INQUIRY ON MIA MATTER MUST BE MADE A PRIORITY

As America's celebration of its victory in the Persian Gulf War wound down, a photograph from Vietnam has rekindled concern for the 2,273 servicemen who are listed as missing-in-action from this nation's military presence in Indochina in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The photograph, which became public two weeks ago, shows three men with a hand-lettered sign dated May 25, 1990. The authenticity of the date has been questioned, but family members of the men have identified those in the picture as Air Force Col. John Leighton Robertson of Seattle, Wash., who was shot down over North Vietnam on Sept. 16, 1966; Navy Lt. Larry James Stevens of Los Angeles, who was lost in Laos on Feb. 14, 1969; and Air Force Maj. Albro Lynn Lundy Jr., who has been missing in action in Laos since Dec. 24, 1970.

On Wednesday, Lundy's son in California said without elaboration that his father and the two other men in the photo are being held as slaves on a potato farm in Southeast Asia. Also on Wednesday a relative of one of the men told a news conference that the government had lost fingerprint records that could verify whether the men are alive. And a daughter of Robertson's said the Pentagon wrongfully told her that her father had been killed.

A government broadcast from Hanoi on Tuesday denounced the photograph as "groundless." Two weeks ago the Laos minister of external economic relations said there was little possibility that the photo was genuine. We've heard those responses concerning missing Americans before from North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. They can't be trusted.

The photograph was carried out of Cambodia more than a year ago. If the government has had knowledge of it for that long, why is it just now getting around to asking the Vietnamese government for information that may help explain the picture or determine what became of the men?

An outcry of criticism has arisen in this country over the government's handling of the MIA matter since the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam in 1973. Disclosures such as those on Wednesday by the missing men's relatives, and the apparent delay in initiating an inquiry, do nothing but add fuel to the criticism, and rightfully so.

The Vietnamese government since has invited the United States to Vietnam to further investigate the photograph and any other reports the government may have concerning MIAs and POWs. The invitation should be immediately accepted, and a thorough investigation should be conducted to determine if the men are alive. The men and their families, as well as all other missing servicemen and their families, deserve nothing short of an all-out inquiry.