 Good morning or good evening, depending on where you are joining us from my name is George moose and I have the honor of serving as the chair of the board of directors of the United States Institute of peace. Sounded by Congress in 1984 the Institute partners with stakeholders around the world to research support and advance strategies to prevent mitigate and resolve violent conflict. And even in this virtual world the Institute has been able to draw on its exceptional experience and reputation as a convener to bring together diverse audiences to exchange knowledge and ideas for developing solutions to the most pressing peace and security challenges. Which brings us to why we are here today. On August the 3rd of this year, USIP launched its new Vietnam war legacies and reconciliation initiative with an online event entitled addressing the legacies of the Vietnam war the next step forward. Today's webinar bills on that discussion, which is available for viewing on the Institute's website usip.org. The support this initiative has received from both the US and Vietnamese governments is a sign of the important progress that has been made in building a meaningful partnership between our two countries, nearly 50 years after the end of the Vietnamese American war. While we celebrate the achievements of this Vietnam US partnership, we recognize that there is much more work to be done. Most notably, we see the physical and non material legacies of war as both an ongoing challenge and a foundation for our ongoing cooperation. We know well that it takes time to fully reconcile and heal after a violent conflict. Efforts by Vietnamese as well as Americans to account for missing personnel and unrecovered remains from all sides of the conflict are an important part of this process of reconciliation. It is first and foremost a basic obligation of all governments after any war to honor those who died. This is taken on a particular importance following the war in Vietnam with both nations deeply motivated by a commitment to work together to obtain the evidence that would end the uncertainty of the families of those who died during war time. Today's presentations and discussions have three purposes. The first is to showcase US Vietnam cooperation in the search for and identification of American and Vietnamese war time remains. Secondly, through video and photographic presentations, they will share the personal stories of Vietnamese families who lost relatives in the war. And finally, they will discuss why this issue remains important to the people and governments of both countries. I am delighted to welcome our distinguished speakers and panelists who notably include Retire General Kelly McKay, Senior Criminal Duong Phan Hoa, and Deputy Chief of Mission Duong Thanh La. To lead off the discussion, let me turn first to Mr. McKay, who is the Director of the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency. His agency is charged with the worldwide search, recovery, and identification of the remains of all missing Americans from World War II through the Iraq War. Director McKay is a 34-year veteran of the US Air Force, retiring with the rank of Major General. In his seven years as leader of the POW-MIA mission, he has been a principal interlocutor with senior Vietnamese government officials. Director McKay. Ambassador Moose, Deputy Chief of Mission Nong Ngoc, Senior Colonel Hoa, and all participants in this important forum. Good morning from the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency here in Washington, D.C. Special thanks to the US Institute of Peace for organizing this important program. Simply stated, the DPAA has the sacred obligation to search for, recover, and identify Americans missing from World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom. They number more than 81,000 of which we estimate 38,000 to be recoverable. Although daunting, each number is also a unique story with memories that transcend decades of time and generations. Their families who bear this grief also cope with the uncertainty associated with the loss of their loved one. While the United States did search for its missing after World War II and the Korean War, the mission after the Vietnam War used more modern techniques and technologies. It also benefited from the active engagement of the National League of POW-MIA Families, whose grassroots efforts turned into a widespread campaign that made the nation mindful and compelled our leaders to rightfully act. The first US investigation teams arrived in Vietnam in 1985 and regular joint investigative and recovery operations began in 1988. Since then, this noble effort has been performed jointly and has grown in scope and accomplishment. Today, the 145th Joint Field Activity is in progress, with 51 DPAA members deployed since mid-October. While 1,245 US personnel remain missing in Vietnam, 727 have been accounted for in the over three decades of cooperation. The POW-MIA mission is widely recognized as humanitarian and an element of diplomacy and engagement. DPAA is dependent upon and appreciative of the essential access and cooperation provided by 46 host nations around the world. For Vietnam, the US set up an official presence to pursue the accounting missions 10 years before formal diplomatic relations were restored. In fact, all parties agree that the trust and goodwill developed during these early years of this humanitarian endeavor was foundational to normalization. Not only is the POW-MIA mission an important facet of the US-Vietnam relationship today, but that initial cooperation has turned into effective collaboration. As has been the case for over 30 years, our relationship with the Vietnamese government and its citizens on the POW-MIA mission is primarily handled through the Vietnamese office for seeking missing persons. The NOSMP is a unique organization comprised of representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs, national defense, and public security, which highlights the interagency aspects of Vietnam's national commitment. One of the most notable examples of effective collaboration is the establishment and operation of US-trained Vietnamese recovery teams. It is worth noting that Vietnam is one of only two countries in the entire Indo-Pacific region authorized to conduct unilateral excavations on behalf of DPAA. This is due to their dedication and demonstrated capabilities developed in coordination with our laboratory and improved over the years. These three teams proved even more critical when DPAA teams were not permitted entry due to COVID-19 for almost a year. Vietnam unilaterally deployed these teams, who completed a total of 13 excavations and recovered potential American remains from four of them. This past March, one of these was identified, Commander Paul Charvet, Navy pilot from Washington State, lost in March 1967 and whose remains the Vietnamese team recovered near Han May Island. Because of the tens of thousands still missing from past wars, DPAA is increasingly turning to private partners. These are universities and non-governmental organizations who augment DPAA's capacity and capabilities to be able to do more. They are equally talented and passionate in conducting the painstaking research and challenging fieldwork to find missing Americans. Of the 182 arrangements we have with NGOs and universities, 66 are actively advancing this mission with invaluable expertise and technology. It is important to note that Vietnam has supported this initiative by allowing the use of private partners. In 2020, two NGOs, Project Recover and the Scripps Oceanographic Institute, completed an underwater recovery off the coast of Vietnam. They recovered the remains of Air Force Major Paul Avelisse of New York, who was lost in July 1967 and identified in September 2020. For DPAA, our work begins with research and analysis and whether it's studying archives, conducting witness interviews, collaborating with our Stoney Beach partners, our analysts work closely with the VNOSMP to ensure field operations can be accomplished as best as possible. This was manifested when one of our scientists returned from a joint forensic review last month in Vietnam, bringing home four remains that have potential association to a U.S. servicemen. Two of the remains from excavations Vietnamese teams unilaterally conducted, one was recovered by a joint U.S. Vietnam team and one was unilaterally turned over by a Vietnamese villager. Forensic analysis of these remains is in progress. The accounting mission of Vietnam has not been without its casualties. In April 2001, a Vietnamese helicopter carrying seven Americans and nine Vietnamese on a survey and investigation mission crashed in Quang Binh province. This past year, we celebrated and commemorated the 20th anniversary of this crash that killed all on board. With ceremonies at the Pentagon and at in Vietnam at the site. Ladies and gentlemen, it's important to recognize that this work, this humanitarian effort, this obligation, as Ambassador Moose mentioned, is something that has defined the Vietnam-U.S. relationship. As it has since 1988, searching for recovering and accounting for unreturned veterans from the Vietnam War will comprise most of our operations and operational budget. We will do the best we can to maintain the necessary pace and scope within the fiscal challenges we are facing more and more. The vigorous pursuit of America's missing is both a solemn obligation and a moral imperative because these unreturned veterans in the words of President Abraham Lincoln made the last full measure of devotion. After over three decades of staunch Vietnamese government support to the United States accounting mission, the U.S. government led by U.S. Embassy Hanoi and U.S. Agency for International Development is now actively supporting the Vietnamese War Accounting Initiative. But all of what I've highlighted this morning can best be captured through the words of a family member whose loved one was missing for decades, found and identified and returned home. Major Dean Klenda grew up on a farm in Kansas. After pilot training, he was shot down over Vietnam in 1965 at the age of 25. After multiple field excavations, we found remains in 2014 that we identified as Major Dean Klenda. Then in 2016, 51 years after the day he was shot down, he was buried next to his parents in a church cemetery. On that day, his younger and only sister, Deanna, who you see here, said this, Today was a celebration of his life. It was a very beautiful, joyous day. Never say never and never give up something worth fighting for. Thank you again to the United States Institute for Peace for organizing this initiative and this program to highlight this important humanitarian effort. More importantly, thank you to the government Vietnam for over the three decades of support to the POW-MIA mission. Obviously, this collaboration directly benefited the Charvet, Avalice and Klenda families, but it has also had a far-reaching effect on the re-establishment of diplomatic relations and today's comprehensive partnership the United States and Vietnam have fostered. Thank you again for the opportunity to address you. I thank you, Director McCake, for laying the foundations for our discussions and conversations this morning or this afternoon evening, depending on where you are joining us from. It is now my pleasure to introduce Senior Colonel Duong Kuan Hoa. Since March 2019, he has served as Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Deputy Director, Deputy Director of the Policy Department, General Political Department, Ministry of National Dependence. He is also Deputy Chief of Office of National Steering Committee 515 on search, return and identification of remains of fallen soldiers. Prior to 2019, he held positions in the Division of Martyr Tomb Affairs and Division for War Involids, Martyrs and Revolution contributors of the Policy Department, General Political Department. He also served as Deputy Political Commissar of the Futah Provincial Military Command. Colonel Hoa, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I'm very honored to attend the event today hosted by the US Institute of Peace and Harvard University so that we can exchange and take stock of what we have done to promote cooperation and make Vietnam's wartime accounting more effective. On behalf of the National Steering Committee 515, I'd like to extend to all of you my best wishes and greetings. The event today is of great significance, especially at a time when the two sides cite a memorandum of understanding between the Office of the National Steering Committee on the wartime accounting and the Office of the US Defense other side in Hanoi. During the visits to Vietnam by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in July 2021, it also builds on the success of the virtual event addressing the legacies of the Vietnam War organized by the USIP on the 3rd of August 2021. This is an opportunity for agencies, organizations, managers, scientists, and experts of the two sides to discuss the progress being made between the practical and effective cooperation on issues of concern and enhance joint efforts in Vietnam wartime accounting. Ladies and gentlemen, currently it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify and recover the Vietnamese wartime remains. The biggest challenge is that there's fewer accurate information in the war prolonged, while the topography changes naturally in the process of social economic development. Most of the witnesses who know the information about the wartime remains are old. The memory is fading, while the archives are not complete. Based on the statistics that we have Vietnam still has around 200,000 remains of fallen soldiers that need to be recovered. Based on the information sources provided by US organizations and individuals, Vietnamese agencies and local governments have verified, identified and recovered with positive results, including the identification of many mass graves, partly ending the uncertainty of families of those who died during the wartime. In 2021, Vietnam received a number of information and items provided by DPAA. We have asked relevant Vietnamese agencies, units and localities to verify those documents. The result is that from the items of Mr. Do Thanh Cuong, we found his family members currently residing in Phuc Thuy village of Ly, commune, Ly Nhan District, Ha Nam province. Based on some papers related to soldiers who died during the wartime, the families, members and relatives have been identified in Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and Quang Nam. Currently, we are developing a plan to hand over these items and documents to their families and relatives in these provinces. However, so far a number of information and items have been verified with their concrete results because the information and documents remains fragmented and quite hard to collate. Therefore, it is suggested that the US site provide information, documents and items related to Vietnamese personnel. First of all, for single pieces of information provided by US veterans, it is necessary to add combined information, for example, time, location, unit, provider to facilitate the verification, collation and conclusion. For information provided by US agencies and archives, it is important to collate, compare, filter and digitalize data to make sure that they are integrated and systematic. We hope that today's event will allow us to improve the Vietnamese wartime accounting in the near future. Hopefully, US aspects will exchange a lot of experience with us in information processing, verification, excavation, survey, preliminary identification, analysis, identification of remains with the advanced technology through more philosophical and anthropological science and research processes, analysis and digitalization of data from different available records and documents. Thank you very much. On behalf of the US IP, I'd like to thank Keno, Dan Kuan Hoa and Mr. Kali on the cooperation between the two governments. It is an opportunity to look back at the past and to build a better and brighter future. Veteran American writer Tim Obrian writes, the war occurred half a lifetime ago and yet remembering makes it now and sometimes remembering it will lead to a story which makes it forever. That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. To continue to connect the past, the present and future, I'd like to introduce a short film interviewing three Vietnamese families searching for their loved ones, lots in the war. Interviews were conducted by Mrs. Chantu Ha from documentary film department of VTV4, given travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic that those families interviewed all in the north of Vietnam. I know that it should be meaningful to have families and stories from all regions of Vietnam. So at starting point, please listen to some families' experiences in a 10-minute video. Thank you. Before leaving, he said that he had to find a father for his wife. So I had to go all the way. I had to go all the way. Until 1997, I was lucky enough to have someone to help me find my wife. I got the information that my father was born in Phu Yen province. Since then, I went to Phu Yen to find my father. I knew that my father was born in 1970. My father was born in 1978. But when I was born, I didn't have a name. Actually, I was born in the south of Vietnam. It was very difficult for me to find a father. I knew that my father was much closer to my father than everyone else. I didn't know who was my father's mother. Until 2012, after my father's death, in Phu Yen province, they did all kinds of things. I got the information that I had to go to Phu Yen to find a father for my wife. When I was informed that my father's death was right, I thought that we would be married. I cried and didn't want to drink anymore. I was so happy and happy. I knew that my father was born in the south. At that time, my father was born in the south. It was about 22 years after my father's death. The process was very difficult. I was the luckiest person. I got to find my father and I The way we are now is to set up the ADN to set up the right place for us to take our parents home. We haven't found them yet. We have found them before, but we only found them by heart. We only found them when we were taking them home. We organized and gave them the documents. We haven't found the right place for them. If we bring them home, we are very worried that they might get bigger. Or if we want to set up the right place for them, we don't have anyone to set up the right place for them. That's a big problem. I was born and raised by my sister. I have six brothers, my son went to the hospital. And two brothers were born. My brother is Nguyen Ban Truong. He was born in 1975. Nguyen Ban De was born in 1971. He was born in 1972. He was born in Quang Chi, Quang Chi. Now, my family has been able to take care of the two brothers. I want to find the right place for us to take our parents home. I want to find the right place for us to take our parents home. But my mother is the strongest. My mother was born in 2012, 2014. She was given the right to take care of the two brothers. She is a senior in Vietnam. Because she has two children, she is a teacher. How many times have you thought about your brothers? Many times. There are times when you have to go to the hospital. There are times when you can't go to the hospital. But because you think about your brothers, you still have to wait for your brothers to come home. At that time, I thought that if only my mother and her children were able to take care of Adian. So I hid my children and my children in the last two branches. When I went to Ba Diem Phu Tau to take the two children to take care of Adian. Before I went, I gave them a branch. I told them that it was the last branch of mine to take care of. If later on, I would have lost it. If I hadn't found it, I would have kept the branch to find it. I asked my children and grandchildren. Now, because I haven't found it, the reason is that I don't have a name and age. And I don't have a name. So I just went to Adian. At that time, I didn't know what Adian's job was. But they only knew that Adian's job was to have teeth or hair. Her hair was a lot. But her teeth were rare. Her last tooth was kept so that if her hair wasn't there, the teeth would still be there. In 2000, I often watched the TV series, I wrote a book on the TV series. There was a soldier. He said that on the way back to the unit, he saw four students, three of them, and six others, were gathered in the corner of the city center in Cambodia. One of them was in Nguyen Van Truong. So I was very happy. I called my family. The newspaper was like that. It was just a piece of information, but it was very valuable. Since then, the newspaper has been a piece of information. I went from Saigon to all of Nguyen Van Truong, and wherever I went, I went there. I was also called to find a job in Nguyen Van Truong. After there was a result of Adian's administration, it was correct. Even in a very short time, I was very weak. I was very weak but very smart. But after there was a result of that, I was very healthy. Before I went there, I was very lucky. I was very lucky because I was able to find two children from my hometown. My family was already lucky, but in Vietnam, in Vietnam and in Nguyen Van Truong, there were many teachers. Now I want to be smart and even find a lot of people. But I haven't been able to bring my child home. I'm Nguyen Van Boc, born in 1953. I'm close to my age. I have a brother, Nguyen Van Boc. His birthday was on July 25, 1949. My brother wrote a love letter to Nguyen with a pen and a pen. On February 22, 1968, my brother went on the road. My mother's house was 576, with a pen and a pen. My brother went on the road. Since then, I haven't received a letter or a letter from him. I haven't received any kind of love letter, any kind of love letter. I haven't received any kind of love letter and a pen and a pen. I have only one love letter. I'm not sure about the construction of the house to solve all the problems because of the weather, the water is still cold, the weather is changing, the weather is getting worse. I'm Nguyen Van Phuc. I'm a family member and a member of Nguyen Van Boc. Since 2000, we have been working on the construction of our house. It's very difficult to find a new owner. In 2009, here, on the internet, my brother and I have found a new owner for us. In 2010, we have found a new owner of the house. We have found a new owner of the house. We have found a new owner of the house. We have found a new owner of the house. In 1971, the first newspaper was published on January 15, 1970. My brother and I have been working on the construction of our house. We have found a new owner of the house. We have found a new owner of the house. We have found a new owner of the house. We have found a new owner of the house. We want to be led by the ADN가지고 by our family. We have just brought home. We have just brought home. Following those stories, it's my honor to introduce our three panelists who will discuss their own work and the stories that they are collecting and working with. So, first will be Dr. Hai Nguyen and Nguyen Teng Hai, who is the co-founder and director of the Global Vietnam Wars Studies Initiatives at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation of the Harvard University Kennedy School. Dr. Hai is widely published on three continents. His expertise includes military and social history, local culture and religion, memory and oral history. Dr. Nguyen is also the research director of the unseen legacies of the Vietnam War, finding, archiving and sharing missing data and historical ephemera of Vietnamese war dead. This project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense is the first systematic review of battlefield documents to locate Vietnamese war dead. Our second speaker will be Tim Reeser, who is a senior foreign policy aide to U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy. And Tim is also the majority clerk of the Senate Appropriations Committee on State Foreign Operations and Related Programs, which is now chaired by Senator Chris Coons. Mr. Reeser began working for Senator Leahy in 1985, initially as a member of the judiciary staff and then as a member of the appropriation staff. Reeser is regarded as one of the most influential congressional staffers on U.S. foreign assistance and foreign policy. He's known for his pivotal roles in the U.S. opening towards Cuba in 2014, the 1998 Leahy law that bans military aid to foreign armies that violate human rights, and the 1992 law banning landmines. And Reeser has been a key supporter and driver of U.S. IPs work on Vietnam. Our third panelist is Tao Griffiths, Winh Thi Thu Tao, who was born in 1978 in Hazang province from 2007 to 2016. She served as country director of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation in Vietnam. In this role, she managed programs relating to continuous post-conflict issues, agent orange contamination, unexploded ordinance, and mental health. Now as an independent consultant on war legacies, she works in development and humanitarian assistance across many sectors, including extensive work with the U.S. Department of State and Vietnam's Ministry of National Defense. So each of our panelists will speak for around five minutes. Then we'll have time for questions and discussion. Please submit your questions from the audience on the U.S. IP website where there's a button for that, and you can submit questions in either English or Vietnamese. Thanks very much. Dr. Hai. Thank you very much for your introduction. Last we speak Vietnamese language. Well, on behalf of the unseen legacies of the Vietnam War, fighting, archiving, and sharing the missing data and historical and familiar Vietnamese worded project, I'd like to thank you for inviting me to be here to share what we are doing now. Also, I'd like to thank the chief governments for showing cooperation along with the U.S. State Department of Defense and also the Sting Committee 515. We are very fortunate to work and we'd like to thank the Office of Ministry Attaché, Mr. Jetseth, Mr. Sen. We also had opportunity to work with Mr. Jetseth Simbaville, who has made significant and excellent contribution to this process. I'd also like to thank Jetseth Casey from the Army Office in Hanoi. We'd also like to thank his foreign policy aide, Mr. Tim Racer, who is here today with us for their contribution to war legacy cooperation in Vietnam. We'd also like to thank all of you for your confidence and trust in the Ash Center for Democratic Governance Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, for making this challenging yet meaningful research. We'd also like to thank people on the two sides of the Pacific watching this event today. The Ash Center of the Harvard Kennedy School led by Professor Annamasis. We initiated this project. We conducted systematic research with social information from the battlefield, from the soldiers from Vietnam, Vietnam People's Army, and we also returned the items to them so that if they are alive or their families, if they are lost or fallen, we also established a database so that the families could search a query in the future. This is a challenge because as Colonel Hoa said, time has passed so for so long. The witnesses become old and their memories are fading, while we have limited archives. We really like very much on the documents and papers collected by the US Army and the Alliance from the soldiers of the Vietnamese People's Army and Vietnam Liberation Front with more than 3 million pictures of documents, images from People's Army of Vietnam archived in 950 microfilms. Since 1975, many scholars have already come to the US for research, but it's still a treasure. It's still something that we need to take to understand the information about the fallen soldiers because we need to develop the search tool, the documents literate over time, the letters on those papers may be ineligible, very difficult to interpret or to understand. So we'd like to share with you some pictures from our PowerPoint presentation for your information. These samples captured from the battlefield, for example, you can see here the diaries or the death notification or the documents from the battlefield with the ran-hidden letters with different coats, very difficult to decode. So we work with different scholars applying different techniques and we also apply oral history and different tools to make sense of the information about these fallen soldiers. We have achieved certain progress in collecting information and return the items of these fallen soldiers to their families. So the first case here is Mr. Dang Thanh Tuan, born in 1941 in Binh Dinh. His father is Mr. Dang Thanh Tung and his mother is Mrs. Bui Thi Dinh. In 1954, he grew up to North Vietnam as a son of a Southern revolutionary family. Between 1954 and 1962, he was a student in Hanoi, Hai Phong, Han Nam, Quang Ninh. Between 1962 and 1964, he was a student of accounting school in Bac Thai, Thang Nguyen. In 1965, he voluntarily joined the People's Army of Vietnam and went to the South. And in 1966, he became the private first class. He was in the High Command of Artinary and based on the document captured from the battlefield, we also found the list with 59 photos shows us Mr. Dang Thanh Tuan died on the 8th of August 1966 at station number 10. And in this list, Mr. Dang Thanh Tuan was number 17 with the signature verifying defamation. It was verified by the political officer of the Second Battalion. So even though we have documents like this, it's very still challenging to verify information about the context where and how he died. So we checked the roster with or against the other information that we captured from the documents. For example, the death certificate or death notification of his comrades. We also checked against the intelligence reports of the South Vietnam Army. We also compare and collect with the history of People's Army of Vietnam regarding the Second Battalion in military station number 10. We returned the information to his family. And this is the feedback from Mrs. Dang Ti Hung Cha. This is what the family said upon receiving the items and information about Mr. Dang Thanh Tuan. Thank you very much, Dr. Hai. I know you have more stories to share from these very rich documents. For reasons of time, I'd like to invite Tim Rieser to share his remarks. Thanks. Well, thank you, Andrew. I also want to thank the US Institute of Peace for sponsoring this discussion and everyone in this country and in Vietnam for participating today. The Vietnam War Time Accounting Initiative is the most recent of 30 years of cooperation between the United States and Vietnam to address some of the most painful legacies of the war. That cooperation began in 1989 with the use of the Lehi War Victims Fund to provide artificial limbs and wheelchairs to Vietnamese who had been injured during the war. The fund is named for Senator Patrick Lehi, who has been the visionary for each of the US, Vietnam War Legacy Initiatives, and who as a member and now chairman of the US Senate Appropriations Committee has obtained the funding to support them. Over the past 30 years, the United States has also supported programs to locate and remove landmines and bombs that continue to kill and injure innocent people in Vietnam. Programs for Vietnamese with disabilities, resulting from exposure to Agent Orange and other wartime injuries, which are being implemented in now seven provinces, and programs to clean up the chemical contamination caused by Agent Orange at the Da Nang Airport and the Bien Hoa Air Base. To pick up on what Kelley McKay spoke of, none of this would have been possible without the many decades of assistance from the government of Vietnam in locating American MIAs. That opened the door to everything that has happened since. Throughout that time, we knew there were hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians throughout the country in North, South and Central Vietnam who lost their lives in the war and whose remains have not been found. As we have heard, this has impacted practically every Vietnamese family. Over the years, there have been some attempts to locate graves of the Vietnamese missing, including with the help of American veterans of the war, and funding in 2015 from the U.S. Agency for International Development to help with DNA analysis of the remains. But Senator Lay, he felt that we need to do more to reciprocate for the indispensable help that Vietnam has given the United States in locating American MIAs over so many years. We're now embarking on a five-year program supported by both the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Agency for International Development, working hand in hand with the government of Vietnam. It is our hope that by providing access to archival documents, oral histories, and other wartime information like what Mr. Hyde showed us, as well as DNA technical assistance and equipment, that we can significantly enhance the ability of the government of Vietnam to locate the remains of Vietnamese missing since the war. This is a humanitarian initiative in its purest form, and Senator Lay, he wants the people of Vietnam to know that he will do everything that he can to support it. To him, and I believe he speaks for others in Washington and Hanoi, this program will not only help bring closure to some of the Vietnamese families who have been searching for their relatives for nearly 50 years. It will also, like our other war legacy programs, build trust and broaden the United States-Vietnam comprehensive partnership, just as we want to overcome the legacies of the war. We also want to expand the cooperation between our countries in meeting other challenges from climate change to pandemics to regional security. And we want the next generation in Vietnam to know that, despite what happened during the war, which was such a catastrophe for both our countries, we found ways years later to use that experience to create a better future. Thank you again to USIP, to the government of Vietnam, to DPAA, and to all others who have helped support this initiative. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Andrew, for your introduction, and also like thank Andrew for introducing not only my name, but also my age. And I think that everyone in the world know how old I am. I think it's a good opportunity for me to start the story. I was born after the war, after the war ended several years. I was born in the northernmost region of Vietnam. I knew most of the consequences of the war in the border area with China. When I went to Hanoi, I saw and felt the serious consequences of the Vietnam War. It's a war legacy, but if we do not address this war, legacy will continue for generations to come in Vietnam and also in the US. For me, war legacy is an issue that needs to be addressed. For young people like me, born after the war, need to understand and to be involved in this process. As Dr Andrew said, I am here as an independent consultant. I spent 20 years on war legacy, and I am not representing any organization here today. I'm very honored to be here today in this panel discussion. I'd like to thank USAIP for inviting me and organizing this special event. I know that in the event today, we will respond to the question how the Vietnam war time accounting initiative can contribute to the strategic trust between the US and Vietnam is a challenging question, but we can dive into four other questions between the US and Vietnam, whether we have the strategic trust or not. If yes, is it sufficient enough to upgrade it to the strategic partnership? How the war legacy cooperation has contributed to the bilateral relationship, as Mr Tim Racer said, the war legacy program focuses on four topics over the past decades, including UXO, supporting people with disability, dioxin, data specification, and also the war time accounting. Due to time constraints, I will be very brief responding to these four questions. I'll answer a big question first. I believe that we have the strategic trust that US and Vietnam work closely together. The US is number one vaccine donor in Vietnam. It's not only humanitarian issue in public health, but also of strategic importance. So the second question is the strategic trust sufficient? It's quite difficult to tell. It depends on who you respond to the question and which organization it represents. As a close observer of the US, Vietnam relations over the past few decades, I can say that we are in transition and at a relevant point in time and with some agreement or substantial progress on some strategic topics, we could achieve the strategic partnership between the US and Vietnam. In terms of war legacy cooperation, I still recall we changed our N9 in 2022, sorry, in 2020. Lieutenant General Tung Tung or Nguyen Chi Vinh emphasized the war legacy cooperation as a foundation for the two countries to strengthen the relationship in other areas of cooperation. It was fortunate to work with Vice Minister of Defense Nguyen Chi Vinh, and you can say that US-Vietnam war legacy cooperation opened new opportunities for us. And the last question, the wartime accounting initiative, as Mr. Kali Macke said, before Vietnam and US normalized the relationship, the cooperation started in 1985 or 36 years now. It is the effective cooperation from the early days that have already led the foundation for the normalization of relationship in 1995, 10 years after that. So I expect that the bilateral cooperation in wartime accounting initiative will bring good results meaningful to the families whose members have already last and also it's important for the technology transfer for agencies in Vietnam involved in the wartime accounting. I believe that the progress in Vietnamese wartime accounting will contribute to the partnership in the years to come. Thank you. That's all I'd like to say. Thank you very much to all of our panelists. We've received a few questions so far. If there are others, please do enter them in the USIP webpage. So the first question is very much like Tao's conclusion, but perhaps we can go further into it. How does cooperation in US-Vietnam wartime remains recovery emphasize the increasingly solid bilateral relationship between the two countries? Maybe if Tim, I could ask that question to you first and then if Tao would also like to comment. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. This initiative, as I mentioned, really has built on multiple other ways in which the United States and Vietnam have cooperated over the years to address war legacies. And so it's been a process over time. And each step we take, I think, has contributed to greater trust, greater understanding, and has led to openings for ways that we are now cooperating in many other areas. So it's really these wartime legacy issues that have brought the two countries together and have created ways in which we have now been able to engage on so many other ways. And we see that continuing. On the one hand, this is the essence of a humanitarian initiative. And we saw from the video just how meaningful this is for families who have been searching for years for their loved ones. And we're very hopeful that we can help contribute to that and that more families will be able to locate their relatives. But we also see this very much a part of the larger relationship and that this will lead to greater cooperation between our two countries on many other issues going into the future. I also would like to add and respond to the question that Mr. Andrew has already asked. U.S.-Vietnam cooperation is very diverse, including humanitarian cooperation and also scientific partnership when we have the engagement of different agencies in DNA testing, archiving, documentation management. It's also involving diplomatic cooperation. The Student Committee 515 is a political branch of the Ministry of Defense. So I can say that it's involving military, economic, political cooperation. It helps the families and agencies to have better capacity. And I'm sure that it will contribute to stronger broader trust and confidence and contribute to strategic partnership in some day. There's a question if you could explain a little more about your process of finding information and how do you manage the political aspects of that? And there's an additional question. Do you also search for information or remains of soldiers from South Vietnam or people who died in pre-education camps after the war? Thank you very much for this important question on the research centre. It is an independent research centre of Harvard University. When we look for information about the foreign soldiers, we adopted different techniques and different strategies because out of millions of pages of information, we have to categorize into different battlefields based on the historical records. There are five battlefields in Vietnam. So we follow these battlefields to look for the details of the individuals missing or dead at the time when these documents captured and when the war became fierce, they may be lost. So we try to come up with the personal biography of each and every individual to have the information to clarify and identify the foreign soldiers and also identify the members. This may not be that at that time, but we can collect the information and search. We provide personal documents and items, for example, deris or even the medical reports from the clinics and return these documents to their families. We also provide additional information on the campaigns, operations or battlefields so that U.S. or Vietnam have a better understanding of the context of the battlefields and the loss of lives. So the war legacies could be addressed in different ways, but what is more important is reconciliation, historical reconciliation and to promote mutual understanding. Each and every social is a human being. They have their own stories, so we need to understand the stories of the two sides. If we found documents involving the South Vietnam soldiers or U.S. soldiers or personnel, we also recommend how it could be processed. We are now conducting information involving the battlefield in 1975 related to people's army of Vietnam or Vietnam Liberation Front. We do not have any information about the South Vietnam soldiers who lost their life after the 1975. In education camp, we try to make it objective. We provide information to all sides because this is a part of our research mission. It's also a humanitarian mission that we conduct. The families, be Vietnamese or American, can have access to the information and search for their family members. Two questions for Tal Griffiths, and you can also add to Dr. Heis as well. What do you think are the most strategic ways to enhance strategic trust between the U.S. and Vietnam? And how do you see the future of war legacy issues? Will this continue for a long time into the future? Yes, I will be very brief because I'm very aware of the time. But however, I want to add to Dr. Heis' excellent explanation. Okay, I'm back to Vietnamese. In history, Max also talks about the MOU signed in July 2021 during the visit by Secretary of Defense. The MOU refers to the wartime accounting initiative. And in history, Max, also talking about the biggest challenge now, and that is information. The question was addressed in the MOU signed between the two countries because it focused on what Dr. Heis said. Access will be given to the declassified information in Akai from the U.S. Around 200 sets of documents, 200,000 sets of documents captured during the war from people's army of Vietnam. If we can process 200,000 sets of documents, digitalize and build a database, making it possible for the public to access, and then it could be a treasure, a valuable treasure, very good for all families, around 300,000 families, searching for their last family members or loved ones. I don't think that there's any discrimination or differences between the north, the south, and the central. Access will be given to information that is declassified. So the next question, what issues that can result in the strategic trust between the U.S. and Vietnam? At this point in time, I think when we work together effectively on Vietnamese wartime accounting, it will contribute significantly and meaningfully to the strategic trust. So what do we need to do in addressing the war legacies in the future? Well, I'm very moved. You know, Mr. Tim Racer said that Senator as a chairman of the Appropriation Committee, he wants the Vietnamese people to understand that he will do whatever he can to support not only wartime accounting but also war legacies in Vietnam. Senator Le He is quite old. He is now in his 80s, and he said that he may not run for the Senate again. So I think we need to have the generational transition so that Vietnam will continue to have the support from the U.S., from the statement and politicians from the U.S. They will maintain the support for wartime operations in Vietnam because the war legacy, it takes time to be addressed. Given the existing efforts, I think we can basically address the priorities areas in the years to come. The World War I and World War II still have its consequences today with the UXO. So we need to minimize the risk. We have the technical measures. What we need now is the political commitment and to leverage the window opportunity because we need to deal fundamentally these issues of war legacy. Thank you. To close today's event, I'd like to introduce Hoang Thi Thang Ngah, who is a minister, counselor, and deputy chief of mission of the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the United States. Ms. Ngah entered the Foreign Service in 2000. She served as deputy director of the North America Division and director of the Research and Analysis Division. She's had overseas assignments with the permanent mission of Vietnam to the United Nations and joined the Department of International Organizations in 2014 as deputy director general in charge of human rights and social issues. So welcome, Ms. Ngah. Thank you. I must do George Moose, Senior Colonel, Mr. Kelly McKay, Mr. Tim Beazer, Mr. Andrew Walsh, and dear friends. Thank you very much for having me today. I wish to sincerely thank the Institute of this, representatives of the U.S. Administration, Congress, Vietnam government agencies for the joy of this and dedication in making possible this meaningful event and the war legacies and reconciliation initiative. I'd like to convey the warmest congratulations and thanks to our American and Vietnamese friends from Ambassador Ha Kim Ngoc, who is in Vietnam now and cannot join the event today. Addressing war legacies has been one of the areas of cooperation between Vietnam and the United States for many years. We have worked closely to account for Americans of this man missing in the war to clear unexploded audiences in many provinces in Vietnam to have persons with disabilities and clean up aging orange in Danang, Bien Hoa airports. We all know how much important these achievements are in the process of healing the world of war and reconciling our two countries and two peoples. I am deeply touched by the stories shared by living witnesses in the video we have watched today. A daughter filed a reminiscence of her father, a sister, and a brother filed a reminiscence of their older brothers, thanks to the documentation and DNA testing. We are also pleased that the documents that the DPAA chancellor to Vietnam have identified the families of the Vietnamese martyrs. We know that hundreds of thousands of other families in Vietnam are still suffering from the pain of not finding the remains of their little one for decades. The government and people of Vietnam have made enormous efforts to search for the remains of Vietnamese soldiers missing in the war but there are a lot of challenges facing this given the financial and technology constraints. Therefore the assistance from the US government, partners and friends to have account for Vietnamese missing in actions is very important and meaningful. I shared the insight of many previous panelists. The cooperation in addressing war legacy has been very important for Vietnam-US relationship. It helps relieve the pain of many families, promote people-to-people ties, contribute to trust building, and enable us to achieve what we have today in our comprehensive partnership. On this occasion, I would like to express our gratitude to red friends and partners from both Vietnam and their interstates who have devoted huge efforts to this noble mission like Senator Patrick Leahy and General Nguyen Thi Vinh, let Senator John McCain, Mr. Robert Mueller, Mrs. Anne-Mill Brunfest, among other Vietnamese and American friends. We are very grateful for the strong leadership of Senator Patrick Leahy and the quick role of Senior Advisor Tim Rieser in promoting the initiative on accounting for Vietnamese missing in action. Once again, let me reaffirm the strong commitment of the embassy to working closely with you, especially the Institute of Peace and our partners, friends from both Vietnam and the interstates in this noble mission. Thank you very much.