n August 1983, CIA reported to DIA that three to four dozen Caucasian prisoners who were believed to be American POWs had been transferred in early March 1982—some 18 months before—from the Cam Thuy maximum security prison in Thanh Hoa Province in northern Vietnam to the Dong Vai (aka Dong Mang) maximum security prison located in Quang Ninh Province just north of the northern coastal city of Hon Gai (Authors’ map "Postwar Indochina;" DMA SRV Postwar Province Map."). According to the CIA, the source of the report was the driver of the truck that reportedly carried the prisoners. 44

Background: The Cam Thuy maximum security prison in Thanh Hoa Province, also called "Cam Chu" prison, and the Dong Vai maximum security prison just north of Hong Gai were both well known to U.S. intelligence analysts.

Cam Thuy, located on the west bank of the Song Ma (Horse River) some 65 kilometers (approximately 40 statute miles) upstream from the famous Dragon’s Jaw Bridge, had become a prime target of wartime U.S. intelligence collectors after they received a report that six handcuffed Caucasian prisoners had been observed inside the prison in 1968. Following the receipt of that report, U.S. officials had photographed the facility and designated it the "Cam Chu Possible PW Camp, N-85." None of the American POWs who returned at Operation Homecoming reported they had been held at Cam Thuy (Cam Chu). 45

The Dong Vai maximum security prison just north of Hon Gai was known to the Special Office analysts as a place where American POWs were reportedly held after the war. In 1976, CIA officials examining satellite imagery of Dong Vai had discovered possible pilot distress signals on the roof of one of the highly secure interior lockups. (See An Enormous Crime, Chapter 15). Later, U.S. officials had received eyewitness testimony from a source who said he had seen a few skinny American pilots dressed in baggy striped prison uniforms being detained at Dong Vai in early 1976 and had been told that 50-60 were being held there, and from another source who said that he had seen approximately 30 Caucasian prisoners dressed in striped uniforms inside the Dong Vai prison in 1979 and had been told the prisoners were American pilots. 46

Disposition of the Case: Despite the fact that prior intelligence had indicated the presence of unreturned American POWs at both prisons named in the CIA report, the analysts at the Special Office read the CIA report and, without conducting any investigation whatsoever, declared it to be a "tentative fabrication." They then entered the report into the official DIA register as follows:

[NEXT: (5) The American POWs Seen Inside the Lam Son Prison in Northern Vietnam in 1980-81.]