Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Wed, 16 Dec 1992 12:00:21 -0500
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      NEWS/VN: Bush ready to make new steps to VN, aides say

12/15

BUSH READY TO MAKE NEW STEPS TO VIETNAM, AIDES SAY

    By Jim Wolf
    WASHINGTON, Dec 15, Reuter - President George Bush will take more steps
towards normalising relations with Vietnam before leaving office next month if
Hanoi responds with greater cooperation on the fate of missing Americans, U.S.
officials said on Tuesday.
    As part of what appears to be a closely coordinated strategy with the White
House, the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA
(prisoners of war/missing in action) Affairs were leaving for Hanoi on Tuesday.
    The two senators will aim to collect any new information Vietnam may have
to offer on the 2,264 Americans still unaccounted for from the war.
    Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Vice Chairman
Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican, "will press for whatever extra
cooperation they can get," said Deborah DeYoung, the committee spokeswoman.
    U.S. officials said they expected Hanoi to give the senators remains of
warehoused missing Americans. One official, citing a preliminary report, said
31 sets were expected to be handed over to Kerry and Smith.
    A senior administration official said President Bush, who eased a
decades-old embargo against Vietnam on Monday, would go further if Hanoi
reciprocated by turning over remains that have been recovered and are readily
available.
    U.S. officials also want Vietnam to move more quickly to resolve the
remainder of 135 "last known alive discrepancy cases" that have been the top
priority of U.S. investigators working in Vietnam.
    "It's their move next," the official said, noting that Bush had 35 days
left to lift the embargo or take other action before President-elect Bill
Clinton is sworn in on January 20.
    "So if they want to move quickly, then we'll move quickly. If they don't
want to respond, then we won't. But it's their move," the official said.
    In easing the embargo, Bush took the first big step in 17 years towards
restoring U.S. business links with Vietnam, letting U.S. firms sign contracts
and open offices in preparation for doing business in Vietnam. But the embargo
itself remained in effect.
    White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said in a statement announcing the
move that the administration had been heartened by a recent call by Hanoi for
Vietnamese citizens to turn in any American remains they may possess.
    "As further results in accounting for missing Americans are obtained, we
are prepared to consider additional 'roadmap' steps of our own," he said. The
"roadmap" is the U.S. blueprint for normalising ties with Hanoi as part of a
gradual confidence-building process.
    A U.S. official said Bush's next step, if it comes, would probably be
lifting the embargo altogether. The only other major leverage the United States
would retain is its opposition to multilateral lending to Vietnam.
    The U.S. embargo was imposed against North Vietnam in 1964 and extended to
all of Vietnam in April 1975, following the Communist victory over the
U.S.-backed Saigon government.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU