[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 19 (Monday, May 14, 2001)]
[Pages 742-743]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Memorandum on Cooperation by Vietnam in Accounting for United States 
Prisoners of War and Missing in Action

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

[[Page 743]]

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 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.
    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

Note: An original was not available for verification of the contents of 
this memorandum.