Eleanor Ardel Vietti (November 5, 1927—disappeared May 30, 1962) was an American physician and missionary. She worked at the Buôn Ma Thuột leper colony where she was taken as a prisoner of war on May 30, 1962.^[1] She is currently the only American woman unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.^[2][3]

Vietti was born in Fort Worth, Texas and had a twin sister, Teresa J. Vietti and a younger brother, Victor.^[1][2][4] Vietti and her sister were both interested in science and medicine early on.^[5] The family lived in Bogota, Colombia until she was around fourteen.^[6] Vietti then contracted a bad strep infection and had surgery in Houston, Texas.^[2] Because of her illness, she became more religious, but also was a year behind her twin sister in school.^[7] Vietti attended San Jacinto High School (Houston, Texas).^[2] After graduation, Vietti attended Rice University and studied for a summer at Nyack Missionary College.^[6] Then she went to medical school at the University of Texas from 1950 to 1954.^[6][2] She interned at the South Shore Hospital in Chicago and then did a year's residency at the General Hospital of Wichita Falls, finishing in 1956.^[6]

Vietti entered missionary work around 1957 and the next year, went to South Vietnam.^[8] She worked in Buôn Ma Thuột at a Christian and Missionary Alliance leper colony.^[9] There was a high rate of leprosy among the Montagnard people and Vietti both treated those with leprosy and worked to prevent the disease.^[10] She made house calls to people in the villages.^[2] In 1961, her sister Teresa visited the leper colony.^[11]

In April 1962, Vietti came back to the United States and visited with her family in Houston and St. Louis.^[7][2] She also took a course in cleft-palate repair in St. Louis.^[7] Her family wanted her to stay in the United States.^[2] The Department of State also warned Vietti about returning to the leper colony.^[2] However, Vietti chose to return to Vietnam.^[2]

On May 30, 1962, Vietti, Archie E. Mitchell and Daniel A. Gerber^[12] were kidnapped by 12 Viet Cong guerillas.^[1][13] Vietti's ankle was injured, so it was reported that she was not tied up by the soldiers and was limping.^[13] Vietti, Mitchell and Gerber were taken to the nurses' house, where the Viet Cong members lectured them, and also promised that Dr. Vietti would not be harmed.^[13] The three captives were taken away by car.^[13] The other nine Americans in the leper colony were left behind.^[8] It was suspected that she was taken in order to work in a Viet Cong hospital.^[14] A captured Viet Cong soldier told interrogators later in 1962 that Vietti was treating the Viet Cong wounded.^[15]

It was believed that she was being moved from village to village and was still believed alive in 1965.^[9][16] A report of a white woman asking for a Bible in a village came through in 1967.^[2] In 1968, the Christian and Missionary Alliance announced at their General Council that Vietti and the other 2 missionaries captured were still alive.^[17] Reports of seeing Vietti and the other two missionaries among the Montagnard villages continued into the 1970s.^[2] However, by 1991, she was listed as "presumed dead" on the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action list.^[18]

In 1998, Maggie O'Kane reported about Vietti and her capture on a radio special called The Only Woman Left Behind.^[19] In the show, she discussed Vietti's capture, aired memories of families and friends and speculated on what had happened to Vietti.^[19][20] In 2008, Nyack College honored her and other alumni who were lost in Vietnam, adding their names to a special stone bench on campus.^[21]

• Archie E. Mitchell
• List of people who disappeared