Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Thị Thanh Trà receives representatives from Texas Tech (USA). VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Anh

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Thị Thanh Trà has called for closer and more effective cooperation between the Việt Nam Center and Sam Johnson Việt Nam Archive (VNCA) at Texas Tech University in the US and the Vietnamese Wartime Accounting Initiative (VWAI) in helping Việt Nam search for and repatriate the remains of fallen soldiers so they can rest in their homeland.

The Deputy PM made the remarks while receiving in Hà Nội on June 13 a delegation from Texas Tech University led by VNCA Director Dr. Stephen Maxner, who is on a working visit to Việt Nam.    

Deputy PM Trà said the search for and repatriation of the remains of martyrs is a long-standing aspiration of their families and the Vietnamese people. The support and goodwill demonstrated by the VNCA and VWAI represent a meaningful humanitarian effort that helps heal the wounds of war, close a painful chapter of the past, contributing to strengthening the friendship and cooperation between Việt Nam and the US.

She highly valued Texas Tech University's contributions to Việt Nam, particularly its support for training high-quality human resources, and the VNCA's role in the initiative to account for Vietnamese missing in wartime.

With a collection of more than 30 million pages of original documents and over 40,000 books and research works on the war in Việt Nam, including declassified records and valuable personal artefacts of Vietnamese soldiers, the centre has become a trusted partner of Việt Nam. It has helped gather, decode and cross-reference archival materials with domestic records, contributing to efforts to locate remains of fallen soldiers and return wartime memorabilia to their families. Among the notable items preserved and returned was the original diary of martyr Đặng Thùy Trâm.

In 2025 alone, the centre returned nearly 30 wartime documents to Vietnamese families and war veterans and transferred more than 200 battlefield records to Việt Nam's National Archives Centre III for research and preservation, providing significant comfort and solace to relatives of fallen soldiers. 

The Deputy PM noted that Việt Nam is implementing a nationwide "500-day campaign" to search for, recover and identify unidentified martyrs' remains, with the goal of locating about 7,000 sets of remains and completing DNA sampling from approximately 230,000 unidentified graves and relatives of missing martyrs to support identification efforts. 

The campaign reflects Việt Nam's deep gratitude to those who sacrificed for the nation and embodies the country's longstanding tradition of honouring those who served, she said, noting that in this process, document analysis and information support from the VNCA play a particularly important role.

Trà also referred to a recent workshop that verified information related to a mass grave site at the former Đô Thành Cemetery area in Sài Gòn, now Lê Thị Riêng Park in HCM City. Drawing on declassified US documents, eyewitness accounts and field data, participants concluded that there is strong historical, scientific and practical evidence supporting the existence of the mass grave. Excavation is expected to begin in early July.

She expressed her hope that the VNCA and VWAI will continue working closely with the working group of the National Steering Committee for Search, Collection and Identification of Martyrs' Remains by providing documents, strengthening records and applying technology to decode wartime archives, thereby supporting the goals of the 500-day campaign.

The Deputy PM also called on the VNCA to expand research and information-sharing efforts to facilitate the identification and return of additional wartime keepsakes to the relatives of fallen soldiers at the national tribute conference for people with meritorious service to the revolution scheduled for July. 

For his part, Maxner reaffirmed the VNCA's readiness to support Việt Nam's efforts. He said the centre has built a network of Việt Nam's experienced experts to help analyse records and clarify information related to missing soldiers.

The centre is currently working with the US National Archives to digitise additional declassified materials relevant to the search effort, and is cooperating with Vietnamese partners on joint research projects to compile more comprehensive datasets, helping improve the effectiveness of search and identification of martyrs, he said. — VNA/VNS