(VOVWORLD) - The Heart of Vietnamese Soldiers organization has coordinated with the Vietnam Center and Archive (VNCA) of Texas Tech University to run a non-profit project called “Vietnam War Legacy Files” to search for information about Vietnamese soldiers and return their legacy and locate the graves and remains of missing soldiers. The files include the diaries, letters, and personal items of martyrs and surviving veterans.
 The second “Vietnam War Legacy Files” hand-over ceremony in June 2024. (Photo: Ngoc Anh) |
Established in 1989 in Texas, the VNCA collects and preserves the documentary record of the Vietnam War. Instructors at Texas Tech University locate and classify the soldiers’ artifacts to help The Heart of Vietnamese Soldiers identify martyrs and martyrs' relatives.
Dr. Tosha Dupras, Dean of Texas Tech University's College of Arts & Sciences, said, “For the past 35 years, they have been collecting the history and legacies of the American war in Vietnam to preserve the past, to honor those who served and sacrificed, and to promote a better understanding, healing and reconciliation between the United States and Vietnam. Together we collaborate to identify personal diaries, journals, letters, and other documents captured in the battle in Vietnam more than 50 years ago and search for surviving veterans or family members to return these treasured documents to them.”
The "Heart of Vietnamese Soldiers" has compiled and introduced the documents returned by the VNCA on its Facebook page and on the website of the e-magazine “Culture and Development” to help martyrs’ relatives find their relatives.
Last June, for the first time, the VNCA and the Institute for Peace and Conflict at Texas Tech University handed over part of the legacy files to The Heart of Vietnamese Soldiers at a ceremony in Hanoi. The collection includes five diaries and 30 letters written by Vietnamese soldiers, most of whom died during the war.
A second “Vietnam War Legacy Files” ceremony took place in Hanoi last month to hand over 30 documents and many artifacts.
Colonel Dang Vuong Hung, founder and President of The Heart of Vietnamese Soldiers, said that the organizing committee, especially the American side, worked hard for years to recover these 30 documents.
“We were surprised and touched to receive 10 responses, including 3 from surviving veterans. There are many more documents that we will coordinate with the US to locate in the coming years,” said Colonel Hung.
Dr. Steve Maxner, Director of the Vietnam Center and Archive, called the return of the artifacts a humane act.
“The materials that we have returned to you might also be the beginning of a renewed quest to find the remains of your loved one so that you may return them to your family cemeteries where they belong, said Dr. Steve Maxner, adding, “In some instances, the reports that we have provided contain location information about where the wartime documents were found which might subsequently be very close to where soldier was buried during the war.”
“So as you review these materials if you have questions, please feel free to contact us using the information we provide any reports, my friend and colleague doctor Alex Tyler and I will be very happy to provide all the additional information and guidance that we can,” according to Dr. Steve Maxner.
Although the artifacts cannot erase the pain of the martyrs' families, they have comforted them and contributed to the reconciliation between the two peoples.
American veteran Ron Milam, Director of the Institute for Peace and Conflict, said, “But today we are able to honor each other to tell our war stories to shake hands and to smile, to laugh, and to remember the following and we will never forget them.”
 Martyrs’ portraits are returned to their families at a ceremony in Hanoi in June 2024. (Photo: Ngoc Anh) |
As part of the project, The Heart of Vietnamese Soldiers and the Forever 20 Club restored the portraits of martyrs to present their families.
Veteran Phan Trong Son who received a portrait of his brother, Phan Trong Van, was very touched to receive the portrait of his brother who died half a century ago.
“The portrait restoration is very meaningful to my family. We feel as if my brother has returned to the family,” said Son.
The “Vietnam War Legacy Files” is a rich, authentic source of documents about the heroic resistance war of the Vietnamese people which pays tribute to martyr heroes, heals the wounds of war, gives closure to the past, and looks toward the future.