SECRET POW DOCUMENT QUESTIONED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 13, 1993                   TAG: 9304130132
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
SECRET POW DOCUMENT QUESTIONED
A recently disclosed document from Russian archives indicates that Vietnam may have held hundreds more U.S. prisoners than it acknowledged at the end of the Vietnam War. But U.S. officials cautioned Monday that the document may not be accurate.
Presidential emissary John W. Vessey Jr., who is going to Vietnam this weekend, has been instructed to make a discussion of the document "the first order of business," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
As described by U.S. officials who have read it, the document appears to be riddled with erroneous statements, but Boucher said it is still being evaluated by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Vessey, a retired general, has said in the past that Vietnam appears to be cooperating fully and is entitled to some reward from Washington, perhaps a lifting of the trade embargo that blocks U.S. firms from doing business there.
But if the information in the Russian document is correct, it would indicate that Vietnam has engaged in massive deception about missing Americans for more than 20 years.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB