Alex Võ Đình Thái explains US Vietnam War archive work to locate missing soldiers

Senior researcher Alex Võ Đình Thái of Texas Tech’s Vietnam Center and Archive says the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency holds more than 260,000 files—equivalent to nearly 2.7 million pages—of Vietnam War material, including battlefield diaries, letters, unit lists, death certificates and even blood‑stained items recovered from the field.

The team digitises micro‑film records, matches coordinates on the documents with modern satellite imagery, and collaborates with about 40 Vietnamese partners on the ground. By cross‑referencing archival data with local testimonies, they narrow search zones to roughly 100 m² and identify low‑lying terrain often used for collective burials. Since 2023 the programme has returned over 50 document packages to families of missing soldiers and produced hundreds of research reports, providing a tangible form of closure when remains cannot be recovered.