[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 51 (Tuesday, March 17, 1998)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 13109-13110]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-7098]
[[Page 13107]]
_______________________________________________________________________
Part II
The President
_______________________________________________________________________
Presidential Determination No. 98-16 of March 4, 1998--Vietnamese
Cooperation in Accounting for United States Prisoners of War and
Missing in Action (POW/MIA)
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 51 / Tuesday, March 17, 1998 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 13109]]
Presidential Determination No. 98-16 of March 4, 1998
Vietnamese Cooperation in Accounting for United
States Prisoners of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA)
Memorandum for the Secretary of State
As provided under section 609 of the Departments of
Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1998, Public Law
105-119, 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:
L(1) resolving discrepancy cases, live sightings,
and field activities;
L(2) recovering and repatriating American remains;
L(3) accelerating efforts to provide documents that
will help lead to the fullest possible accounting of
POW/MIAs; and
L(4) providing further assistance in implementing
trilateral investigations with Laos.
I further determine that the appropriate 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 609, 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 by the Department of Justice and
believe that section 609 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 609 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.
[[Page 13110]]
You are authorized and directed to report this
determination to the appropriate committees of the
Congress and to publish it in the Federal Register.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, March 4, 1998.
[FR Doc. 98-7098
Filed 3-16-98; 10:20 am]
Billing code 4710-10-P
