REGIONAL AND POLITICAL ANALYSIS

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005381570
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: June 23, 2015
• Document Release Date: August 17, 2010
• Case Number: F-2009-00396
• Publication Date: June 14, 1977

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APPROVED FOR RELEASED
DATE: 09-Mar-2010 I
East Asia
Supplement
REGIONAL AND
POLITICAL ANALYSIS
 EAST ASIA
SUPPLEMENT
14 June 1977
Laos Searching for Remains of US MIAs . 1
tonal specialists in the Washington community by
ffice of Regional and Political Analysis, with
er offices within the Directorate of Intelligence.
Comments and queries are welcome. They should be directed to the authors of the
individual articles.
 Laos Searching for Remains of US MIAs
The government of Laos is attempting to recover the
remains of Americans killed in the war, according to sen-
sitive sources. An army unit in a province bordering on
Vietnam was recently ordered to exhume the bodies of
Americans interred at an unnamed location and, if possi-
ble, to provide identification numbers from the aircraft
in which the deceased were found.
This report supports earlier indications that the
Lao government is making a serious effort to obtain in-
formation about missing US servicemen. Government offi-
cials are also collecting information about Lao losses
during the war, including numbers of persons killed and
property losses.
The regime no doubt hopes to use the remains of the
American servicemen in a bid to obtain US economic assis-
tance. Lao leaders may link the return of remains to
reparations, or they may return them as a goodwill ges-
ture, in the hope that American aid will follow. It is
possible that the Vietnamese are encouraging the Lao
government in this endeavor to complement their own ef-
forts to link the two issues. (ARCIEPTF