PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Presidential Determination No. 97-10 of December 3, 1996
Title 3-
The President
Continued Vietnamese Cooperation in Accounting for
United States Prisoner of War and Missing in Action {POW/MIA}
Memorandum for the Secretary of State
61 FR 65151
Date: Wednesday, December 11, 1996
Consistent with section 609 of the Departments of Commerce, Justuce, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 1997, as contained in the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act, 1997, Public Law 104-208, I hereby determine, based on all relevant information available to the United States Government, that the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam continues to cooperate in full faith with the United States in four areas of accounting for American POW/MIA's:
1. Resolving discreancy 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/MIA's and
>4. Providing further assistance in implementing trilateral investigations with Laos.
I have beena advised by the Department of Justice and believe that section 609 is unconstitutional because it purports to condition the execution of responsibilities - the authority to recognize, and to maintain diplomatic relations with, a foreign government that the Constitution commits exclusively to the President. I am, therefore, providing this determination as a matter of comity while preserving my position that the condition enacted in section 609 is unconstitutional.
In making this determination, I wish to reaffirm my continuing personal commitment to the 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 for our prisoners of war and missing in action.
You are authorized and directed to report this determination to the appropriate committees of Congress and t publish it in the Federal Register
/s/ WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, December 3, 1996