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Among the first to be verified was F-4D fighter-bomber pilot Lieut. Colonel Joseph Morrison, shot down on Nov. 25, 1968. He died after he parachuted safely to the ground. But the F-4D is a two-seat aircraft, and Pentagon analysts noted one photo of Morrison's personal effects showed an extra pistol; this led them to confirm the death of his back-seater San D. Francisco. Intelligence analysts now expect that the Hanoi museum material already in hand may clear up 23 of the 135 so-called discrepancy cases, where the U.S. knows an individual survived a plane crash or was captured, but has not been able subsequently to account for him.
^ Schweitzer seems to have acquired his information through a quiet manner and dogged patience that won the trust of the Vietnamese. They regarded him as a hero who was severely beaten by Thai pirates while working for the U.N. to protect fleeing Vietnamese boat people, and as a benefactor who started a philanthropic foundation to deliver pharmaceuticals to Vietnamese medical clinics. His material was partly confirmed by black-and-white photos supplied by a North Carolina native named Eugene Brown. Brown apparently acquired his pictures through his Vietnamese wife, who had intelligence connections in her homeland. He offered his evidence this spring to the Pentagon in exchange for help in traveling to Vietnam. Although the materials Brown (code-named Druid Smoke) eventually delivered in many cases duplicated Schweitzer's, the two sources confirmed each other. "Anyone who thinks there's a big museum in Hanoi where you can back up a C-130 and answer all the POW/MIA questions is mistaken," said Schweitzer.
Initially, U.S. officials were uncertain what to make of these disclosures. Washington finally decided that Hanoi -- or at least some officials there -- was sending a signal that it finally wanted to meet Washington's principal precondition for re-establishing diplomatic relations: a full accounting of the missing. The payoff would be genuine progress toward normal ties and an end to the 17-year trade embargo, possibly before the end of the year.
What happens next depends entirely on the Vietnamese. Schweitzer says, "We're just at the beginning of the beginning." He is returning to Hanoi to help a team of American experts gain unfettered access to the documents. Schweitzer is worried that the archives could quickly deteriorate and that "key people who know a lot" could die before a full accounting is made. Though this new access provides no indication that there are any live American POWs, the U.S. may finally be able to give the dead a decent burial.