, the Commission remains organized into four working
groups, each representing a key area of investigation. These groups are: the
World War II Working Group, the Korean War Working Group, the Cold War Working
Group, and the Vietnam War Working Group. Each of the working groups reports
some progress towards its objectives, though this progress has, at times,
been uneven.
World War II Working Group
The World War II Working Group has conducted extensive historical research
on the liberation and repatriation of American and Russian prisoners of war
at the end of the war. Thousands of pages of archived historical documents
have been exchanged and analyzed by the two sides of the Commission. This
joint research has led to clarification of the fate of hundreds of former
prisoners of war and displaced persons.
Research conducted by the working group confirms that some 28,000 U.S. prisoners
of war were repatriated from German camps under extremely chaotic conditions
through Soviet territory in the final months of World War II. Information
collected by the working group indicates that American servicemen were not
held against their will as a matter of Soviet policy. Nonetheless, there remain
questions on the circumstances of many individual cases and in particular
the approximately 40 U.S. POWs who apparently never returned home. The working
group continues to attempt to resolve these cases.
A noteworthy recent example of the working group’s success in resolving
individual cases was the positive identification of a U.S. Navy PV-1 patrol
bomber which had been missing since March 25, 1944 after taking off from the
Aleutian Island of Attu on a reconnaissance and bombing mission of Japanese
bases in the northern Kurile Islands. From August 7-9, 2000, a joint U.S.
and Russian team, led by U.S. Chairman General Lajoie and Russian Deputy Chairman
Colonel Golumbovskiy, traveled to Kamchatka where it positively identified
the PV-1 wreckage, and investigators from the U.S. Army Central Identification
Laboratory (Hawaii) (CILHI) surveyed, mapped and photographed the crash site
near Mutnovskaya volcano. At the site, forensic specialists recovered bone
fragments assumed to be those of crewmembers. The specialists believe additional
remains are located at the site and have recommended a full-scale recovery
operation be mounted next summer, when the absence of ice and snow make excavation
possible.
Crash site of WWII-era U.S. PV-1 Ventura in Kamchatka, Russia
The problem of establishing the fate of Russian citizens missing during and
after World War II is an important part of the working group’s scope
of activity. The Commission has established that approximately 450,000 Soviet
citizens formerly counted as missing in WWII went to live in different countries
abroad. As a result of the working group’s painstaking research on this
issue, the Russian side has been able to correct the figure of overall Soviet
losses from the war. Nonetheless, more than a million citizens of the former
Soviet Union are still registered as missing. Research on this issue continues.
Korean War Working Group
The Korean War Working Group has conducted a determined research program intended
to resolve issues related to the fate of members of the U.S. Armed Forces
who -- as the U.S. side has suggested and has been asserted by various sources--
may have been located on the territory of the former Soviet Union or about
whom the Russian government may have information. Additionally, the working
group has researched information on the fate of Soviet pilots lost during
the air war in Korea. The working group’s efforts have been channeled
along two basic lines of inquiry. The first of these addresses the question
of possible transfers of American POWs to the Soviet Union from Korea. The
second focuses on clarifying the specific circumstances of loss in the cases
of individual pilots and aircrew members.
Investigating reports that American POWs were transferred to or sighted in
the Soviet gulag, the working group has interviewed more than 600 Russian
veterans and others with knowledge of Korean War-era events. In addition,
personnel from the Commission’s Moscow-based investigative unit have
visited a number of detention camps, prisons and psychiatric hospitals known
to have contained foreigners, to follow-up research leads.
The substantial research effort focused on reports that American POWs were
incarcerated in the Soviet gulag has not, to date, yielded first-hand, conclusive
evidence of this fact. Nevertheless, the volume of reports on this issue,
such as the Memoirs and Gulag Study mentioned earlier, dictates continued
investigative efforts.
The working group’s inquiry into specific circumstances of aircraft and
pilot losses during the Korean War has proven to be extremely fruitful. The
U.S. side has been recently granted expanded access to Russian military archives
at Podolsk related to the air war in Korea. The material contains detailed
information on air combat engagements between Soviet and United States aircraft.
Included, in many cases, are pilots’ statements, eyewitness reports of
plane crashes, maps, and other highly reliable documentation. The data gained
through the Commission’s work in Podolsk has led to clarification of
the loss, and, indeed, in some cases, the fate, of 140 U.S. airmen shot down
during the war. The circumstances of loss and the burial places of 54 Soviet
military personnel who participated in the Korean War have also been clarified.
The large volume of documents remaining to be reviewed at Podolsk fosters
optimism that considerably more Korean War loss incidents will be clarified
as the Commission continues its work.
Port Arthur gravesite of Lieutenant Feodor Slabkin, Soviet Korean War casualty
Cold War Working Group
From the outset of the Cold War Working Group’s deliberations, cooperation
has resulted in information regarding American and Russian Cold War-era losses
that was not available prior to the creation of the Commission. Since the
Commission’s May 1995 report, the working group has continued to press
ahead resolutely with the humanitarian work of accounting for American crews
missing from ten Cold War reconnaissance aircraft losses and from Soviet Cold
War losses, including POW/MIAs from the conflict in Afghanistan.
Detailed case studies of the ten U.S. Cold War loss incidents were included
in the Comprehensive Report of the U.S. Side of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission
on POW/MIAs published in 1996. Research on these incidents is continuing.
The working group has uncovered highly significant information regarding the
fate of certain of the U.S. crews. Of particular importance, remains of crewmembers
from two of the aircraft losses have been repatriated and honored in burial
ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. The Commission’s staff in
Moscow has vigorously and thoroughly pursued each new lead relating to the
Cold War crewmembers still unaccounted for. Beginning in 1999, the working
group has gained important new access to the Central Naval Archives at Gatchina.
This offers the hope of continuing to find significant new information on
the fate of those servicemen still unaccounted for.
Through archival research and interviews, the U.S. side has provided information
on the conflict in Afghanistan that has enabled the Russian side to confirm
the fate of missing Soviet servicemen, reducing the number of those Soviet
servicemen still unaccounted for from 350 to 287. The U.S. side continues
to act on Russian requests for any information on individual servicemen still
missing from the war in Afghanistan and other Cold War incidents.
Burial ceremony at Arlington National Cemetary, Washington, D.C.
Vietnam War Working Group
The Vietnam War Working Group has investigated a wide range of issues relating
to missing American servicemen from the war in Southeast Asia whose fate is
unknown. One of the most difficult and daunting of these issues has been the
question of whether U.S. POWs were transferred to the former Soviet Union
during the Vietnam War. The working group has not found conclusive evidence
that a transfer of U.S. POWs from Southeast Asia to the USSR occurred during
the Vietnam War. The Russian side maintains that American prisoners of war
were not transferred to the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, information gathered
to date does not allow us to rule out the possibility of such transfers, and
the topic remains under active consideration.
For example, in 1998, Joint Commission Support Directorate researchers located
a copy of the memoirs written by the Commission’s former Russian Co-Chairman
General Volkogonov which referred to a KGB plan in the late 1960s to "deliver
knowledgeable Americans to the USSR for intelligence purposes." The Russian
side maintains that no such plan existed or ever was implemented. Nevertheless,
the U.S. side continues to seek contemporaneous documentation that would either
validate this Russian assertion or provide further details about the possible
implementation of the plan.
Earlier in this report it was noted that progress in the Commission’s
working groups has been uneven. This is most evident in the case of the Vietnam
War Working Group where many questions remain unanswered. In the course of
the working group’s ambitious interview program, Commission representatives
have interviewed hundreds of former Soviet citizens and Soviet military personnel
who either served or were deemed to be potentially knowledgeable about Soviet
involvement in Vietnam and American losses. A small number of Russian citizens
have declined requests for interviews, and the Commission respects their rights
as private citizens. Less understandable, for the U.S. side, has been the
reluctance on the part of certain Russian officials associated with the work
of the Commission to discuss issues from the Vietnam War era. The Commission
assures all of the strictly humanitarian objectives of our work and urges
persons potentially knowledgeable about missing American servicemen from the
Vietnam War to share their knowledge with our representatives.
Mr. Robert Bishop (R), a U.S. staff investigator, interviews a Russian Vietnam
War veteran
Access to archival materials relevant to the Commission’s investigative
efforts on Vietnam War-era issues has also lagged behind the levels of access
enjoyed by other working groups. The working group will continue to push for
access to Vietnam War-era documents in Russian archives and is encouraged
by the words of support regarding Commission access to Russian Military Archives
from Minister of Defense Igor Sergeyev to Secretary of Defense William Cohen
during a June 2000 meeting.
We are hopeful that through the continued dedicated efforts of Commission
members and staff and the further passage of time, more information on questions
related to U.S. servicemen missing in action from Vietnam will be forthcoming.
FUTURE
DIRECTIONS FOR THE COMMISSION
After eight years of service in honor of our missing, the Commission remains
an important humanitarian, political and public channel of interaction between
the United States and Russia on POW/MIA issues. It serves as a dedicated,
full-time focal point between Washington and Moscow for direct discussions
and coordination of U.S.-Russia bilateral efforts on the POW/MIA issue. We
look forward to continuing the Commission's work in a spirit of cooperation
and mutual respect.
As we look ahead to chart the Commission’s course into the future, we
note the many issues from the past yet to be resolved. A certain sense of
urgency enters the Commission’s work as we attempt to learn the facts
about our missing servicemen. Recommitment to the humanitarian goals whose
pursuit has been the Commission’s primary purpose, will succeed only
to the extent that we demonstrate the resolve and ingenuity required to support
it. We will need to build upon the considerable cooperation established over
the past eight years or so to explore new approaches and hitherto untapped
sources of information if the Commission’s work is to achieve the breakthroughs
that the American and Russian people expect.
We will need to build upon the considerable cooperation established over the
past eight years or so to explore new approaches and hitherto untapped sources
of information. . .
From the American perspective, much potential lies in exploring comprehensively
the historical records of the security and intelligence services for information
about those still missing. Indeed, a careful review of such documentation
is the only way we believe we shall be able to establish once and for all
the facts about American servicemen reportedly held in Soviet prisons and
labor camps during the Cold-War period. Sharing such information - which could
and should be done with full respect for Russian security concerns - would
be a major step forward in advancing the Commission’s noble objectives
and would complement the Commission’s ongoing research program at the
Ministry of Defense’s archives in Podol’sk and the Central Naval
Archives at Gatchina.
Likewise, the Commission's interview program must be reenergized and expanded
to complement archival work. A thoughtful interview program benefits from
research of military records and, conversely, provides valuable leads to be
pursued by archivists on both sides. The aging population of participants
in the conflicts being studied makes this a priority goal.
Recognizing the many changes that have occurred since the Commission’s
creation in March 1992, both the American and Russian sides acknowledge the
need to adapt the Commission’s scope of activity to include current and
future initiatives on behalf of missing servicemen and their families. In
that regard, each side, within its own government, will actively facilitate
the process of accounting for military personnel of the other side who may
become missing in action or unaccounted for in the future. We believe this
to be a tangible commitment to, and reaffirmation of, the goals that led to
the founding of our Commission in March 1992.
WORLD
WAR II WORKING GROUP
The Commission’s World War II Working Group is chaired by R. Michael
McReynolds, a senior official at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration,
and Colonel Nikolai Ivanovich Nikiforov, a military historian at the Institute
of Military History in Moscow. Since the Commission’s 1995 report, considerable
historical research on issues related to American and Soviet-era servicemen
unaccounted for from World War II has been conducted. The U.S. and Russian
sides of the working group have met during the Commission’s plenary and
technical meetings and exchanged significant documents and information related
to the fate of American and Russian MIAs.
Mr. R. Michael McReynolds,
U.S. Co-Chairman
Colonel Nikolai Nikiforov,
Russian Co-Chairman
In 1996, the U.S. side of the Commission issued a comprehensive report which
stated, "There is no documentary evidence that could lead to a conclusion
that significant numbers of American prisoners of war disappeared into Soviet
prisons after World War II." Neither was there evidence of any Americans
being held in Russia against their will at the time of the report’s release.
Since that report, information collected by the working group indicates that
American servicemen were not held against their will as a matter of Soviet
policy. Nonetheless, there remain questions on the circumstances of many individual
cases. The working group continues its research program to resolve these cases.
The 1996 Comprehensive Report of the U.S. Side also stated that American investigators,
working from a 1946 U.S. War Department list of 207 Americans unaccounted
for but known to have been held at some point by the German government, reduced
the number of discrepancy cases to 87 through extensive research in U.S. military
records. Further research in those records over the last five years has allowed
the working group to reduce the number of discrepancy cases to 39 American
World War II POWs who were held in German prison camps, liberated by Soviet
troops, but never returned home. The working group has continued over the
last five years to locate and exchange new information and documentation on
this issue.
Conducting the research required to resolve satisfactorily the fate of Soviet-era
citizens missing from World War II is very complicated. Records on Soviet-era
citizens during World War II were often destroyed. Political exigencies in
the former Soviet Union and Europe during and after the war obliged many people
to change or destroy their previous identities. Further, there is little doubt
that some records were lost or destroyed during the 40 years of the Cold War.
Still, some fifty-five years after the end of World War II, unresolved questions
about missing relatives and loved ones have been on the minds of many Russian
citizens, who have demanded and taken action to search for answers.
In response to this demand and similar wishes among the American population
and undeterred by countless obstacles, the U.S. and Russian sides cooperatively
have sought new means to facilitate World War II-era research. The primary
source used in the working group’s efforts has been the International
Tracing Service of the Red Cross. Additionally, military archives in both
countries have yielded some answers. One potential source of information on
Russian persons displaced after World War II --U.S. immigration records--
were reviewed but proved of no particular value because they are not organized
by nationality. Further, the problems of name changes and irregular transliteration
from one alphabet to another make research in those records exceedingly difficult.
Despite these difficulties, some notable successes have been achieved. The
remainder of this report documents the research and exchange of documentation
on World War II POWs and MIAs which has occurred in the last five years.
At the 13th Plenary Session of the Commission in September 1996, the American
side provided the Russian side copies of the death certificates for four Russian
airmen who had died in a training accident in the State of North Carolina
during World War II. The Russian side was especially grateful to receive copies
of these death certificates, which allowed them to report definitively the
airmen’s fate to their loved ones. During the 1996 meeting, the U.S.
side also presented the Russian side a report on Finnish cemeteries where
Soviet servicemen who had fallen during the 1940 Russo-Finnish War and World
War II had been laid to rest.
Death certificate of Soviet pilot who perished while training in the United
States
It is typical at plenary meetings for each side to request information on
specific cases for which it may already have some information yet seeks to
document more fully the fate of the persons involved in those incidents. Often,
the other side undertakes a broad search but is unable to find information
on the specific cases. For example, in 1996 the U.S. side asked about two
aviators, Oliver Rom and Lippy Blake, thought to have been in Soviet custody
in Karelia after World War II. The U.S. side had limited and inconclusive
information about the two men. The Russian side expressed doubt that Americans
would have been incarcerated in Karelia. Still, a search was conducted, though
it ultimately uncovered no archival records about the men. The "fog of
war" and incomplete archival records make such specific issues formidable
to resolve. Undaunted, the working group has continued to seek new information
on these two men.
During plenary meetings held in 1997, the two sides of the working group continued
their work in a spirit of cooperation. New and important information and documents
on the fate of unaccounted-for servicemen from the World War II era were exchanged.
The Russian side provided the U.S. side with a list of U.S. citizens who had
been captured by the Soviet Union during World War II and were believed to
have fought for the German or other enemy armies. The Russian side also reported
they had been unable to find new information on the Rom/Blake cases and agreed
to the U.S. request to do additional archival research on the list of 39 missing
Americans which was noted above.
The U.S. side provided the Russian side copies of three death certificates
of Russians who died while at Fort Dix, New Jersey in June 1945. At the 14th
Plenary Session in June 1997, the U.S. side presented the Russian side copies
of 22 death certificates of Russians held by the Germans in the Buchenwald
death camp which only recently had been located in U.S. military records.
Specifically, the certificates were found in the records of the U.S. World
War II War Crimes Trials exhibit files at the National Archives in College
Park, Maryland, and gave the name, birth date, nationality, cause of death,
and other information about each decedent.
After the June 1997 meeting, four sets of Buchenwald death certificates were
thoroughly reviewed to locate all those applicable to Russian citizens. Eighty-seven
certificates were found that identified Russian citizens who had died in Buchenwald
during the month of April 1945. At the 15th Plenary Session in November 1998,
the U.S. side presented copies of the entire set of 87 Russian death certificates
to the Russian side. Russian Commission Co-Chairman, General Vladimir Zolotarev,
and World War II Working Group Co-Chair, Colonel Nikolai Nikiforov, both expressed
deep gratitude on behalf of the Russian government and people to the U.S.
side for finding, copying, and presenting the death certificates to the Russian
side of the Joint Commission. The discovery and presentation of these documents
to the Russian side illustrate how the search for records about World War
II POWs and MIAs can still yield important information for the citizens of
both countries.
Death certificate of Russian POW at Buchenwald Concentration Camp
At the same 1998 meeting the Russian side presented information about two
of the Americans on the list of 39 still unaccounted for: Rudolf Frisch and
Glenn E. Byers. The information came from the Center for the Storage and Protection
of Historical Documents. Colonel Nikiforov reported that Frisch had been convicted
on July 24, 1946 by the 19th Garrison Division military tribunal for fighting
for Germany and shot on September 9, 1946. Byers was reported to have been
put on the British ship Borton Bay in Brandenburg, April 7, 1945. The U.S.
side has thus far been unable to corroborate this information with what was
previously known about the two men.
In response to a Russian request for information on aerial clashes between
the U.S. and Soviet Union at the end of World War II, the U.S. side was able
to find 111 pages of documentation on U.S.-Soviet incidents, which it provided
to the Russian side at the 16th Plenary Session in 1999. The Russian side
expressed appreciation for the work, and Colonel Nikiforov, Russian Co-Chairman,
requested information about a clash between U.S. and Soviet planes over Vienna
on April 2, 1945 that had not been included in the package of 111 documents.
The U.S. side is currently researching this request. Continuing discussions
on possible support to Russian citizens searching for family members possibly
lost in the West during World War II were also held.
At the 1999 meeting, the U.S. side presented information about a reported
crash site of a WW II-era U.S. Navy patrol bomber near the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy
on the far eastern peninsula of Kamchatka. The Russian side agreed to facilitate
a summer 2000 trip to the site, if the preliminary information could be confirmed.
Additional interviews, archival and historical research, and a Russian reconnaissance
trip in July 2000 did, in fact, confirm that the plane wreckage was that of
a U.S. Navy PV-1 patrol bomber that took off from Attu, in the Aleutian Islands,
with a crew of seven, on a reconnaissance and bombing mission over Japanese
bases on the northern Kuril Islands.
Wreckage of U.S. PV-1 Ventura, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia
On August 6, 2000 a joint mission led by U.S. Co-Chairman General Roland Lajoie
and Deputy Russian Co-Chairman Colonel Konstantin Golumbovskiy, and including
forensic specialists from the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory
in Hawaii (CILHI), traveled to Kamchatka to survey, map and photograph the
crash site near Mutnovskaya Volcano. The combined U.S.-Russian team positively
identified the wreckage and completed a detailed survey of the site, during
which bone fragments believed to be those of crew members were recovered.
Specialists believe additional remains are located at the site and have recommended
a full-scale recovery operation be mounted. Preparations for such an operation,
tentatively scheduled for Summer 2001, have been initiated.
As noted above, the World War II Working Group reports consistently positive
results over the last five years of its work. In addition to the expedition
to Kamchatka planned for the summer of 2001, the group will continue methodically
and thoroughly to research specific cases of U.S. and Russian servicemen who
remain unaccounted for from the war. With a sense of pride in what has been
accomplished and renewed dedication to what remains to be done, the working
group looks forward to continuing its work.
COLD
WAR WORKING GROUP
The Commission’s Cold War Working Group is chaired by A. Denis Clift,
President of the Joint Military Intelligence College, and Colonel Vladimir
Konstantinovich Vinogradov of the Russian Federal Security Service, who succeeded
General-Lieutenant Anatoliy Krayushkin as Russian Co-chairman in 1996.
Since the release of the Commission's l995 report, the Cold War Working Group
has continued to press ahead resolutely with the humanitarian work of accounting
for:
American crews missing from Cold War reconnaissance aircraft losses;
Crewmembers of Soviet aircraft, helicopters, and submarines; Soviet Cold War
losses, including POW/MIAs from conflicts in Afghanistan and other countries.
Mr. A. Denis Clift,
U.S. Co-Chairman
Colonel Vladimir Vinogradov,
Russian Co-Chairman
American Losses During the Cold War Era
The working group has uncovered highly significant information regarding the
fate of certain of the U.S. crews. Of particular importance, remains of crewmembers
from two of the aircraft losses have been repatriated and honored in burial
ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. Commission staff members in Moscow
have vigorously and thoroughly pursued each new lead relating to the Cold
War crewmembers still unaccounted for. Beginning in 1999, members of the U.S.
side of the Commission have gained important new access to the Central Naval
Archives at Gatchina. The working group has added retired Russian Rear Admiral
Boris Gavrilovich Novyy as a participant and field researcher, an individual
fully dedicated in both word and action to the Commission’s humanitarian
cause. Taken together, these steps offer the hope of continued progress in
uncovering significant new information on the fate of those servicemen still
unaccounted for.
Work has proceeded in parallel on Soviet losses and on ten specific U.S. losses
involving U.S. aircraft with 89 crewmembers unaccounted for. The U.S. losses
include:
* 8 April 1950, PB4Y2 Privateer shot down over the Baltic Sea, 10 unaccounted
for;
* 6 November 1951, P2V Neptune shot down over the Sea of Japan, 10 unaccounted
for;
* 13 June 1952, RB-29 shot down over the Sea of Japan, 12 unaccounted for;
* 7 October 1952, RB-29 short down over the Sea of Japan, seven unaccounted
for;
* 29 July 1953, RB-50 shot down over the Sea of Japan, 14 unaccounted for;
* 17 April 1955, RB-47 shot down over the Bearing Sea, three unaccounted for;
* 10 September 1956, RB-50 lost over the Sea of Japan, 16 unaccounted for;
* 2 September 1958, C-130 shot down over Soviet Armenia, 12 unaccounted for;
* 1 July 1960, RB-47 shot down over the Barents Sea, three unaccounted for;
and
* 14 December 1965, RB-57 lost over the Black Sea, two unaccounted for.
From the outset of the Cold War Working Group's deliberations, cooperation
has resulted in information regarding these losses that was not available
prior to the creation of the Commission. Archival documents, to include photography,
interviews, and field investigations, have shed important light on certain
of these incidents. All such information has been documented by the U.S. side
and shared with the families of those still missing. At the same time, important
questions remain unanswered. New avenues of inquiry must be pursued. Additional
archival research must be undertaken at a number of sites, to include the
Central Naval Archives at Gatchina, the Central Military Archives at Podolsk,
and the Central Archives of the Border Guards. Documents from other sources
are being sought. Additional interviews are being sought with any and all
individuals who may have knowledge about the specifics of the U.S. aircraft
losses and the fate of the crews.
While near-conclusive information has been developed on a few of the U.S.
losses and almost no information has yet been developed on other of the losses,
the Cold War Working Group treats each of the U.S. reconnaissance aircraft
losses mentioned above as an open case, an active file. The working group's
goal is to provide the fullest possible accounting of all servicemen still
missing from Cold War incidents as part of the work of the U.S.-Russia Joint
Commission on Prisoners of War/Missing in Action.
The 1996 Comprehensive Report of the U.S. Side provided detailed background
on each of the ten U.S. aircraft losses, the names of the crewmembers and
the Cold War Working Group's results in terms of live-sighting reports, eyewitness
accounts, field investigations and archival records -- to include both U.S.
and Russian holdings. The following paragraphs summarize the history and review
the current status of work on each of the losses.
U.S. Air Force C-130 - 2 September 1958 - Soviet Armenia
On 2 September 1958, an Air Force C-130 assigned to the 7406th Support Squadron
in Wiesbaden, Germany, flying out of Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, on a reconnaissance
mission, was shot down by Soviet fighter aircraft in Soviet airspace. The
aircraft, with a crew of 17 aboard, crashed and burned near the village of
Sasnashen, Armenia. On 24 September 1958, six sets of remains were handed
over to U.S. representatives by the Soviets. Eleven members of the crew remained
unaccounted for. Due to the lack of identification for one set of remains,
12 names were listed as unaccounted for. A presumptive finding of death for
the unaccounted for was issued by the Air Force on 9 November 1961.
In August 1993, the U.S. Side of the Joint Commission conducted an on-site
investigation of the crash site in Armenia, with excavation of the site carried
out by a team from the Army's Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI).
The team recovered bone and tooth fragments, life-support equipment, personal
effects and aircraft wreckage. As a result of the expert analysis of this
meticulous work, a group-remains identification was made for the entire crew.
On 2 September 1998, the remains were buried with honors in a service at Arlington
National Cemetery.
Interment ceremony, Arlington National Cemetery
Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense (Podolsk)
Very early in the existence of the Commission, the U.S. side asked that a
search be conducted for information on Cold War shoot down incidents at the
Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense at Podolsk, near Moscow. Documents
provided by the Podolsk Archives greatly facilitated the Commission’s
investigation of the 2 September 1958 shoot down of a C-130A over Soviet Armenia.
These documents consisted of Air Defense records with reports from the MiG
pilots involved in the intercept and shoot down as well as actual gun camera
photography.
Documents from the Podolsk Archives also contributed to a better understanding
of the circumstances surrounding the shoot down of a Navy PB4Y2 over the Baltic
Sea on 8 April 1950, but stopped short of clarifying the fates of the ten
crewmembers. Unfortunately, documentation on other Cold War incidents has
been rather scanty, [contrary to earlier expectations]. The Russian side of
the Commission pointed out that most Cold War shoot downs we investigate occurred
over water, and suggested the Central Naval Archives might be a more abundant
source of materials on these incidents.
U.S. Air Force RB-29 - 7 October 1952 - Northern Pacific
On 7 October 1952, an RB-29 aircraft stationed at Yokota Air Force Base, Japan
assigned to the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, carrying a crew of
eight, was shot down by Soviet fighter planes over water, north of the island
of Hokkaido. Japanese fishermen witnessed the shootdown. American search and
rescue missions continued through 12 October with no recovery of survivors
or remains. A presumptive finding of death for the crew was issued by the
Air Force on 15 November 1955.
During the 1993 work of the Cold War Working Group, the Russians provided
a document reporting the at-sea recovery of an American aviator’s body
at the crash site. In December 1993, retired KGB Maritime Border Guards sailor
Vasilii Saiko came forward and told the working group that he had recovered
the body and taken a ring from the dead aviator’s hand. He stated that
the aircraft had already gone beneath the surface and that there were no signs
of any other members of the U.S. crew during this Soviet recovery effort.
He passed the ring to Commission members, a 1950 U.S. Naval Academy class
ring engraved with the name of John Robertson Dunham, a member of the RB-29
crew.
Subsequently, a document reporting that the body had been buried on Yurii
Island was discovered in Russian archives. On the second of two Commission
expeditions, in September 1994, remains were discovered and recovered from
Yurii Island and identified at CILHI as the remains of Captain Dunham. On
1 August 1995, Captain Dunham’s remains were buried with honors in a
service at Arlington National Cemetery. Later in 1995, the families of the
RB-29’s crew gathered at Arlington National Cemetery for the unveiling
of a memorial stone in honor of the crew. The Commission continues to seek
information that would shed even more light on the fate of the remaining seven
men.
Excavation and exhumation operation, Yurii Island in the Kurile Islands
U.S. Air Force RB-47 - 1 July 1960 - Barents Sea
On 1 July 1960, an RB-47 aircraft stationed at Brize-Norton Air Base, England,
assigned to the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, carrying a crew of six,
was shot down by a Soviet fighter over the Barents Sea while conducting a
reconnaissance mission. U.S. search and rescue missions recovered no survivors
or remains. A Soviet trawler recovered two members of the crew, Captains John
McKone and Freeman B. Olmstead. They were imprisoned in the Soviet Union until
January 1961 when they were repatriated. A Soviet search and rescue crew recovered
the body of Captain Willard G. Palm, and the body was returned to U.S. authorities
on 25 July 1960. An official report of death was issued by the Air Force for
the three unaccounted-for members of the crew on 30 June 1961.
Early in the work of the Cold War Working Group, the Russian side provided
a document reporting that three months after the RB-47 shootdown, the partial
remains of Major Eugene Posa, a member of the crew, had been recovered by
a Soviet fishing trawler in the Barents in October 1960. As the result of
painstaking work by the Commission’s staff, the Russians reported in
1996 that Major Posa’s remains had been taken to Severomorsk at the time
of recovery. However, no precise information about where he was buried has
been received at the present time. An excavation of one burial site at the
city cemetery of Severomorsk was unsuccessful. In recent months, Rear Admiral
Novyy, working with U.S. staff members, has conducted extensive research on
the location of Major Posa’s burial site. As this research continues,
it is the hope of the working group that the burial site will be identified
and the remains recovered and repatriated in the near future.
U.S. Navy PB4Y2 Privateer - 8 April 1950 - Baltic Sea
On 8 April 1950, a Navy PB4Y2 Privateer aircraft stationed at Port Lyautey,
Morocco, and serving on temporary duty in Wiesbaden, Germany, carrying a crew
of ten, was shot down by Soviet fighter aircraft during a reconnaissance mission
over the Baltic Sea. U.S. search and rescue missions continued until 16 April,
recovering no survivors or remains. A presumptive finding of death was issued
by the Navy for the entire crew on 11 April 1951.
Archival data, eyewitness accounts, and testimony of one of the Soviet pilots
who shot down the aircraft have contributed to the working group’s research
on this loss. None of the official Soviet documents uncovered thus far include
mention of recovery of either survivors or remains. Since 1997, the U.S. side
has focused its efforts on interviews of more than 30 former Soviet servicemen
in Latvia, Baltiisk, and Kaliningrad. The interviews have revealed discrepancies
in the dates of the Soviet search and recovery effort. The interviews have
indicated the possibility that bodies of members of the crew and portions
of the aircraft may have been recovered, but there has been no confirmation,
thus far, of such information. A report addressed to Joseph Stalin about the
results of the search for the American aircraft makes no mention of finding
any traces of the aircraft or the crewmembers. Contemporary appeals made by
the Baltic Fleet Command over radio, television, and in the newspapers for
information about the shoot down of the American aircraft have not been successful.
On 8 April 2000, the government of Latvia unveiled a plaque in Liepaja honoring
the crew.
Work on this loss will continue to focus on interviews and related archival
research.
Russian veterans meet with U.S. Co-Chairman, Mr. A. Denis Clift and staff,
Kaliningrad, Russia
Central Naval Archives of the Russian Federation (Gatchina)
The Central Naval Archives of the Russian Federation are located at Gatchina,
near St. Petersburg. During visits to the Central Naval Archives at Gatchina
in September 1992, Task Force Russia representatives received documents on
a number of the Cold War shoot down incidents the U.S. side had previously
identified to the Russian side during plenary sessions of the Joint Commission.
It should be understood that U.S. representatives have never been permitted
to perform actual research at the Central Naval Archives, because many naval
records from the Soviet era are still considered highly secret. Nonetheless,
the U.S. side has deemed that on-going access to archival materials is essential
for furthering investigations of Cold War shoot down incidents, and has continually
pressed the Russian side for such access. In recognition of the U.S. side’s
requirement, the Russian side has permitted a retired Russian naval officer,
Rear Admiral Boris Novyy to perform research on behalf of the Cold War Working
Group. RADM Novyy has been accredited by both sides of the Commission to do
this research. RADM Novyy’s efforts at Gatchina have invigorated the
investigations of several Cold War cases, in particular the 1 July 1960 shootdown
over the Barents Sea. We hope his efforts will also facilitate our investigations
of the more difficult cases that were described in the previous section.
U.S. Navy P2V - 6 November 1951 - Sea of Japan
On 6 November 1951, a P2V Neptune stationed at Atsugi Airfield, Japan, assigned
to Fleet Air Wing Six, carrying a crew of ten, and was shot down by Soviet
fighter aircraft during a reconnaissance mission over the Sea of Japan. U.S.
search and rescue missions continued through 9 November but recovered no survivors
or remains. A presumptive finding of death was issued by the Navy for the
entire crew on 7 November 1952.
Russian archival documents made available to the working group establish that
the shootdown was photographed by the fighter pilots; neither the pilots nor
the photography have yet been located. In 1995, a retired Soviet serviceman
told the working group that he had seen four injured Americans in the far
eastern town of Novosysoyevka where he was being treated in 1951, and that
he had been shown a gravesite where a fifth American had been buried. A field
investigation by CILHI was conducted, but no American remains were discovered.
The working group is focusing its current work on the Central Naval Archives
in Gatchina. Additionally, the working group is seeking to renew work at the
Central Archives of the Border Guards, given the probability that Soviet Border
Guards had some involvement in the incident.
U.S. Air Force RB-29 - 13 June 1952 - Sea of Japan
On 13 June 1952, an RB-29 aircraft stationed at Yokota Air Force Base, Japan,
assigned to the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, carrying a crew of
12, was shot down by Soviet fighter aircraft during a reconnaissance mission
over the Sea of Japan. During 14-17 June, U.S. search and rescue flights spotted
one, possibly two, empty life rafts. No survivors or remains were recovered.
A presumptive finding of death was issued by the Air Force for the crew on
14 November 1955.
Russian archival documents reviewed thus far by the working group indicate
no recovery of wreckage, survivors, or remains by Soviet units. They indicate
that the shootdown was photographed, but the photographs have not yet been
found. In 1995, U.S. participants in the U.S. search flights stated that they
had seen the RB-29 afloat, but this has not been confirmed by other sources.
In July 1952, crew members of an RB-29 shot down over North Korea state that
during their interrogations they were asked about a Major Busch, pilot of
the 13 June RB-29 aircraft. The Russian side has thus far been unable to explain
the reasons why such a question would have been asked. In 1999, a former Soviet
citizen told the U.S. side that during his years in exile in the Soviet Far
East he had been told on more than one occasion that ten American aviators
had been captured in June 1952-to include specific mention of two members
of the crew, Major Busch and MSGT Moore, that they had been imprisoned in
Svobodnii, in the Russian Far East, and had died in captivity. According to
information reviewed by the Russian side in the archives and card files of
the Ministry of the Interior and Federal Security Service of Russia, to include
those in the Khabarovsk territory and the Amur region, there is no mention
of American aircrew members.
The working group continues to pursue each of these issues, seeking witnesses
and planning fresh research in both security and central naval archives.
U.S. Air Force RB-50 - 29 July 1953 - Sea of Japan
On 29 July 1953, an RB-50 aircraft stationed at Yokota Air Force Base, Japan,
with a crew of 17, was shot down by Soviet fighter aircraft during the conduct
of a reconnaissance mission over the Sea of Japan. The mission's co-pilot,
Captain John E. Roche, was rescued by the destroyer USS Picking during U.S.
search and rescue operations on 29-31 July. U.S. search and rescue crewmembers
observed several Soviet ships searching the area. At the time, the U.S. government
repeatedly questioned the Soviet government about the loss in the belief that
the USSR had recovered U.S. survivors. The remains of two crewmembers, Captain
Stanley O’Kelley and MSGT Francis Brown, were later recovered along the
coast of Japan. A presumptive finding of death was issued by the Air Force
on 14 November 1955 for the remaining crewmembers still unaccounted for.
A preliminary review by the working group of charts and documents at the Gatchina
archives indicated that the Soviets had mounted a substantial search operation.
Thus far, however, no Soviet documents have indicated any recovery of U.S.
survivors or remains. In 1993, a retired Soviet serviceman told the U.S. side
that he had witnessed the shootdown and had seen seven parachutes descending
with the burning aircraft. In 1993, retired Soviet Colonel Gavril Ivanovich
Korotkov, who had been serving as a military intelligence officer/interrogator
near Khabarovsk, said that he had heard of the shootdown, of parachutes, of
recovery of Americans by Soviet forces. He had expected to interrogate the
Americans but had been told that, with the Korean War just over, they would
be treated as spies, not as POWs, and would be handled by the security services.
The working group continues to seek witnesses and individuals with information
about the loss. The working group is also intensifying its review of archival
documents, to include those in the Central Archives of the Border Guards.
U.S. Air Force RB-47 - 18 April 1955 - Northern Pacific
On 18 April 1955, an RB-47E assigned to the 4th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron
based at Eielson Air Base, Alaska, was shot down with a crew of three over
the northern Pacific Ocean off the Kamchatka Peninsula by Soviet MiG fighters.
U.S. search and rescue missions were unsuccessful. A presumptive finding of
death was issued by the Air Force for the three crew members on 17 April 1956.
Research by the working group has revealed that Soviet fishermen aboard the
fishing boat Komandor noted an explosion at the time of the shootdown. Archival
work thus far has indicated that the Soviet Border Guard recovered parts of
the aircraft, a life vest, topographic maps of Chukhotka and Alaska, diagrams
and a written description of the plane, and that these items were turned over
to Soviet military intelligence (GRU). There is no reference to either survivors
or remains in any document. The working group is focusing its research efforts
on witnesses and individuals with information on the loss. The working group
is also planning to research the military archives at Podolsk, and to seek
improved access to GRU and Border Guard archives for information on the incident.
U.S. Air Force RB-50 - 10 September 1956 - Sea of Japan
On 10 September 1956, an RB-50 assigned to the 41st Air Division, 5th Air
Force, based at Yokota Air Base, Japan, was lost over the Sea of Japan with
a crew of 16 during a reconnaissance mission. Typhoon Emma was in the area
at the time. On 13 November 1956, in response to a U.S. request, the Soviet
government stated that it had no information about the aircraft or the crew.
A presumptive finding of death for the crew was issued by the Air Force on
31 December 1956.
When this case was presented to the Russians by the U.S. side of the Commission,
the U.S. had no information to indicate that the aircraft’s loss had
resulted from an attack by Soviet fighters. Following a review of archives,
the Russian side reported that it had no information on either the aircraft
or the crew and that it did not consider the case one of the Cold War incidents.
Central Archives of the Border Guards
The Soviet Border Guards are another potentially important source of information
on Cold War incidents. Information from Vasilii Saiko, a retired Soviet Maritime
Border Guard, provided a breakthrough that enabled Commission investigators
to locate Captain John Dunham’s remains on Yurii Island in the Kurile
islands (7 October 1952 incident). In addition, the U.S. side of the Commission
has received documents from the Central Archives of the Border Guards related
to the 18 April 1955 shoot down in the Northern Pacific as well as materials
on border violations that did not result in U.S. casualties. There is good
reason to believe there is probably more information in these archives on
other shoot down incidents.
The U.S. side of the Commission considers that access to the Border Guards
Archives is crucial to the success of investigations of Cold War incidents,
and has requested such access, either direct or indirect, since the Commission’s
inception in 1992. Unfortunately, except for the few documents mentioned above,
this request has gone unfulfilled.
During the Commission's 11th Plenary session, the Russian Co-Chairman of the
working group told a U.S. family member that his side would continue to search
for information. At the April 1995 working group session, the Russian side
reported that no information had been found. At this point, new leads for
further inquiry have not been developed by the working group.
U.S. Air Force RB-57 - 14 December 1965 - Black Sea
On 14 December 1965, an RB-57 was lost over the Black Sea. The aircraft was
assigned to the 7407th Support Squadron at Wiesbaden, Germany, and was on
temporary duty at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. The U.S. had no information at
the time of the loss to indicate that it had involved an attack by Soviet
fighters. A joint U.S.-Turkish search began on 15 December 1965. Parts of
the aircraft were found, but the two-man crew remained missing. Presumptive
findings of death for the crewmembers were issued by the Air Force on 6 and
9 June 1966.
When the U.S. raised this loss as part of the work of the Commission, the
Russian side stated that it did not consider it a Cold War incident, that
there had been no Soviet involvement. The Russian side subsequently did provide
two documents establishing that there had been a Soviet search effort resulting
in recovery of parts of the RB-57 but neither of the crewmembers. At this
point, new leads for further inquiry have not been developed by the working
group.
Soviet Losses During the Cold War and
in Conflicts in Afghanistan and Other Places
Through the work of the working group, the U.S. side has provided a significant
amount of information on Soviet losses in Afghanistan, which has assisted
the Russian Federation in reducing the number of those unaccounted for from
350 to 287.
With great care for the rights and privacy of the individuals involved, the
U.S.-side has asked former Soviet servicemen now residing in the United States
for information that might help Russia to account for servicemen still unaccounted
for from the conflict in Afghanistan. The working group continues to follow
up where possible on requests from Russian veterans organizations for such
information.
The Russian side of the Commission has asked the U.S. side for information
on 28 Cold War incidents. The U.S. side has conducted a broad search of U.S.
Government archives in responding to these requests. The U.S. side has informed
the Russian side about possible sources of information at the U.S. National
Archives, the archives of the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
as well as the operational archives of the U.S. Navy Historical Center and
the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Center, in which searches for significant
information about the fates of servicemen of the USSR and Russian Federation
have been conducted and will continue to be conducted. The Russian side of
the Commission has received information about the losses of submarine crews,
helicopters and aircraft from the 1950s-1990s (15 incidents); information
concerning 44 servicemen who disappeared in Budapest, Hungary, during the
events of October-November 1956; and information about Lieutenant Colonel
Udalov, who vanished in June 1978 in Ethiopia.
The U.S. side has provided videotape, artifacts, and a formal report by the
U.S. Co-Chairman of the Commission in plenary session on the loss of the Soviet
Golf-class submarine which sank in 1968. The U.S. has also provided information,
deck logs and videotape on the 25 May 1968 crash of the Soviet Tu-16 Badger
in the Norwegian Sea; deck logs of U.S. naval units in the vicinity of a 15
July 1964 Soviet Tu-16 Badger crash in the Sea of Japan; documents and photograph
relating to the loss of a Soviet twin-engine bomber on 4 September 1950 off
the coast of Korea; and information on Soviet advisers captured in the Ogaden
in 1978.
The U.S. side provided information on Russian TU-16 Badgers which crashed
during the Cold War
At the latest plenary session, official representatives from the Russian side
expressed gratitude to the Americans for their assistance in freeing Russian
aircrew members from captivity in Angola.
Future Work
Thus far in the life of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs, the
work of the Cold War Working Group has been conducted in a positive spirit
of professionalism and cooperation. As reflected in the specific work program
outlined above, both sides are dedicated to the goal of accounting for all
those servicemen still missing from the Cold War era. The inclusion of new
technical experts as well as witnesses in the Commission’s work, as well
as agreement on a detailed examination of all relevant national archives,
mark important steps by the U.S. and Russian sides to support and facilitate
future work. Extremely important questions about those still unaccounted for
must be answered if the working group is fully to serve the goal of the Commission,
and if the working group is fully to be worthy of the hope and trust placed
in it by the families of those still missing. The Cold War Working Group will
proceed in a manner worthy of both the Commission's humanitarian goal and
the families’ trust.
KOREAN
WAR WORKING GROUP
The Commission’s Korean War Working Group is chaired by U.S. Representative
Sam Johnson of Texas and Colonel (retired) Aleksandr Semenovich Orlov of the
Institute of Military History in Moscow. The objectives of the KWWG remain
to determine whether any American POW/MIAs are still being held against their
will in the former Soviet Union; to determine the fate of members of the U.S.
Armed Forces who were located on the territory of the former Soviet Union
or about whom the Russian government may have information, and to ascertain
the circumstances of loss with respect to unaccounted-for Soviet servicemen
from the Korean War. This effort has proceeded along two basic lines of inquiry
- the transfer of American POWs to the Soviet Union and the clarification
of circumstances of loss.
Congressman Sam Johnson,
U.S. Co-Chairman
Colonel Aleksandr Orlov,
Russian Co-Chairman
The first line of inquiry, to determine the facts concerning the reported
transfer of U.S. POWs from the Korean Theater of Operations to the former
Soviet Union, continues to be the working group's principal objective. The
investigative process consists primarily of conducting interviews with former
Soviet Korean War veterans, Soviet gulag survivors from both the former Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe, current and former government officials, and historians.
Researchers representing the Commission have interviewed over 600 individuals
in the former Soviet Union, some of whom reported having seen, met, or heard
of American POWs at Soviet military bases or elsewhere on Soviet territory.
Interviews with gulag survivors who have had, or have heard of, chance encounters
with American servicemen in the gulag serve as an additional source of information.
One significant report of Americans in the Soviet gulag has surfaced recently
in excerpts of the memoirs of a former Soviet gulag inmate. These memoirs
list numerous names that correlate to unaccounted-for Americans and present
a continuing challenge for the working group and the Commission to investigate.
Memory sketch of prison camp drawn by gulag survivor
The investigative process has also included research in both U.S. and former
Soviet archives for information concerning reports of Americans having been
transferred to the gulag or seen in the gulag in the 1950s. Researchers have
combed U.S. diplomatic and military archives to collect as many contemporaneous
reports of American servicemen in the gulag as possible. These include numerous
accounts of POWs reportedly shipped into the former Soviet Union as well as
reported sightings of missing servicemen observed at specific prison camps
and other detention facilities.
Relevant data from the memoirs and other first-hand as well as indirect reporting
sources has been consolidated to build an extensive database for further investigation
into the transfer issue. From the American side’s perspective, the sheer
volume of this information suggests there is validity to the notion of POW
transfers, regardless of the credibility that either side of the Commission
may choose to ascribe to any single source of information. Compiled and then
substantially expanded immediately after the 16th Plenum, the database - which
has come to be known as the "Gulag Study"- was provided to the Russian
side in the spring of 2000.
The second line of inquiry, to clarify the circumstances surrounding specific
loss incidents, has also included both archival work and interviews with veterans.
The Korean War Working Group has pursued access to Russian military archives
throughout this period. Although some documents from Russian archives had
been provided previously, the U.S. side has not had access to the archives
to conduct independent research. Despite repeated requests, the Russian government
has for years maintained that it has provided all the information pertinent
to missing Americans that could be found in its archives. Dedicated pursuit
of archival material by U.S. Commissioners and American researchers has kept
the issue active. Limited American access to the records of the 64th Fighter
Aviation Corps began in 1998.
PODOLSK ARCHIVES
After the U.S.-Russian Joint Commission was formed, the Russian Ministry of
Defense released approximately 30 pages of material from a photo album in
the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense, Podolsk, Russia. The material
pertained to U.S. personnel missing during the Korean War and was accompanied
by a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating that the Podolsk
Archives held no further information of interest to us.
After a lengthy negotiation process, the Russians granted U.S. researchers
limited access to the archives. The initial agreement was to allow access
for a total of four days, but this has expanded to our current arrangement.
Presently, the Korean War Working Group sends two researchers to the archives
in Podolsk eight days per month where they are able to study documents produced
by the Soviet 64th Fighter Aviation Corps during its involvement in the Korean
War.
An example of a page from the 64th FAC archives. Shown are the pilot, gun-camera
print of the shootdown, a brief description of the air battle, statements
verifying the shootdown, and a map of the shootdown area
Transfer to the U.S. side of documents identified at the Podolsk archives
was erratic at first, requiring high-level Russian government input and complex
arrangements. Complicating matters, the Russian government halted all work
in the archives as well as the release of copied material during the bombing
operations in Kosovo in the spring of 1999. Continued efforts on the part
of the Commission’s Moscow-based unit have now brought this work to a
routine state in which U.S. researchers work in the archives regularly each
month and are able to receive copies of requested documents.
Since that time, the U.S. side has been able to review declassified documents
in the archives and obtain copies of pertinent material. Access remains limited
to the declassified operational files of the Soviet Union’s 64th FAC,
which flew the majority of the combat sorties flown by communist forces during
the Korean War. The material contains descriptions of air battles between
Soviet and United Nations’ air forces. Pilots’ personal files were
developed to document shootdowns and substantiate the payment of cash awards.
These records often describe where aircraft crashed, provide hand-drawn maps
with statements from local citizens, and note whether parachutes were seen
or remains were found. In a few cases, there are photographs of aircraft wreckage.
Soviet pilot's sketch of U.S. B-29 downed on January 10, 1951.
Upon receipt, the documents are catalogued, scanned, reviewed, and analyzed
for correlation to specific U.S. missing servicemen. The material is compared
to U.S. archival information on specific losses. Key elements such as the
date, time, and location of the incident, type of aircraft, and description
of the air battle are compared with U.S. loss records to determine if the
incident described is one from which an American serviceman is still unaccounted
for. The information that can be thus correlated is then further analyzed,
translated, and sent to the primary next of kin through the appropriate Service
Casualty Offices.
Access to the Podolsk archives has also given impetus to the working group’s
Korean War oral interview program. Unit records generally cite the names of
individuals who took part in searches for downed aircraft and documented wreckage
locations and sometimes the fate of the crew, as well as pilots and intelligence
officers who may have encountered or interrogated live American POWs in North
Korea. Moscow-based personnel have located and interviewed hundreds of these
Soviet veterans of the Korean War, building on information received prior
to 1995 and seeking further information on missing American servicemen and
possible transfers of POWs to the former Soviet Union.
The working group has also located and provided to the Russian side archival
information pertaining to Soviet losses in the Korean War. At the 14th Plenum
in 1997, the U.S. side provided information they had collected in Russia indicating
that 43 of the 45 Soviet Airmen missing form the Korean War were accounted
for and buried at Port Arthur, Dal’nii, or Voroshilov-Ussurijskii. Additional
information on these cases was provided in January 1998. At that time, the
U.S. side also provided a 32-page report correlating all Soviet aircraft losses
with American shoot-down reports. In August of that year, the U.S. side provided
archival reports of the U.S. recovery of a MiG-15. At the Second Meeting of
Principals in September 1998, the U.S. side gave the Russian side microfilmed
copies of the USAF 4th, 35th, and 51st Fighter Wings' records and 2 videotapes
with gun camera footage from the Korean War. Then, at the 15th Plenum, the
U.S. side provided a copy of the official "USAF Credits for the Destruction
of Enemy Aircraft-Korean War", copies of the General Orders from the
Far East Air Force detailing U.S. shoot-downs of enemy aircraft; copies of
the FEAF after-action reports on aircraft shoot downs, and a copy of the "List
of Navy and Marine Corps shoot Downs Since 1950." U.S. researchers have
also passed to the Russian side information they compiled on Soviet losses
that they found while conducting their research at Podolsk. This extensive
research in both U.S. and Russian archives has provided the Russian side with
a significant amount of information on missing Soviet airmen from the Korean
War.
The Korean War Working Group also organized a meeting between American Korean
War fighter pilots and Russian members of the Commission in September 1998.
This unprecedented meeting was aimed at bringing U.S. and Soviet veterans
together to help both sides clarify the fate of their unaccounted-for from
the Korean War. Five American veterans, among whom were famous fliers such
as Lieutenant General William "Earl" Brown (USAF, Retired), and
Brigadier General Paul Kauttu (USAF, Retired), described air battles that
took place nearly fifty years ago. One veteran provided gun camera footage
showing the destruction of a MIG-15. The American veterans offered to help
the Russians contact other American Korean War fighter pilots who might be
able to shed light on the fate of unaccounted-for Soviet pilots. The Commission's
efforts to locate and interview Russian and American Korean War veterans served
as a model for the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Office's oral
history program with Chinese Korean War veterans.
American Korean War fighter pilots meet with Russian Commission members
Since its formation, the Korean War Working Group has engaged in a concerted
effort to achieve its objectives and obtain information on the fate of missing
servicemen from the Korean War. In the course of their work, Russian and American
researchers have interviewed more than 600 people and have obtained tens of
thousands of pages of documentation from Russian and American archives. In
addition, investigators have visited numerous camps, prisons and psychiatric
hospitals in the former Soviet Union in pursuit of investigative leads and
concrete evidence of POW transfer.
Since the Commission's 1995 report, the Korean War Working Group's major achievement
concerned access to the Russian Ministry of Defense Archives at Podolsk. Access
to this material was the result of years of Commission negotiations with the
Russian government to allow U.S. researchers to work in the archives in Podolsk.
The 15th Plenary Session saw a major breakthrough when the Russian government
finally released to the U.S. side the first large batch of documents found
by U.S. researchers. This long-requested collection consisted of 6,000 pages
of photocopies of documents and approximately 300 copies of photographs from
the Podolsk archives that were relevant to U.S. losses during the Korean War.
More than 16,000 pages of archival documents have been received to date. This
data has proved helpful in clarifying the circumstances of loss and in some
cases the fate of the crew in some 140 cases. It is also expected to assist
future U.S.-North Korean Joint Recovery Teams in their efforts to locate the
remains of missing American airmen.
Location sketch of downed F-84 drawn by Soviet search group member
The work of the Korean War Working Group to investigate the reported transfer
of POWs to the former Soviet Union and clarify the circumstances related to
specific loss incidents continues today. In particular, the Gulag Study provides
the basis for continued investigation of the presence of American POWs in
the gulag. Research experience to date suggests that the archives of the Committee
for State Security (KGB) and Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) are the most
likely repositories for further inquiry into this topic. The cooperation of
these elements of the former Soviet government is critical to any rigorous
investigation into the transfer of American POWs to the former Soviet Union
because they are the elements that would have organized, conducted, and recorded
such activities. The MVD and KGB archives, as well as those of individual
camps and regions, need to be accessed to find the details behind many of
the gulag sighting reports. Moreover, the interview program should be expanded
to include KGB and MVD personnel who staffed these facilities as well as former
inmates and staff personnel living in adjacent villages who may recall the
American prisoners reported there.
In addition, it is believed that the archives at Podolsk contain much more
information that can help clarify the fate of missing Americans. Research
will continue in the operational records of the 64th FAC and be expanded to
include the intelligence and personnel records of the 64th FAC, the records
of the Operations Group in China, and the records of the Soviet Air Force
Headquarters for the years of the Korean War.
VIETNAM
WAR WORKING GROUP
The Vietnam War Working Group (VWWG) was established in 1993. The U.S. Chairman
is Senator Bob Smith (R-NH), former Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee
on POW/MIA Affairs (1991-1993) and currently a senior member of the Senate
Armed Services Committee. The Russian Chairman is General-Major Nikolai Maksimovich
Bezborodov, an active duty Russian Army officer and three-term member of the
Duma, serving as Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Defense. Senator Smith
has been a member of the Commission since its inception in 1992 and has co-chaired
the working group since January 1997; General Bezborodov assumed his position
as a member of the Commission and VWWG co-chairman in February 2000.
Senator Bob Smith,
U.S. Co-Chairman
General-Major Nikolai
Maksimovich Bezborodov,
Russian Co-Chairman
Objectives
The VWWG is focused on two primary objectives: to determine what information
is available in the former Soviet Union that might help to clarify the fate
of unaccounted-for American service members from the Vietnam War and, in particular,
to determine whether any American service members were transferred from Southeast
Asia (North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) to the former Soviet Union
during the Vietnam War period (1964-75).
In support of these objectives, the VWWG seeks to obtain broader, and in many
cases, first-ever access to Russian archives, particularly the Central Archives
of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Central Archives of the Main Intelligence
Directorate (GRU), the Central Archives of the Federal Security Service (FSB)
and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and the Presidential Archives.
The U.S. side also continues to collect and analyze as much information as
possible through an intensive interview program with former Soviet officials,
military veterans, and others who are potentially knowledgeable about Soviet
involvement in the Vietnam War.
In this particular working group, there are few unresolved Russian issues
to be examined, since the Russian side reports that it has no unaccounted-for
service members from the Vietnam War. Therefore, since most Vietnam War-related
issues before the working group are of concern primarily to the American side,
Senator Smith has actively pursued information possibly in possession of the
United States Government that could help account for missing Russian service
members from a range of past and current conflicts.
Research and Investigative Process
The U.S. side of the VWWG seeks comprehensive answers from its Russian interlocutors
to the following areas of inquiry:
* What information is available that provides names of American POWs, identifying
data, shoot down records, interrogation reports, and any other information
relating directly or indirectly to American POW/MIAs who were not repatriated
from Southeast Asia at the conclusion of hostilities in 1973?
* Is there information available indicating whether any American POWs were
held back by Communist forces in Southeast Asia after April 1, 1973? If so,
where were they held, by whom, and for what purpose?
* According to Russian-held data, in which specific locations were American
POWs held captive in Southeast Asia?
* According to Russian-held data, how many American POWs were held captive
in Southeast Asia? What was their fate?
* What additional information is available about the origin and authenticity
of the so-called "735" and "1205" documents?
Senator Smith and Rear Admiral Boris Popov discuss POW/MIA issues at Frunze
Naval Academy in St. Petersburg
In pursuit of answers to these questions, the VWWG approaches its work from
two directions. The first is to conduct detailed interviews with a wide range
of former Soviet officials and veterans who served in Southeast Asia or are
otherwise potentially knowledgeable about Soviet involvement in or policies
toward that region during the Vietnam War. The second is to examine which
Russian archives may hold more useful information than has so far been obtained
for review by the Joint Commission.
The Interview Program
Several thousand members of the Soviet Armed Forces served in Southeast Asia
during the Vietnam conflict. 1 The U.S. side of the working group
has a program that seeks to interview key former Soviet officials whose positions
during the Vietnam War likely would have provided them access to information
about American POW/MIAs and their loss incidents. In order to identify such
individuals, the VWWG performs detailed research in U.S. intelligence and
archival holdings and reviews open-source reporting in the Russian and English
languages. In addition, interview candidates are identified from diplomatic
listings, referrals from interviews, and through appeals for support to various
Russian veterans' groups and associations and through the mass media in the
former USSR.
The interview program prioritizes candidates for interviews based on their
assessed knowledgeability. Individuals with an expected high degree of access
to POW/MIA-related information are considered first-priority interview candidates.
The current interview program contains the names of 63 first-priority interview
candidates: 11 former GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence) officers; 16 former
KGB officers; and 36 former Soviet military and government officials. Among
the highest-priority interviews sought from this group are: General Petr Ivashutin,
the chief of the GRU during the Vietnam War; Yevgeniy Primakov, former Russian
Prime Minister, who, according to General Volkogonov, in 1994 as chief of
the Foreign Intelligence Service, showed General Volkogonov a Soviet KGB plan
to "deliver knowledgeable Americans to the USSR for intelligence purposes"
(see box on the Volkogonov memoirs); General Vladimir Chukhrov, an official
of the SVR.
The Volkogonov Memoirs
In early February 1998, Senator Bob Smith arranged for Joint Commission researchers
to work in the personal papers of the late General-Colonel Dmitrii A. Volkogonov,
located at the Library of Congress. The Commission staff members found in
this collection a six-page, Russian-language autobiographical sketch entitled,
"A Little More About Myself." This brief memoir, written by Volkogonov
in August 1994, reveals his discovery in Russian archives of a document from
the late 1960s that assigned the KGB the task of "delivering knowledgeable
Americans to the USSR for intelligence purposes." Volkogonov wrote that
he was shown a copy of the actual KGB plan in the early 1990s by then Chief
of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Ye.M. Primakov, who claimed that
the plan had never been implemented. In his memoir, Volkogonov expressed skepticism
about Primakov's claim, stating that it remained "a secret I was unable
to penetrate." (See text for more information on the investigative and
diplomatic efforts and developments on this case.)
General-Colonel Dmitrii Volkogonov, noted Russian military historian, author,
and first Russian Co-Chairman of the Commission
Second-priority interview candidates are less likely to possess first-hand,
POW/MIA related information, but their positions during the Vietnam War offer
some expectation that their information might prove insightful. The current
interview program contains the names of 55 second-priority interview candidates.
Besides the research-based formal interview program, the VWWG routinely attempts
to interview as many former Soviet veterans who served in Southeast Asia during
the Vietnam conflict as possible. For example, the government of Belarus provided
a list of all veterans residing in that country with credited service in Southeast
Asia during the Vietnam War, and VWWG analysts have interviewed many of these
veterans. Although the working group continues to seek a similar comprehensive
listing of Russian Vietnam War veterans, only partial lists have been generated.
VWWG analysts travel extensively throughout the former Soviet Union, routinely
visiting Russian cities and former Soviet republics, such as Kazakhstan, Ukraine,
Belarus, Georgia, and the Baltic states, in search of interview opportunities
with former Soviet veterans of the Vietnam War. These interviews are a prime
source of information for the Vietnam War Working Group, especially in view
of the current low level of access by the working group to Russian archival
holdings.
Access to the Archives of the Russian Federation
The VWWG seeks far broader access to Russian archival materials than it has
obtained to date. The working group's research, including information from
knowledgeable Russian officials and Joint Commission representatives, strongly
suggests that Russian archives contain potentially valuable materials that
might greatly contribute to American efforts to provide the fullest possible
accounting for missing service members. This research has led to some preliminary
conclusions, outlined below, about which materials and archives hold the greatest
promise for future Joint Commission efforts.
The Central Archives of the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation at
Podolsk contain the unit records of all Soviet and Russian Armed Forces except
the Navy, archival documents for which are sent to the Central Naval Archives
in Gatchina, Russia. Elements of one Soviet air defense regiment deployed
to North Vietnam from 3 March to 3 November 1966, during which time the unit
claims to have downed several dozen American aircraft. American and Russian
representatives of the Joint Commission visited the headquarters of this regiment
in March 1994, and they determined that the records of this unit's service
in North Vietnam, most likely including the records of the shoot-down of American
combat aircraft, are held in the Podolsk archives. Since 1994, the American
side has worked closely with the Russian side to gain access to these and
other important materials located in the Podolsk archives. The working group
has made limited progress on this issue, but it is encouraged that a recent
dialogue at Senator Smith's request between the U.S. Secretary of Defense
and the Russian Minister of Defense on access by Joint Commission researchers
to Defense Ministry archives will help facilitate this process.
A second repository in which Vietnam War-related materials are held is the
archives of the GRU (Russian Military Intelligence). The American side believes
that these archives contain information of potential value to the accounting
mission of the Joint Commission. This includes the records of a "special
group" (spetsgruppa) of GRU officers whose mission during the Vietnam
War was to receive captured American combat equipment for transshipment to
the former USSR and technical exploitation. The U.S. side learned about the
activities of the "special group" from documents passed by the Russian
side early in the life of the Joint Commission. The GRU "special group"
operated in North Vietnam throughout the war and is believed to have acquired
several thousand pieces of American combat equipment, ranging in significance
from small arms to entire aircraft and major components. The U.S. side believes
the records of this "special group" would contain data, including
the serial numbers of components, that might be traced to incidents of U.S.
loss and, perhaps, correlated to open MIA cases, potentially helping to clarify
the circumstances of loss. (See box entitled "F-111 Cockpit in Moscow")
F-111 Cockpit in Moscow
In 1992, Joint Commission researchers working in Moscow discovered the largely
intact crew capsule of a U.S. F-111 fighter-bomber that was shot down over
North Vietnam in 1972. The cockpit was found at the Moscow Aviation Institute,
where it was being used as a training mockup for Russian students. The condition
of the capsule suggested that the crew might have survived. Moreover, the
serial number of the aircraft initially suggested that the loss incident could
potentially correlate to either one of two loss incidents, one in November
1972 involving two MIAs and one in December 1972 from which two POWs were
repatriated. An FBI team of technical specialists was subsequently dispatched
to examine the capsule, and their work enabled the U.S. Government to correlate
the capsule to the two repatriated American POWs.
The U.S. side of the Joint Commission believes the F-111 crew capsule was
one of several thousand pieces of captured American combat equipment that
was acquired in North Vietnam by a GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence) "special
group." The F-111 capsule demonstrates the potential that equipment brought
to the USSR for technical exploitation might be correlated to an actual incident
of U.S. loss in Southeast Asia. In this case, the crew survived its loss incident
and returned home after a period of captivity. The U.S. side is interested
in other equipment acquired by the "special group" in the hope that
documents describing equipment might provide data that would help clarify
incidents of U.S. loss or the fate of Americans who did not return home.
Crew capsule of the F-111 shot down over North Vietnam on 22 December 1972
Fragments of an American B-52 aircraft shot down over Hanoi in December 1972,
displayed at the museum of the Air Defense Forces, Balashikha, Russia
The GRU archives may also contain Vietnamese-originated interrogation records
of American POWs in Southeast Asia that were shared with Soviet military officials.
In the early 1990s, the Russian side of the Commission uncovered a document
showing that a bilateral agreement existed between North Vietnam and the former
USSR obligating the Vietnamese to share reports of their interrogation of
American POWs with the Soviets. Based on its research to date, the U.S. side
of the working group believes these reports were passed from the Vietnamese
to the Soviets through GRU channels, and that copies of these reports likely
reside today in the GRU archives. The potential exists that these materials
might help to clarify the fate of unaccounted-for American service members.
A third example of valuable materials that likely are held in Russian archives
are the reports of Soviet officials who participated directly in the interrogation
of American POWs held in Southeast Asia. The American side of the VWWG has
uncovered at least five such instances from the testimony of former American
POWs. Interviews with several Russian veterans and certain U.S. intelligence
reports tend to buttress the argument that the Soviets, on occasion, were
granted direct access to American POWs for the purpose of interrogation. The
U.S. side believes that Russian archives should contain the reports of the
five known encounters, and possibly other such encounters, between American
POWs and Soviet officials during interrogation. Such reports might contribute
to American efforts to account for missing service members. The U.S. presented
its evidence to the Russian side during the 16th Plenum (November 1999) and
asked the Russian side to research this topic. The Russian side agreed to
this effort and is currently reviewing the U.S. research on this important
issue.
These are major examples of materials believed to be held in Russian archives
that warrant a comprehensive review by the Joint Commission. Other examples
could be offered. This subject has been discussed routinely at each meeting
of the Joint Commission and has resulted in dozens of formal correspondences
between the two sides. Senator Smith and other U.S. Commissioners have pressed
the case for increased access to Russian archives in search of POW/MIA-related
materials from the Vietnam War era. As mentioned, Secretary of Defense Cohen
and Minister of Defense Sergeyev discussed the issue of archival access during
their meetings in September 1999 and June 2000. It is hoped that these discussions
will finally lead to an arrangement that permits the review of potentially
helpful Russian records from the Vietnam War era.
As noted earlier, Joint Commission access to Russian archives for POW/MIA-related
materials from the Vietnam War era has been sharply limited. This is demonstrated
by the comparatively small number of Vietnam War archival materials reviewed
by the Joint Commission. In the first three years of the Joint Commission's
work (1992-95), the American side of the VWWG received 74 documents comprising
322 pages. Compared with the number of pages received by the Commission's
other working groups in the same time frame, this is by far the smallest contribution.
For example, the Korean War Working Group (KWWG) received in the same time
frame 410 documents comprising over 12,000 pages. In the past five years (1996-2000),
the VWWG has received only 10 additional documents (67 pages) of Vietnam War-related
materials from the Russian side, and some of these were duplicates of materials
received earlier. In contrast, KWWG figures for the same time frame are 260
documents comprising 16,000 pages. The U.S. side continues to identify specific
documents, often by archival citation, that are potentially valuable to the
accounting effort and has requested their declassification and release to
the American side.
The "Quang Documents"
When a civilian researcher named Dr. Stephen Morris discovered the so-called
"735" and "1205" documents in the archives of the former
Soviet Politburo in 1993, he also noted two GRU documents which purported
to be speeches to the Politburo of the North Vietnamese Workers' Party in
the early 1970s by the author of the "1205" document, North Vietnamese
General Lieutenant Tran Van Quang.
In assessing the "1205" document, some analysts have argued that
General Quang allegedly had a relatively low rank and position at this period
of time and therefore is highly unlikely to have addressed the Politburo on
any subject, much less on the subject of American POWs. The "1205"
document thus has been dismissed partly based on this argument.
Because the two "Quang documents" in the former Central Committee
archives appear to demonstrate that, indeed, General Quang spoke to the Politburo
on more than one occasion and on a range of topics during this time frame,
the U.S. side of the Joint Commission has repeatedly sought access to these
materials. It has provided the Russian side with the precise location within
the archives where these materials can be found, and it has presented its
case for access to these documents on numerous occasions. Senator Smith has
argued this case personally to his Russian counterparts, and they agreed to
work out an arrangement whereby the American side of the VWWG could review
these documents. The U.S. side continues to await Russian fulfillment of this
pledge.
There is one hopeful development to report in the area of broader U.S. access
to Russian archival holdings that may lead to access to Vietnam War-era documents.
The Commission's Korean War Working Group, through the tireless efforts of
its American Co-Chairman, Congressman Sam Johnson, obtained access to Korean
War records in the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense in
August 1997 and has continued its review of these archives since that time.
The VWWG hopes to obtain similar access there as well through a continued
dialogue between Senator Smith and his Russian counterparts.
RESULTS
The Interview Program
Since the Joint Commission's May 1995 Interim Report, the VWWG has interviewed
515 citizens of the former USSR, including diplomats, military and security-service
officers, high-level Communist Party and government officials, researchers,
and journalists. In the past five years, VWWG analysts have traveled to eight
of the fifteen newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, some of
them repeatedly, to locate and interview veterans of the Vietnam War.
The American side is grateful for the assistance of the Russian side in arranging
several of these important interviews. For example, during the 15th Plenum
(November 1998), and again during the 16th Plenum (November 1999), the Russian
side arranged for the American side to interview former KGB Chief Vladimir
Semichastnyy (KGB Chief from December 1961 to May 1967) and former KGB Chief
Vladimir Kryuchkov in November 1999. [The highest ranking KGB official who
is alive today from the end of Semichastnyy’s tenure at the KGB (1967)
to the end of the Vietnam War, Kryuchkov also headed the KGB from October
1988 to August 1991.] Also with Russian assistance, the U.S. side interviewed
Konstantin Katushev, a CPSU Central Committee Secretary during the Vietnam
War.
The American side has had considerable success unilaterally obtaining interviews
with former Soviet veterans of the Vietnam War. Interviews conducted by the
VWWG since 1995 have revealed numerous alleged firsthand sightings by Soviet
officials of live American POWs in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
After analytical review, the majority of these reports were found to be credible.
Many were successfully correlated to known incidents of U.S. loss in which
personnel have been accounted for either as repatriated POWs or as individuals
whose remains have been returned to U.S. control. Several other Soviet firsthand
live sightings are still under review in the working group.
The interview program also has provided valuable insight into a number of
analytical areas of high interest to the U.S. side. For example, since 1995,
the VWWG has interviewed several dozen high-level former Soviet officials
about the documents found in Russian archives in 1993, the so-called "735"
and "1205" documents (see box). Those interviewed include the current
chief of the GRU (Russian Military Intelligence), retired and serving GRU
officers, several former Soviet ambassadors to Hanoi, Soviet Communist Party
Central Committee officials, several former chiefs of the KGB, and a number
of retired KGB officers. These interviews formed the basis of a judgment contained
in the U.S. Intelligence Community's 1998 National Intelligence Estimate that
both documents probably are authentic GRU acquisitions and not merely fabrications
of Soviet intelligence services, as claimed by the Vietnamese.
The working group's interview program also has provided valuable information
about another of the VWWG's current highest priority analytical issues-the
meaning of the Volkogonov memoirs. After the discovery in early 1998 of Volkogonov's
draft autobiography, VWWG analysts interviewed over twenty of Volkogonov's
past associates and confidants. The information they provided has led the
U.S. side to the following conclusions: Volkogonov believed that the purported
KGB plan to "deliver knowledgeable Americans to the USSR for intelligence
purposes" applied to American POWs; he briefed the plan to President
Yeltsin and told his closest professional associates about his discovery;
and he continued to believe until his death in December 1995 that the KGB
plan could possibly have been implemented and hoped that it would become public
knowledge through the publication of his memoirs.
The "735" and "1205" Documents
The "735" document purports to be a report by the North Vietnamese
Workers' Party Secretary Hoang Anh to the Party’s 20th Plenum in Hanoi
in December 1971/January 1972. In the report, Hoang Anh claims that the North
Vietnamese were holding 735 American aviators at that time. The Commission
believes that the document is a legitimate Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU)
acquisition. During the September 1993 plenary session of the Joint Commission,
the Russian side officially passed to the American side two pages of the document
that specifically mentioned the subject of U.S. POWs. The U.S. Government
received a copy of the entire document from Dr. Stephen Morris, a civilian
researcher working in the Russian archives, who originally discovered the
document.
The "1205" document purports to be a report to the North Vietnamese
Workers' Party Politburo by General-Lieutenant Tran Van Quang on 15 September
1972. According to the report, Quang told the Politburo that Hanoi was holding
1,205 American POWs at that time, more than twice the number of POWs who were
repatriated during Operation Homecoming in 1973. The U.S. side received eleven
pages of this document which directly pertained to American POWs from the
Russian side, but Dr. Stephen Morris, who discovered the document in January
1993 in Russian archives, provided the entire document for examination by
American analysts.
The U.S. side of the VWWG considers the 735 and 1205 documents a top priority
issue. Senator Smith met with General Quang in Vietnam in July 1993 and found
his answers to questions about the origin, contents, and authenticity of the
1205 document evasive and unconvincing. Other U.S. Government officials also
have interviewed Quang and Anh. The working group will continue to seek information
about the manner in which the GRU acquired these documents, the source(s)
from whom the documents were acquired, the manner in which these materials
were handled by the Soviets after the documents were acquired, and the credibility
assigned by the Soviets to these materials and their source(s).
The Russian side maintains that no such plan as that described in Volkogonov’s
memoirs ever existed, and it denies that its archives hold the documents described
by Volkogonov. Nevertheless, the U.S. continues to seek appropriate documentation
that either would validate Russian assertions that no such plan existed, or
would provide further details about the existence of the plan. At the request
of the American side of the Joint Commission, the Vice President and the Secretary
of State have raised this issue to their Russian counterparts through letters,
brief discussions, and non-papers. The issue also has been raised repeatedly
within the Joint Commission. As the U.S. Chairman of the Commission’s
Vietnam War Working Group, Senator Bob Smith vigorously leads the American
approach to Russian counterparts on this important issue.
Archival Access in the Former USSR Republics and the Eastern European Nations
The VWWG has obtained access to a number of important archives in non-Russian
states of the former USSR. In the past five years, VWWG researchers have worked
in defense ministry, Communist Party, and security archives of several former
republics of the USSR, as well as in a number of archives in Eastern Europe.
Support from these states for continued access to their archives is encouraging,
and there is sufficient reason to believe that useful information might still
be uncovered. Nonetheless, the most important archival information related
to the fate of unaccounted-for American service members from the Vietnam War
most likely resides in Russian archives.
Next Steps
The VWWG has actively pressed for official Russian support to the working
group's humanitarian mission at all levels. In a number of important areas,
obtaining such support has been challenging. In every forum available, however,
the U.S. side of the working group will continue to urge a more active high-level
involvement on the part of the Russian side.
The U.S. side of the working group is heartened by the prospect that it might
soon obtain access to the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense
at Podolsk. It is anticipated that materials will be forthcoming from these
archives that will substantively contribute to the fullest possible accounting
of missing Americans from the Vietnam War. The U.S. side of the working group
will continue to press for the widest possible access to this and other Russian
archives. Meanwhile, research in the archives of non-Russian republics of
the former USSR, the U.S., and East European nations will continue.
APPENDIX
Confirmed by order of the President of the Russian Federation
October 6th, 2000, No. 1725
Composition Russian Federation Presidential Commission on
Prisoners of War, Internees, and Missing in Action
Name Position
Zolotarev V.A. Head, Institute of Military History, Ministry of Defense of
Russia (Chairman of the Commission)
Golumbovskiy K.V. Head of Department of the Directorate of the apparatus of
the Security Council of the Russian Federation (Deputy Chairman of the Commission)
Nikiforov N.I. Deputy Head, Institute of Military History, Ministry of Defense
of Russian (Secretary of the Commission)
Anderson K.M. Director, Russian State Archives of Socio-Political History
Arbatov A.G. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Bashkov G.K. Deputy Chairman, Commission of Former Prisoners of War, Russian
Committee of Veterans of the War and Military Service (by agreement)
Bezborodov N.M. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian
Federation (by agreement)
Bilalov A.G. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Biryukov L.I. Chief of Department on the Committee for Military Internationalists
of the Council of Heads of State for the Commonwealth of Independent States
Borisov T.N. Deputy Head of Department of the Ministry for State Property
Botka N.P. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Brudukov P.T. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Vinogradov V.K. Chief Inspector and Deputy Director of the Federal Security
Service of Russia
Volkov V.N. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Gvozdeva S.N. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Grisenko V.N. Deputy Head of Main Directorate of the General Staff of the
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
Grishankov M.I. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian
Federation (by agreement)
Deyneka V.G. Commander, Naval Aviation, Russian Navy
Didenko A.S. Plenipotentiary Representative of the Ministry of Defense of
Russia in the organs of State Government-Head of the Special Department
Yermakova E.L. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Zagidullin S.I. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian
Federation (by agreement)
Zolotukhin G.A. Head of Directorate of the Affairs of the Ministry of Defense
of Russia
Kadyrov A. Head of the Administration of the Chechen Republic
Kalinin Yu. I. Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation
Klimov V.V. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Kozlov V.P. Director of ROSARKHIV (Archival Service of Russia)
Korotayev V.I. Deputy Director, Russian State Military Archives
Kruglik V.M. Deputy Director, Federal Border Guard Service of Russia
Lekareva V.A. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Mironenko S.V. Director of the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF)
Musatov M.I. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Orlov A.S. Chief Specialist of the Institute of Military History of the Ministry
of Defense of Russia
Osipov S.N. Head of Department, Ministry of Justice of Russia
Pamfilova E.A. President of the Socio-Political movement "For the Dignity
of the People" (by agreement)
Panin S.O Chief of Directorate of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia
Pronichev V.Ye. First Deputy Director, Federal Security Service of Russia
Pudikov V.P. Chief of Directorate, Apparatus of the Security Council of the
Russian Federation
Rybakov Yu.A. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
(by agreement)
Stegniy P.V. Director of Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia
Tarasov S.P. Head, Central Naval Archives
Trubnikov V.M. Head, Main Directorate, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia
Fedulova M.G. Member, Coordinating Council of the Union of Soldiers' Mothers
Committees of Russia (by agreement)
Filippov V.A. Deputy Head, Military Memorial Center of the Armed Forces of
the Russian Federation
Chuvashin S.I. Head, Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of Russia
Shauro S.V. Head, Main Information Center, Ministry of Internal Affairs of
Russia
Shchekochikhin Yu.P. Deputy, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian
Federation (by agreement)
Yakushev V.N. Head of Department of a Directorate of the President of the
Russian Federation
The Defense Prisoner
of War/Missing Personnel Office maintains an Internet site or "Homepage"
that provides up-to-date information on the work of the U.S.-Russia Joint
Commission on POW/MIAs and information on the entire range of U.S. Department
of Defense personnel accounting efforts. The site is located at: http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/.
A large volume of documents collected by the Commission relating to World
War II, the Korean War and the Cold War is archived at the Library of Congress
and may be accessed at the following web site: http://www.lcweb2.loc.gov/trf/trfquery.html.
Additionally, Commission documents related to the Vietnam War may be found
at: http://www.lcweb2.loc.gov/pow/powhome.html.
Archival materials related to the Commission may also be found at the National
Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland in Record Group
330.II.81. Individuals who wish to access these archives are advised to contact
the Textual Archives Services Division at (301) 713-7250, extension 235. By
calling several days in advance, it is possible to have materials of interest
located and set aside prior to a visit. Further information on accessing material
at the National Archives may be found at their webpage: http://www.nara.gov/.
Questions pertaining to the search for information on Russian POW/MIAs may
be addressed to the Russian Federation Presidential Commission on Prisoners
of War, Internees and Missing in Action at: 103132, Russia, Moscow, Staraya
Ploshchad, Building 4, Entrance 6, telephone (095) 206-5948, fax (095) 206-3304.
Courtesy DPMO Website - http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/
Department
of Defense,
Defense Prisoner Of War/Missing Personnel Office
2400 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-2400
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