American Notes INVESTIGATIONS

Hope -- and conspiracy theories -- can nurture the most enduring myths. Although after a decade of intense investigation the United States still has no firm evidence that American servicemen survive in Vietnam, a new report released last week has rekindled the emotional issue once again. Prepared at the behest of North Carolina's Republican Senator Jesse Helms, a new special minority study from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asserts that a 1974 government analysis concluded that "several hundred living POW/MIAs were still held captive in Southeast Asia." The Pentagon categorically denied the existence of the analysis. "While we have yet to find conclusive evidence of the existence of live prisoners," said a Pentagon statement, "we cannot rule out the possibility . . . and we are pledged to take appropriate action should evidence be obtained." So far, however, there is no such proof.