Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Four decades after the first joint recovery mission, the US and Vietnam continue to race against time in their joint search for those missing from the war, a humanitarian mission that officials say has become a foundation of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
“We’re talking about former enemies that came together in a spirit of reconciliation,” Director of the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Kelly McKeague told Viet Nam News.
“It’s a tremendous story... a building block for what today is a comprehensive strategic partnership.”
The numbers are stark. DPAA has accounted for 737 Americans in Vietnam since 1985, a decade after the war in Vietnam ended and a decade before normalisation of ties took place. Another 1,157 American MIAs remain unaccounted for to date – including also in Cambodian and Lao territories and crashes at sea – with over 800 estimated to be recoverable, while the remainder are classified as non-recoverable. Vietnamese authorities, meanwhile, reckon that hundreds of thousands of their own soldiers remain unaccounted for. At present, across the country, over 300,000 sets of Vietnamese martyrs’ remains that have been gathered and interred in war cemeteries but whose identities have not yet been established, along with approximately 180,000 sets of remains that have yet to be located and recovered.
But the ongoing cooperation at every level of government and among civilians has become a model of bilateral healing.
And now in the last 10 years, through 642 joint investigations and 167 joint field recoveries [195, if unilateral field excavations are included, "I look at that and I say thank you to the Vietnamese Government, because this cooperation, these successes, would not happen if it weren’t for us jointly working together,” McKeague said.
McKeague, himself the son of a veteran, speaks with solemn urgency. “I cannot fathom how any child can grow up without a father or a mother,” he said.
“Time doesn’t heal, they know everything about the loss – they know the day [their loved one] died, the circumstances, but not having human remains, not having them home, creates an uncertainty, and more importantly, the need for closure.”
He admitted his own bias in believing that Vietnamese people recognise the humanitarian value and the benefits of closure, and that this is a similarly important issue for the Americans, which is why they extended their offer to help the US locate and recover their missing.
“I personally do not think that we would have the relationship we do today, nor do I think Vietnam would be the safe, the secure, the stable, the prosperous country it is, if it weren't for the fact that it was the Vietnamese Government that trusted and said, ‘We want to help you,’” McKeague said.
The work is painstaking, requiring extensive preparation both on paper and in the field.
Research begins with a thorough review of historical archives and records to identify areas that may contain the remains of missing personnel. Once a potentially viable site is identified, an investigation team – comprising members from the DPAA and Vietnam’s Office for Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP), which includes officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, National Defence, and Public Security – is deployed to locate potential witnesses. If a more precise location can be determined, an excavation team is then dispatched to the site.
The joint Vietnam–US teams, along with up to 100 local labourers at each site – and often operating across several sites during a single excavation mission, then carefully comb through tropical soil, which is highly acidic and deteriorates bones. Adding to the challenge, rapid urban and industrial development in Vietnam’s dynamic economy threatens to erase many old crash sites entirely – VNOSMP is tasked with monitoring these sites the teams would need to prioritise the sites where development is planned.
“Time is our biggest enemy,” the DPAA leader remarked.
“The remains are subject to environmental conditions... and we are dependent on first-hand witnesses – Vietnamese veterans, villagers – whose memories are fading.”
In those 10 years, 35 Americans have been identified. The pandemic halted joint missions for 18 months, but Vietnamese teams continued alone, conducting 30 investigations.
Among those was the case of US Navy Commander Paul Charvet. Killed in action in March 1967, when he was 26 years old, Paul's remains were found near Hon Me island in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa by a Vietnamese team in 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when border closures hindered American travel.
His 101-year-old mother was notified in her nursing home in the state of Washington. “Without hesitation,” said the DPAA official, “she said, ‘I knew he would [come home].’”
Commitments
“The goodwill and outcomes of Vietnam’s 50-year cooperation on MIA efforts have been highly recognised and appreciated by the US Government, Congress, veteran organisations and families of American MIAs,” the VNOSMP said, in a statement to Viet Nam News.
“They regard this as a model for bilateral relations in particular and international relations in general, as former President Joe Biden had twice affirmed in his speeches at the United Nations General Assembly in 2023 and 2024."
This cooperation has also served as a driving force for both sides to enhance collaboration in addressing other war legacy issues, such as dioxin remediation at Da Nang and Bien Hoa airbases, support for persons with disabilities affected by Agent Orange, unexploded ordnance clearance, and the search, recovery and identification of remains of Vietnamese soldiers, the office noted.
“We cannot rewrite history. But with goodwill and effort, we have been, and continue to be, working together to build a brighter future for our two nations. The two countries’ joint efforts to build and strengthen cooperative relations while addressing the consequences of war represent the best way to heal the wounds inflicted on the land, on the body, and in the soul,” the statement reads.
Vietnam will continue to engage in comprehensive cooperation with the US on this meaningful humanitarian issue, in the spirit of the Joint Statement agreed upon by the two countries’ top leaders.
US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper at a talk with local media on the 30th anniversary of Vietnam–US ties highlighted how the two countries' efforts to address the legacies of war laid the groundwork for today's bilateral relationship, and remain a priority for both countries.
He praised Vietnam’s “very humane and sincere efforts” to work with the US to find and identify Americans missing in the war. In return, the US has also supported Vietnam with technology and archival resources to find and identify Vietnamese missing as well, so as to “bring peace and closure to Vietnamese families the way Vietnam has helped bring peace and closure to American families over the past 30 years.”
“Without the assistance of the central government, our friends at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Public Security, and National Defence, without the work of local provincial governments, without the work of local officials and citizens, none of this would get done, and so we're extremely grateful for the decades of work that both sides have put into this undertaking,” the ambassador stated.
During the ambassador's working visit earlier this year to Cop village in former Huong Hoa district of the central province of Quang Tri, which saw the bloodiest battles in the war, he observed the search for the remains of missing US soldiers.
Accompanying the US ambassador, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet reaffirmed Vietnam's unwavering commitment to humanitarian cooperation.
Vietnam has consistently honoured its commitments, not only through diplomatic efforts but also with a profound humanitarian spirit, according to the diplomat.
The fact that Vietnam promptly began search operations for US soldiers missing in action following the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 reflects its goodwill and adherence to agreements with the US, he added./.
