The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue concerns the fate of United States servicemen who were reported a smissing in action (MIA) during the Vietnam War and associated theaters of operation in SOUTH EAST ASIA The term has also referenced issues related to the treatment of affected family members by the governments involved in these conflicts. Following the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, 591 American prisoner of war (POWs) were returned during Operationa Homecoming. The U.S. listed about 2,500 Americans as prisoners of war or missing in action but only 1,200 Americans were reported killed in action and body not recovered. Many of these were Airmen who were shot down over NORTH VIETNAM OR LAOS. Investigations of these incidents have involved determining whether the men involved survived their shoot down; if they did not survive, then they considered efforts to recover their remains. POW/MIA activists played a role in pushing the U.S. government to improve its efforts in resolving the fates of the missing. Progress in doing so was slow until the mid-1980s, when relations between the U.S. and Vietnam began to improve and more cooperative efforts were undertaken. Normalization of U.S. relations with Vietnam in the mid-1990s was a culmination of this process.