Creation of a Database to Assist the Humanitarian Search for the Remains of South Vietnamese Personnel Missing in Action and Dead Re-education Camp Detainees
Description of Project
During the Vietnam War, tens of thousands of South Vietnamese personnel, especially soldiers in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), remained unaccounted for. The situation was much more serious in the last year of the war when the RVN forces engaged in major battles across the country and suffered heavy losses. After the collapse of the RVN in April 1975, the search of its MIAs was ceased permanently. In postwar Vietnam, thousands of men and women affiliated with the RVN perished in re-education camps and were buried on sites.
These camps have been closed for decades and there is the risk that burial sites may be destroyed for development purposes. Another risk that gives this search urgency is the rapid passing away of those who served in the RVN or those who were former re-education camp detainees. Younger members of this group must be in their 70s now, and they may be the last people who have direct information about the burial sites of South Vietnam’s battlefield or re-education camp dead.
The project aims to assist in the community effort to bring closure to the families of the dead and to help heal the wounds of the war and postwar tragedies between fellow Vietnamese and between Vietnam and the US. With the assistance of Vietnam, the US government has been searching for American MIAs for decades. The US is also recently offering to assist the government of Vietnam in recovering the remains of communist soldiers killed in action. It is hoped that this project will receive support from the diasporic community and government institutions as the RVN’s dead were not insignificant and should not be forgotten for humanitarian reasons.
Activities and Partners
This project’s main activities include to raise public awareness of the issue as a humanitarian cause, its importance, and its urgency; and to create a database of those who were missing in action or died in re-education camps as well as possible sites of their remains.
Our principal partners are:
- Dr. Alex-Thai D. Vo (PhD, history, Cornell University) who is Assistant Research Professor at the Vietnam Archive and Center at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
- Mr. Nguyễn Đạc Thành, former Major, Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, and President of Vietnamese American Foundation based in Houston, TX
