[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 3, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 3CFRMar20]
Presidential Determination No. 2002-11 of March 20, 2002
Cooperation by Vietnam in Accounting for United States Prisoners of War and
Missing in Action
Memorandum for the Secretary of State
As provided in section 610 of the Departments of Commerce,
Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2002, Public Law 107-77, and laws
referenced therein, 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 prisoners of war and missing in action (POW/
MIAs); and
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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 609
of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the
Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999,
which is incorporated by reference in section 610.
The Department of Justice has advised that section 610 is
unconstitutional 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. As we look to further strengthen cooperation,
Vietnam's unilateral provision of POW/MIA-related documents
and records should be improved, focused initially on archival
data pertaining to Americans captured, missing, or killed in
areas of Laos and Cambodia under wartime Vietnamese control.
Vietnam should also focus greater attention on locating and
providing information on discrepancy cases, with priority on
those last known alive in captivity or in immediate proximity
to capture, and to locating and repatriating the remains of
those who died while in Vietnamese control that have not yet
been returned.
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 achieving the fullest possible accounting of
our prisoners of war and missing in action remains one of the
most important priorities in our relations with Vietnam.
You are authorized and directed to report this determination
to the appropriate committees of the Congress and to publish
it in the Federal eister.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, March 20, 2002.
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