VIETNAM LABELS POW DOCUMENT A FABRICATION

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1993                   TAG: 9304140082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HANOI, VIETNAM                                LENGTH: Medium
VIETNAM LABELS POW DOCUMENT A FABRICATION
A document purporting to show that Vietnam held hundreds more American prisoners of war than it admitted in the 1970s is a fabrication, officials said Tuesday.
They blamed the document on unidentified parties trying to sabotage improved U.S.-Vietnamese ties. Vietnam seeks to develop its economy and wants Washington to end a trade embargo imposed in 1975 and to extend diplomatic recognition.
The document, if authentic, indicates North Vietnam held 1,205 American POWS in 1972 - 837 more than it acknowledged to the United States at the time.
"Vietnam categorically rejects this ill-intentioned fabrication," the Foreign Ministry said. "The fact is that in 1973, after the signing of the Paris Agreement, Vietnam handed over to the U.S. all American prisoners captured in Vietnam."
The ministry statement, transmitted by the official Vietnam News Agency, appeared to stress that no American servicemen were living in Vietnam, either in detention or by their own choice.
U.S. veterans' groups, a Republican senator and families of Americans missing since the war urged President Clinton on Tuesday to maintain tough economic pressure on Vietnam to step up cooperation in the search.
"It is clear that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam can do far more to unilaterally account for American POWs and MIAs," said a letter signed by Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., and leaders of five groups.
The letter was released at a news conference five days before retired Army Gen. John W. Vessey was to visit Vietnam to assess the level of that nation's cooperation in accounting for the 2,200 listed as missing.
There has been speculation that a positive report from Vessey could prompt the Clinton administration to drop its opposition to loans being sought by Vietnam from the International Monetary Fund.
The administration also has been under business pressure to normalize relations with Vietnam, and thus open the door to commercial opportunity in that nation of 70 million, the last untapped market in Asia. The United States maintains a trade embargo against Vietnam.
The letter to Clinton said the notion that Vietnam could do far more to account for those missing represents "the accepted position of the American intelligence community."
Families of the missing Americans generally oppose ending the U.S. trade embargo because they feel that would eliminate any U.S. leverage over Hanoi to account for missing Americans.
A Harvard researcher, Stephen Morris, said he found the formerly secret document in Soviet Communist Party archives in Moscow. It purportedly was a Russian translation of a report written by Gen. Tran Van Quang, deputy chief of staff of the North Vietnamese army.
Quang, now chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Association, could not be reached for comment.
There are 2,260 Americans officially listed as missing in Indochina - 1,654 of them in Vietnam.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB