U.S.A.I.D cuts threaten Vietnam's ability to bury their long dead
U.S.A.I.D cuts threaten Vietnam's ability to bury their long dead
Shutting down U.S.A.I.D has been one of the worse things that has happened since Trump took office — one of the many things on the list of bad things, in my view. A special program in Vietnam is among the many programs threatening to lose funding because of U.S.A.I.D's shutdown.
It's a program that dates back to 2014 with partners like the U.S. military and the International Commission on Missing Persons, in The Hague. In recent years, Vietnam has used funding from the U.S. to fund expensive machines using DNA from bones long buried in the soil to identify family members. In recent months, the program has had tremendous success with a breakthrough in identifying bones that have been in the tropical soil for a 70 years.
The main breakthrough occurred a few months before Mr. Trump’s inauguration with 23 Vietnamese bone samples degraded by age and tropical conditions. Using chemical solutions and high-tech analysis, scientists from the international commission found that 70 percent of the samples generated DNA profiles capable of being matched to a parent or child.
What's at stake is putting the dead to rest. A belief in Vietnam is that if an individual isn't identifiably buried, their soul will be hungry and without a home. The remains of at least 300,000 fighters for North Vietnam have been found but not identified. This program could benefit Americans too, with over 2,600 U.S. solder's bodies still missing.
A program like this is an example of generating good in the world: healing old, destructive, horrid conflicts. Bringing peace to families. Developing technology that could do good beyond Vietnam: identify people's bodies lost in future wars, and natural disasters.
Wars end, but the scars remain — cutting this program will make it that much harder to live with those scars.