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US Ambassador Knapper's Facebook post for the 80th anniversary featuring the OSS work
with Ho Chi Minh https://www.facebook.com/reel/2259625791152346
President meets with friends and American people who love Vietnam
President Luong Cuong met with friends and peace-loving American people in New York, affirming that Vietnam always appreciates their affection and help.
President Luong Cuong on September 22 met with representatives of thousands of American friends who love Vietnam, on the occasion of attending activities of the 80th United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week in New York and working in the US, according to VNA .
These are people who have supported, assisted, and been with Vietnam in the struggle for national independence, national reunification, resolving the consequences of war, promoting Vietnam-US relations, and contributing to the current process of national construction and development.
President Luong Cuong and delegates. Photo: VNA
One of them was Ani Toncheva, a member of the Communist Party USA, who was dedicated to internationalism and anti-militarism and actively participated in struggles for labor and housing rights in New York City.
The meeting was also attended by Mr. John McAuliff, Director of the Reconciliation and Development Foundation, who actively campaigned for support for Vietnam during the 1973 Paris Agreement negotiations, and Mr. Todd Magee, Executive Director of Operation Smile, an organization that has made many contributions to promoting the normalization of Vietnam-US relations.
They expressed their admiration for Vietnam's efforts to overcome difficult times to develop strongly, especially during a period when the world had many unpredictable changes, and shared about its contributions to the process of healing the wounds and consequences of war for the Vietnamese people.
These are efforts to help Agent Orange victims have a better life, bring the people of the two countries closer together, contribute to helping Vietnam and the US move towards normalizing relations, as well as projects to help disadvantaged children.
The President affirmed that Vietnam always remembers and appreciates the close affection, valuable help and support that the friends and peace-loving people of the United States have given to the Vietnamese people.
The President recalled the image of peace-loving American citizens in the movement supporting Vietnam's just struggle, promoting an end to the war and the restoration of peace, or American veterans organizations that overcame past guilt and returned to Vietnam to heal the wounds of war.
President Luong Cuong shakes hands with friends, long-time partners, and progressive people of the US on September 22. Photo: VNA
He emphasized that people-to-people diplomacy is an important field of Vietnam-US relations, playing the role of a solid social foundation, being both a catalyst and contributing to building and strengthening trust, connecting hearts to hearts, connecting and promoting relations between the two countries.
The President hopes that American friends and partners will promote their role as bridges, connecting businesses and localities of both sides, promoting cooperation in core and breakthrough areas of economics, trade, investment, especially in science, technology, and innovation.
The President also asked American friends and partners to continue supporting and contributing to the work of overcoming the consequences of war, assisting victims of toxic chemicals, dioxin and bombs, and assisting in collecting information to help speed up the process of searching for and collecting the remains of missing Vietnamese soldiers.
He affirmed that Vietnam is committed to making the greatest efforts in searching for and repatriating the remains of American soldiers from the war in Vietnam, and hopes that friends and partners will continue to contribute to the development of relations between the two countries.
Ngoc Anh
Remarks by John McAuliff at VUS/VUFO Friendship
Meeting in New York with President Luong Cuong
9/22/25
Mr. President, it is an honor to be with you and your
colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Viet Nam – USA Society,
and the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations. Our group of twelve includes people who were
active in the antiwar movement: Carolyn
Eisenberg, Steven Goldsmith, Susan Gregory, Rick Hind, Terry Provance, Joel
Schwartz, and myself. Some continued on
in the campaign for normalization, reconciliation and responsibility for the
legacies of war, most notably land mines, UXO and Agent Orange, and were joined
by: Susan Hammond, Mary McDonnell, Matt
Meyer, Rebecca Waugh, and Andrew Wells-Dang
They worked with the American Friends Service Committee, the
Bach Mai Hospital Relief Fund, Brooklyn for Peace, Catholic Relief Services, Chicago
Seven Conspiracy Trial, Clergy and Laity Concerned, the Coalition to Stop
Funding the War, the Committee of Returned Volunteers, the Fellowship of
Reconciliation, the Indochina Peace Campaign, the March on the Pentagon, May
Day, Medical Aid for Indochina, the Moratorium, the National Council of
Churches, the National Mobilization Committee, the Pentagon Papers Peace
Project, the Peoples Peace Treaty, the Shoe Shine Boys Project, the Social
Science Research Council, the Support Committee for Dan and Phil Berrigan, the
US Institute of Peace, the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee, the War
Legacies Project, the War Resisters League, the Women’s March on
Congress to Cut Off War Funds and in national movements for draft resistance and
to support antiwar GIs.
We meet during the 30th anniversary year of the
overdue end of the US embargo and establishment of normal diplomatic relations,
the 50th anniversary of the end or the war and of national
reunification (which most of us joined in Ho Chi Minh City, attending the fine dinner
you hosted), and the 80th anniversary of Viet Nam’s Declaration of
Independence.
Ho Chi Minh’s words incorporated language from the US
Declaration of Independence, symbolic of his warm collaboration in Tan Trao
with the Deer Team of the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS. One of my organization’s highlights was the
reunion we arranged in 1995 with the support of the Ford Foundation between
surviving veterans of the OSS and Viet Minh, including a touching meeting with
General Vo Nguyen Giap. Let me present
to you a transcript of three days of discussions in Southampton, Long Island, not
far from here, between the two groups of veterans. It culminated with a program at the Asia
Society that moved Deputy Foreign Minister Le Mai to an eloquent commentary. Tragically it took decades of horrific war, at
least three million deaths, and economic and environmental devastation before
we returned to the spirit of 1945 two years ago with our comprehensive
strategic partnership.
I will end my remarks with an appeal to Viet Nam to take
leadership in the world commensurate with the phenomenal success of its post-war
recovery and its international prestige. Can Viet
Nam, the US and ASEAN mobilize international opinion to reverse the territorial
aggression of China in the East Sea? Can
Viet Nam work with the other UN vote abstention countries to creatively mitigate,
if not end, the aggression of Russia against Ukraine? Can Viet Nam use its strong friendship with
both the US and Cuba to help achieve comparable mutual respect, the end of the
embargo and doi moi economic reforms with a Caribbean accent?
As Americans we also need to find out and overcome why the
US embassy limited its participation in 50th anniversary
celebrations in Ho Chi Minh City to the Consular level and at the 80th
anniversary march in Ha Noi to the military attaché, although our ambassador
was otherwise very involved. They show
the job of reconciliation is not done.
With the support of both governments and the engagement of our peoples, by
2035 VUS should expand sister city partnerships for every province of Viet Nam
with every state in the US.
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