Freddy Gesner, assistant director for the Legion's National Security/Foreign Relations Division, sent a letter to the White House regarding The American Legion’s position on the propounded plans to downgrade the US-Russian Joint Commission on POW/MIAs. The plan is to transfer who the commission reports to from the president to a working group in DoD, sending a false signal to the commission’s Russian counterparts that America has lost interest in joint accounting for its POW/MIAs from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War.