Vietnam-Era Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in-Action Database
The Vietnam-Era Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in-Action Database – http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/pow/
Representative questions that can be answered with this resource:
- Where can I find stories of alleged ham radio contact with POWs?
- What were military letters to spouses and parents like?
- What stories were told about Vietnam POWs after the end of the war in 1975?
- Where can I find a map of a POW camp?
- Where can I learn about Korean War MIAs?
Description:
As the title of this resource indicates, this is a database of documents related to POWs and MIAs. What the database doesn’t indicate is that it has some records relating to the Korean War. Most of the the documents appear to evaluations of various reports of POWs and MIA soldiers. The original reports do not appear to be in the database, only the summary and responses. Correspondence to families is included in the database. Maps and low quality photographs are also contained in the database.
The database has a simple search box with no opportunity for fielded searches. Searching by name will often by useful. Terms are searched against brief database catalog records which are usually, but not always linked to PDFs files. The PDF files themselves have no searchable text.
The front page of the database also contains links to a number of documents of general interest relating to the Vietnam War, including:
- Updated Casualty List
- Estimative Products on Vietnam, 1948-1975 (PDF)
- Peers Inquiry (My Lai)
- The “McCain Bill” (PDF)
- U.S. Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs
- U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Missing Persons in Southeast Asia
Search Tips:
Although this database is a free text search, you can use the headings of records to narrow your results or focus on an area of interest. Some useful terms are:
- [Country Name] – North Vietnam (NVN), South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Soviet Union, Laos
- field investigation report
- Korean War
- Letters to wife and parents
- Group photograph
- Ham radio
- Photograph
- Post-1975 Vietnam
- PW camp