Sec. of War, Pete Hegseth has traveled to Hanoi to push forward in attempting to resolve the issues of the remaining 1500 or so soldiers unaccounted for since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

HANOI, Vietnam – Resolving cases of missing Americans from the Vietnam War remains a top priority of the Trump administration, and the Pentagon also is taking steps to find Vietnam’s missing troops, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday.

The Pentagon chief also exchanged Vietnam War artifacts with communist military leaders here, including war souvenirs held by an American veteran for more than 50 years.

It’s probably difficult for most people under 40 to understand the Vietnam War and its impact. Vietnam, like Korea before, were “armed conflicts” or “police actions” rather than declared wars. And while, for Americans, WWII lasted fours years and Korea three, Vietnam dragged on for 11 years. And that was just the boots-on-the-ground part as US involvement started in the 1950s and President John F. Kennedy sent Special Forces to South Vietnam in 1961.

I grew up with reports on the war on evening TV news — from fourth grade until I was 20 years old with the fall of Saigon. It was a war that altered the political and cultural landscape of America. And yet, so many only know about the war in the most superficial way and the MIAs have, indeed, been forgotten by most.

In return, the Vietnamese military gave Mr. Hegseth two identification cards of Americans who were lost when their aircraft were shot down north of Hanoi. The cards were among several military ID cards from missing pilots provided to the United States in recent months.

Mr. Hegseth also visited a detachment of military personnel at the Pentagon’s Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA, office in Hanoi. He praised the work of about a dozen service members engaged in the hunt for missing Americans from the war.

Some troops may never been recovered, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying to locate where actual remains or artifacts still exist.

Vietnam Vets returned changed forever by their experience. Not the least of which is that there was a significant contingent of so-called “anti-war” protestors of era who decided that these American soldiers were the enemy, worthy only of derision, dismissal, and harassment. And while there are conflicting stories about vets being “spat on” — some saying it’s a myth, or at least anecdotal — scorn shown to Vietnam Vets was real.

Full interview here. Let’s remember that the Peace Accords were signed in 1973 and US Troops withdrawn. You can thank Democrats from pissing on those Accords least Nixon get any credit for bringing the war to an end (sound familiar?) – so the Fall of Saigon in ’75 is to their credit.

Yet, by 1995 Vietnam and the US moved into being strategic partners with Communist China as the common enemy.

Gen. Phan Van Giang, the defense minister, also noted the anniversary and said the secretary’s visit holds great significance.

Vietnam values the “comprehensive strategic partnership for peace and sustainable development” with the United States,” Gen. Giang said.

The relationship with Vietnam over the MIA issues isn’t a smooth one by any means. There have been charges that Vietnam is using the issue to gouge money from the US in exchange for meager information issued in dribs and drabs. It does appear that the Trump administration has negotiated a new agreement to lower Vietnam’s funding demands.

While fifty years have passed and memories of Vietnam have faded, the graying participants in the anti-war movement with their abject hostility to the American government have not gone away. They’ve surged forth, gray haired and using walkers, to wave signs and shriek hate at ostensible NoKings demonstrations and call Federal Law Enforcement officers “fascists”.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Families of the MIAs should get at least some closure, and it needs to be done before the last of the parents, spouses and even children of those that went to Vietnam are gone. Fifty years plus missing is enough.

Bring them home.

featured image, cropped, WikiCommons used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.