The joint Vietnam-US effort to locate missing personnel contributes to healing the wounds of war, strengthening mutual trust, and fostering reconciliation between the two countries, said Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Nguyen Quoc Dung in an interview with VOV.
Ambassador Dung said that under the Memorandum of Understanding of the VWAI, signed by the two defense ministries in 2021 and implemented through fiscal year 2025, the US has provided Vietnam with 46 case files, 45 of which Vietnam has received and verified.
In the first six months of this year, Texas Tech University provided Vietnam with 600 pages of documents and 50 selected case files. These were analyzed to provide information about 1,500 Vietnamese military personnel in US archives. The US has also returned more than 40 wartime personal effects to Vietnam. Mr. Dung said this cooperation demonstrates a spirit of “closing the past and looking to the future”.
Under the "500-Day-and-Night” campaign, the Embassy of Vietnam in the US is connecting archives, universities, veterans' organizations, and the business sector to expand information sources; leveraging technology; promoting substantive cooperation; and urging the US to prioritize resources for the VWAI during the 2025–2030 period, share records, analyze aerial imagery and maps, and apply technologies such as ground-penetrating radar and remote sensing and forensic archaeology in search operations.
