HCM City (VNA) – Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi MinhCity People’s Committee Huynh Cach Mang on August 29 visited the US Centre inthe city to pay tribute to US Senator John Sidney McCain III and write in the funeralbook in memory of the deceased.

In his writing, Mang expressed his appreciation for McCain’scontributions to fostering Vietnam-US ties over the past decades.

US Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City Mary Tarnowka said theUS has decided to provide scholarships named after the late Senator forVietnamese individuals dedicated to activities for social betterment, in aneffort to honour McCain and maintain his legacy in the Vietnam-US ties.

McCain was one of the first to campaign for the normalisationof US-Vietnam relations by promoting humanitarian issues, such as removingunexploded ordnances left by the war, searching for American missing-in-action(MIA) personnel, supporting people with disabilities that were caused by the war,and detoxifying areas polluted by Agent Orange the US forces used during thewar.

 In 1994, the USSenate approved a resolution sponsored by McCain and Senator John Kerry,calling to end the economic sanction against Vietnam, paving the way for the normalisationof relations between the two countries one year later.

Following the normalisation of bilateral ties, McCain andKerry visited Vietnam many times to address the issue of MIA.

Along with pushing for the normalisation of relations withVietnam, Senator McCain also supported the Vietnamese community in the US,serving as a bridge between them, US authorities, and the VietnameseGovernment. –VNA