February 28, 2025
The Honorable Marco Rubio
Secretary of State
Department of State
Washington, DC 20520
The Honorable Pete Hegseth
Secretary of Defense
Department of Defense
Washington, DC 20301
Dear Secretary Rubio and Secretary Hegseth,
We are writing to urge you to take the necessary steps to ensure the timely obligation and
expenditure of funds appropriated by Congress for foreign assistance, including the Vietnam war
legacy programs. These programs, with strong bipartisan support for many years, have been
implemented by USAID and the Department of Defense, in coordination with the Department of
State and other U.S. Government and private entities. They are the foundation of the
Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between our two countries, and their continuation to
completion is essential to maintaining and strengthening that Partnership. With respect to
funding for any of these programs that has already been terminated, we urge you to promptly
reinstate it.
Briefly, these programs include the following:
Unexploded ordnance removal. More than 100,000 Vietnamese have been killed or
injured from UXO accidents since the end of the war. Each year, the Congress provides
$25 million for the Department of State and Department of Defense to support UXO
clearance activities in Vietnam, which includes training and equipment for demining
teams in provinces heavily contaminated with UXO.
Dioxin remediation. USAID manages and jointly funds this project with the
Department of Defense to remediate dioxin-contaminated soil and sediment at the Bien
Hoa Airbase, which was the largest U.S. airbase during the war where millions of gallons
of Agent Orange were stored and loaded onto aircraft. The U.S. has already provided
$300 million of a total estimated cost of $450 million for this project to eliminate an
extreme health hazard. It is the sequel to the successful dioxin remediation at the Da
Nang airport, where Air Force One carrying President Trump landed in 2017.
Vietnam Health/Disabilities Program. USAID manages this program through
American and Vietnamese implementing partners with $30 million annually, to support
health and disabilities programs in ten provinces for Vietnamese suffering from severe
physical and cognitive disabilities caused by UXO accidents and exposure to dioxin.
War Remnants Museum. At the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City that is
visited by hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and foreigners annually, USAID is
supporting the construction of a modern exhibit portraying the decades of positive U.S.-
Vietnam cooperation on war legacies, including the programs described above, at a cost
of approximately $2 million.
Vietnam Wartime Accounting Initiative. This program, funded jointly by USAID
through the International Organization of Missing Persons and the Department of
Defense, with $15 million over the next five years, is significantly upgrading Vietnam’s
DNA technology and making available archival documents and artifacts in DoD’s
possession to assist Vietnam locate and identify the remains of some of the estimated
200,000-300,000 persons missing from the war. The initiative builds on and reciprocates
Vietnam’s 40 years of working with the Department of Defense to locate the remains of
U.S. MIAs.
2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and the 30th anniversary of the
normalization of relations between the U.S. and Vietnam. Today, Vietnam is an important partner
in an increasingly challenging region. Our war legacy programs have not only transformed a
formerly antagonistic and distrustful relationship into one of amicable partnership, they have also
been the catalyst for cooperation between the U.S. and Vietnam in maritime security, law
enforcement, higher education, energy development, and many other areas. Vietnam’s leaders,
under constant pressure from the Chinese Communist Party, have long emphasized the
importance they give to being able to rely on their partnership with the U.S. It would be difficult
to overstate the damage to the relationship that would result if the U.S. were to walk away from
these war legacy programs, which have received such high-profile attention and appreciation in
Vietnam.
Like in Vietnam, USAID personnel work in concert with the Department of Defense and
Department of State to advance U.S. interests around the world. Our long-standing programs in
Vietnam are illustrative of the transformative impact of U.S. foreign assistance on behalf of the
American people.
Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Peter Welch
United States Senator
Jack Reed
United States Senator
Jeanne Shaheen
United States Senator
Mark R. Warner
United States Senator
Amy Klobuchar
United States Senator
Patty Murray
United States Senator
Sheldon Whitehouse
United States Senator
Tammy Baldwin
United States Senator
Chris Van Hollen
United States Senator
Jeffrey A. Merkley
United States Senator
Tim Kaine
United States Senator
Bernard Sanders
United States Senator
Edward J. Markey
United States Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand
United States Senator
Cc: Mike Waltz, National Security Advisor
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