Vietnam’s president this week hosted a meeting with war veterans that included the handover of military identity cards from two missing American service members to relatives with the help of a POW-MIA activist group.

Vietnamese President Luong Cuong, who was in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting, hosted the Monday meeting of U.S. and Vietnamese veterans where the cards and other artifacts were given to relatives.

Two driver’s licenses from American troops and a military dog tag also were turned over for further investigation.

The artifacts related to five men, three of them unaccounted for from the war.

In exchange, the Vietnamese were given a North Vietnam commendation certificate, a North Vietnam flag bearing the phrase “Determined to Win,” a Viet Cong armband and small flag, and a North Vietnamese army medal.

Those artifacts were war souvenirs provided by an Army Green Beret commando who fought during the war in the tri-border area of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

An earlier turnover to the Vietnamese by Mission: POW-MIA was a wallet from a dead Viet Cong guerrilla containing letters to relatives.

The handover of ID cards in New York comes amid recent criticism of the Vietnam government set off by a report by another POW group that reveals Hanoi is charging the Pentagon tens of millions of dollars for information on lost Americans from the war but producing few results.

The military IDs supplied Monday belonged to Air Force Maj. James A. Magnusson and Army Sgt. John Robert Adams, a helicopter crew chief, who are both listed as missing in action by the Pentagon.

Maj. Magnuson’s ID card and another document he held were taken by the Vietnamese after he ejected from F-105 jet that was shot down on April 4, 1965, during a bombing raid against a bridge in Thanh Hoa, on the Vietnamese coast south of Hanoi.

Sgt. Adams disappeared Nov. 8, 1967, when his UH-1C Iroquois helicopter was shot down on a special forces mission west of Dak To, in central Vietnam.

The recovery of the artifacts was the result of efforts by a non-government group called Mission: POW/MIA. The group in the past two and a half years launched unofficial exchanges of U.S. and Vietnamese war artifacts.

The group is seeking to help resolve cases of missing personnel and also is exchanging artifacts to provide closure for relatives of the missing 50 years after the end of the Vietnam War, said Dave Huffman, executive director of Mission: POW/MIA, who praised what he called people-to-people exchanges.

“For a long time, the torch bearers of this issue have not kept it alive with the American public,” he said in an interview.

Now, many family members of those missing include sons and daughters in their late 50s and early 60s who want answers about what happened to their relatives lost during the war, he said.

The report critical of Vietnamese government cooperation on MIA issues was written by the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia.

In addition to high costs for information sought by MIA investigators, it disclosed that identification documents from missing Americans were being displayed in Vietnamese museums but Hanoi has failed to provide information about the documents to POW investigators.

“Vietnam has transformed the POW/MIA accounting mission into a revenue-generating enterprise rather than a humanitarian obligation,” the report said.

During the meeting Monday, the daughter of Maj. Magnusson, Laurie Bergren, was on hand to receive her father’s ID card and his Geneva Convention card identifying him as a military officer accorded protection under the convention.

“My family is very grateful to Dave Huffman with Mission POW/MIA and the Vietnamese Embassy who worked so hard to make this happen,” Ms. Bergren said.

“After 60 years of waiting, it feels like a dream to finally get a piece of our father home. We look forward to continuing the search and finding more information.”

The turnover of Maj. Magnusson’s ID card also highlights what critics say are insufficient efforts by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, known as DPAA, in cases of pursuing missing service members.

That ID card was first spotted on display in a Vietnamese museum in 2018 by a separate Pentagon POW investigative group.

The Defense Intelligence Agency POW investigative group known as the Stoney Beach first filed a report with photos of what appeared to be military ID cards of Maj. Magnusson at a Thanh Hoa museum in 2018.

The heavily redacted report included photos of what appeared to be ID cards from Maj. Magnusson and Navy Lt. David Marion Christian, whose remains were identified by the Pentagon in 1987.

The Dec. 27, 2018, report said the cards were linked to the unresolved case of Maj. Magnusson and the resolved case of Lt. Christian.

Mr. Huffman, director of Mission: POW/MIA, said he examined the museum card during a recent trip to Vietnam and found it was a display copy. He said the Vietnamese allowed him to examine the original that was held in a different part of the museum.

Mr. Huffman said he was told by the Vietnamese that they were unable to locate the grave in Vietnam for Maj. Magnusson, who he said apparently drowned after ejecting over the Gulf of Tonkin.

Jay Veith, a POW investigator who wrote the report for the National League of Families, said Vietnam has used high-level visits by officials such as its president to present information.

However, the Vietnamese government appears to be holding back information on missing Americans.

Mr. Veith said release of the ID card is nice but the family of Maj. Magnusson and people in general need to know what happened to him.

“The Vietnamese clearly have information stored in central and local museums that could provide insight into the fate of American MIAs, but it took pressure from concerned citizens to force them to release these artifacts instead of voluntarily turning them over,” Mr. Veith said.

He said receiving ID cards and other artifacts is crucial for families of the missing. “But did the Vietnamese also include information on what happened to the missing person, or their final resting place?” he asked.

“Ultimately, that’s the most significant information.”

After the report on Vietnamese government price gouging of the Pentagon was published in July, Hanoi was angered and voiced its concerns to DPAA Director Kelly McKeague during a meeting in Hanoi.

The topic of service members’ identification documents was discussed at the meeting, and Vietnam agreed to release the documents, according to people familiar with the meeting.

Another person close to Pentagon POW recovery efforts said the Vietnamese government also agreed to reduce its fees for the DIA group working to resolve POW and MIA cases.

It is not known if its prices for information and cooperation for DPAA investigators also are being reduced.

Sean Everette, a DPAA spokesman, said the first “definitive” knowledge of Maj. Magnusson’s ID card was provided by Mr. Huffman from his visit to Vietnam in June 2024.

However, the DIA investigative report from December 2018 states that it was sent to the then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, predecessor of DPAA, indicating investigators were aware of the card at that time.

“As far as we know, Magnusson was never captured alive, but likely did get out of his plane,” Mr. Everette said. “We believe he likely drowned and was recovered and buried by the Vietnamese near Hon Me.”

Mr. Everette said he could not speak to any agreement between DIA and Vietnam to reduce priced.

“I can tell you, however, that at no time during the talks with the Vietnamese about Magnusson’s ID card return did they ask to be paid in return for the card and they didn’t charge DPAA or the families anything,” he said.

The Mission: POW/MIA exchange program is called “Operation: HEART” and seeks ID cards, dog tags, blood chits, uniform items, serial numbers from weapons, equipment with identifying information, helmet with squadron logs or marking and oxygen masks of pilots.

For the Vietnamese, the group is seeking war materials held by veterans including uniform items, helmets, personal items such as knives, diaries, wallets, photographs and letters and battle flags.

“It’s time for these artifacts, captured on the field of battle to return back to their country of origin, so that all sides of past conflicts may receive some measure of connection to their missing loved one,” the group said on its website.

• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.