MIA
The three-letter acronym MIA stands for Missing In Action. The term is used to designate a combatant who has not yet returned or has otherwise not been accounted for as either dead (KIA) or a prisoner of war (POW).Unsubstantiated rumors that North Vietnam continued to hold U.S MIAs long after the Paris Peace Accords ending the Vietnam War, were used to blunt or prevent assessment of political accontability for U.S. involvement in Indochina.