The United States always stands with Vietnam in addressing the consequences of war

Over the years, Vietnam and the United States have achieved many positive results in their cooperation to address the consequences of war. A reporter from Xây dựng Newspaper interviewed U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Courtney Beale about the Vietnam War Accounting Initiative (VWAI).

Reporter: The United States has long been a partner in helping Vietnam address the legacies of war. Could you walk us through the major areas where the United States government is currently working alongside Vietnam?

DCM Beale: Sure. Our work together in this area to address the war legacies is really foundational to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that the United States and Vietnam enjoy today.

In 2025, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding to emphasize our ongoing commitment to projects in this area.

A few examples include our work to remediate dioxin at Bien Hoa Air Base, our work to improve the lives of people with disabilities, regardless of cause, as well as our work to help Vietnam find its own fallen soldiers in support of the 500 days and nights campaign.

Finally, we continue to do identification and education around unexploded ordnance.

Reporter: Much of this cooperation now goes beyond humanitarian assistance. It also involves sharing technology, scientific expertise, and building long-term institutional capacity. From your perspective, how has this evolution changed the way the United States and Vietnam work together to address the lasting impacts of the war?

DCM Beale: Sure. I'd love to tell you a little bit more about the Vietnam War Accounting Initiative, which is one of the projects we've more recently started after Vietnam came to us and asked for our assistance in helping identify its fallen soldiers.

We launched the Vietnam war accounting initiative with several lines of effort.

First, to leverage archival research to help the Vietnamese government identify areas that may contain burial sites and places where they can locate additional remains, in coordination with Texas Tech University.

Second, to use the latest U.S. DNA technology. Working closely with the International Commission on Missing Persons and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, we've helped develop next-generation sequencing technology that can help us identify family members across multiple generations, so that Vietnam can identify its fallen soldiers and return them to their families.

These are two areas where the Vietnam war accounting initiative is doing exciting work in support of the 500 days and nights campaign.

In addition, we work through veterans' exchanges between U.S. and Vietnamese veterans, as well as public-private partnerships that bring additional resources, technology, and outside expertise so that we can do everything that we can to help support Vietnam in that area.

Reporter: Both countries continue to deepen their partnership, what message would you like people in both Vietnam and the United States to take away from these joint efforts to heal the wounds of war and navigate the future?

DCM Beale: I really hope people see this work and can see that the United States and Vietnam can serve as a model for the world in how two countries can reconcile and go from being foes to friends.

We now have established our bilateral relationship 31 years ago and have since become Comprehensive Strategic Partners, working together across a broad range of issues, from trade and investment to science and technology, people-to-people ties and education, as well as defense, security, and law enforcement.

All of this work brings greater prosperity and security to both the United States and Vietnam.

For us, a secure, sovereign, independent, prosperous, and resilient Vietnam is in both of our countries' interests.

We do this work together because we also think this cooperation contributes to bring about a more stable and peaceful Indo-Pacific region.

Again, we're very proud to support the Vietnamese government to work alongside with each other, through all of our war legacies programs, including our support for the 500 days and nights campaign, and we see this as yet another way to strengthen our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Thank you Deputy Chief of Mission!