Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Clinton asks Vietnam to be an open society

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Saturday, November 18, 2000

Clinton asks Vietnam to be an open society
President praises former enemy for its help in identifying missing and dead
By Terence Hunt
Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam - Moving beyond a painful past, President Clinton encouraged Vietnam to become a more open society Friday and said of the two nations' warring history: "We must not forget it but we must not be controlled by it."
   In a city rebuilt after American bombing, Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong welcomed the prospect of cooperation between the old enemies, and thousands greeted Clinton with great curiosity and some excitement.
   Clinton visits a rice paddy today where searchers are looking for remains from the downing of a U.S. warplane 33 years ago.
   Vietnamese leaders welcomed the prospects for greater cooperation between the two nations but were cool to his measured call for greater freedoms.
   Clinton said that guaranteeing the right to religious worship and political dissent builds confidence in the fairness of institutions. Vietnamese officials did not agree, saying that they have different interpretations of human rights, according to Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger.
   Clinton was the first American president to visit Hanoi, an enemy capital during the Vietnam War, which ended 25 years ago with a communist victory over U.S.-backed forces.
   "The history we leave behind is painful and hard," Clinton said in his toast. "We must not forget it but we must not be controlled by it."
   Earlier he presented 350,000 pages of documents about battle dates and locations, along with medical records, to help Hanoi determine the fate of 300,000 missing Vietnamese.
   Search for missing
   The president promised a million more pages of documents by the end of the year. Clinton praised Vietnam for its help in trying to account for 1,498 missing Americans.
   "No two nations have ever before done the things we are doing together to find the missing from the Vietnam conflict," Clinton said.
   Thousands of curious onlookers watched and occasionally waved as Clinton's motorcade rode along streets usually teeming with motorcycles and bikes.
   At the MIA recovery mission that Clinton was visiting today, Vietnamese workers haul bucket after bucket of mud from a suspected crash crater and force it through mesh screens. American experts are combing the debris for any particle of human remains.
   The site is where Air Force Capt. Lawrence G. Evert, of Cody, Wyo., is believed to have crashed in an F-105 fighter-bomber on Nov. 8, 1967. He was flying one of four planes in a bombing raid on a railroad bridge 17 miles northwest of Hanoi.
   "I'm hit hard," Evert exclaimed in his last radio transmission. Witnesses said his plane was downed by anti-aircraft fire. Wreckage is buried deep in thick clay, complicating the recovery. It is one of six sites currently being excavated in Vietnam.
   'Boost to improve ties'
   Clinton's visit was meant to underscore the administration's commitment to accounting for as many war dead as possible and to thank the communist government for its cooperation. During Clinton's presidency, 283 missing servicemen have been accounted for - nearly half the total accounted for since 1973, when U.S. troops completed their withdrawal and the last known POWs were sent home.
   The president said Vietnam's cooperation on the MIA issue was essential. "Vietnam's willingness to help us return the remains of our fallen servicemen to their families has been the biggest boost to improve ties," he said.
   Clinton said that as a result of the MIA efforts, the United States decided to support international lending to Vietnam, resume trade, establish diplomatic relations and reach a pivotal trade agreement.

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

[an error occurred while processing this directive]