For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 11, 2001
Memorandum
May 11, 2001
Presidential Determination No. 2001-15
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE
SUBJECT:
Cooperation
by Vietnam in Accounting for United States
Prisoners of War and Missing in Action
As provided under section 610 of the Departments of Commerce, Justice,
and State, the Judiciary and Other Independent Agencies Appropriations
Act, 2001, as contained in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY
2001, Public Law 106-553, I hereby determine, based on all information
available to the United States Government, that the Government of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam is fully cooperating in good faith with
the United States in the following four areas related to achieving the
fullest possible accounting for Americans unaccounted for as a result
of the Vietnam War:
1) resolving discrepancy cases,
live sightings, and field
activities;
2) recovering and repatriating
American remains;
3) accelerating efforts to provide
documents that will help lead to
the fullest
possible accounting of POW/MIAs; and,
4) providing further assistance in
implementing trilateral
investigations
with Laos.
I further determine that the appropriate laboratories associated with
POW/MIA accounting are thoroughly analyzing remains, material, and
other information and fulfilling their responsibilities as set forth
in subsection (B) of section 610, and information pertaining to this
accounting is being made available to immediate family members in
compliance with 50 U.S.C. 435 note.
I have been advised and believe that section 610 is unconstitu-tional
because it purports to use a condition on appropriations as a means to
direct my execution of responsibilities that the Constitution commits
exclusively to the President. I am providing this
determination as a matter of comity, while reserving the position that
the condition enacted in section 610 is unconstitutional.
In making this determination, I have taken into account all information
available to the United States Government as reported to me, the full
range of ongoing accounting activities in Vietnam, including joint and
unilateral Vietnamese efforts, and the concrete results we have
attained as a result.
Finally, in making this determination, I wish to reaffirm my continuing
personal commitment to the entire POW/MIA community, especially to the
immediate families, relatives, friends, and supporters of these brave
individuals, and to reconfirm that the central, guiding principle of my
Vietnam policy is to achieve the fullest possible accounting of our
prisoners of war and missing in action.
You are authorized and directed to report this determination to the
appropriate committees of the Congress and to publish it in the Federal
Register.
GEORGE
W. BUSH
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