Angry Hanoi Suspends MIA Search

BANGKOK, Thailand —  Vietnam, angered by “hostile” U.S. policy, said today that it has suspended plans to search jointly for missing American servicemen and to allow former political prisoners to resettle in the United States.

The abrupt changes, sparked by the Reagan Administration’s steadfast refusal to upgrade diplomatic contact with Hanoi, reversed a recent warming trend in U.S.-Vietnamese ties.

Joint excavations to resolve the fate of missing Americans, including 70 “high priority” cases, were expected to begin this month and last through October.

Long Processing Job

U.S. officials had been looking forward to processing tens of thousands of Vietnamese political prisoners who were imprisoned after communist forces completely conquered Vietnam in April of 1975.

Most of the political prisoners were officials or soldiers of the toppled South Vietnam government that was supported by the United States or people who worked directly for the American military or government during the war.

“Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach says Vietnam is compelled to temporarily (stop) the United States from joining Vietnam in the search and exhumation of the remains of (Americans) missing in action as well as the resettlement of released (re-education) camp inmates in the United States,” the Voice of Vietnam radio said.

The radio said Thach notified the United States of the halt in a letter dated July 31 to Gen. John Vessey, Reagan’s special envoy on the fate of nearly 2,400 Americans still listed as missing in action from the Indochina War.

Reaction to Testimony

The broadcast said Thach was reacting to testimony by Assistant Secretary of State Gaston Sigur three days earlier before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Sigur said the Reagan Administration opposed a congressional proposal to establish U.S. and Vietnamese interest sections in friendly embassies in Hanoi and Washington.

The establishment of such sections would have meant the first permanent diplomatic contact between the two former war foes.

Sigur said no such improvement should be made until Vietnam ends its 9 1/2-year-old occupation of neighboring Cambodia.

“Nguyen Co Thach said the statement showed the State Department is continuing to pursue a hostile policy against Vietnam,” the radio said.