Vietnam, U.S. Enhance Missing Personnel Affairs: Defense Deputy Minister

Vietnam will cooperate with the U.S. to promote the search for remains of American servicemen who died during the Vietnam War, Nguyen Chi Vinh, Vietnamese deputy defense minister, said at a meeting with a U.S.’s deputy assistant secretary in Hanoi June 27. Vietnam has considered it one of the top priorities in the cooperation with the U.S., Mr. Vinh said in the reception given to W. M. Winfield, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Affairs (POW/MIA). Regarding the search of the remains, the Vietnam Office for Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP) has joined with the U.S.’s Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) to conduct more than one hundreds of joint searching and found more than 700 cases since the first operation in September 1988. It is estimated that nearly 1,300 American soldier remains are yet to be found in Vietnam. They are among 58,000 U.S. soldiers and officers who died in the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1973. At the event, the two sides also talked on solving consequences of the war, such as the disposal of bombs and mines and the detoxification of AO/dioxin in Vietnam. (Vietnamplus.vn June 27)