From: mdo@socrates.umd.edu ("Mike T. Do")
Subject: [NEWS] Kerry Says Bush Letter Promisese More Gestures Toward Hanoi (correction)
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Date: 19 Nov 92 23:05:50 GMT

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From Washington Post (11/19/92)
By Thomas W. Lippman
Washington Post Staff Writer

HANOI, Nov 18 - Vietnam's decision to coooperate with U.S. efforts to track
the fate of missing servicemen countinued to pay off today as President Bush
promised further "reciprocal action."
     Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) chairman of a Senate panel trying to get
answers about American troops still unaccounted-for from the Vietnam war, said
the promise was contained in a letter from Bush that he delivered to Vietnam
President Le Duc Anh.
     While Kerry would not elaborate on the contents of Bush's letter or
speculate on what new actions Bush might take or when, he left little doubt
what his committee's recommendation will be:  early lifting of U.S. trade
embargo on this impoverished country, perhaps even before the committee issues
its final report next month.
     Two weeks ago, the Bush administsration in appreciation for Hanoi's
increased cooperation on the MIAs, dropped restrictions on Vietnam's collection
of U.S. dollar payments for phone calls made to that country by Vietnamese
Americans and said a higher level U.S. aid mission will be sent soon to assess
the country's humanitarian needs.
     Today, at a news conference that the Vietnamese viewed as such an importantevent that they invited Hanoi's diplomatic corps, Kerry said he and senators
who accompanied him here will report to Bush when they return to Washington,
perhaps Monday.
     "It's my sense that if he feels cooperation has been forthcoming," Kerry
said, "he won't necessarily wait" for the committee's formal report before
making a new, significant gesture toward Hanoi.
     [In Washington, Sen Bob. Smith (R-N.H.), vice-chairman of the Select
Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, said Wednesday that he was "very disturbed" by
reports from Hanoi that the United States "is on a fast track to normalize
economic and diplomatic relations with Vietnam."  He said that "until we
certain Vietnam and Laos are providing full answers" on the MIA isssue, he
remains "vehemently opposed" to lifting the trade embargo imposed against Hanoi
in 1975.]
     Kerry and Sen. Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) left no doubt that they will tell
Bush the vietnamese have been "forthcoming."  For three days Vietnamese
officials have buried the senators and Defense Department investigators here
with documents and photographs, granted them access to previous closed
facilities, and said yes to every request for additional assistance in
resolving the remaining MIA cases.
     For nearly 20 years, the issue of the 2,265 servicemen still officially
listed as unaccounted-for was only one of many barriers to a reconciliation
between Washington and Hanoi, outweighed by disputes over U.S. opposition to
Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia and U.S. support for China.
     But now it is the only barrier, and Vietnam appears determined to surmount
it.  white House officials who were here last month said Vietnamese leaders
expressed to presidential envoy John Vessey Hanoi's determination to satify
U.S. demands for information about the missing, and they have been delivering.
     According to Vietnamese and U.S. officials and diplomatic analysts here,
there are multiple economic and political reasons for the policy shift, which
has not suprised students of Vietnamese history.  When Emperor Le Loi defeated
China's armies in the 15th century, one analyst said, he nevertheless went to
Beijing to pay tribute to the Chinese ruler.  In a similiar way, Vietnam is
maneuvering to its own advantage by allowing a powerful rival that is vanquishedto dictate the terms of peace.
     Analyst agree that Hanoi's overriding objective is economic.  The country
needs roads, transportation and communications equipment, housing, electricity,
oil refineries, aircarft, schools and hospitals.  Elimination of the U.S. trade
embargo would give it access to World Bank loans, international bank credit and
direct U.S. investment.
     By including the MIA issue as one of the landmarks on the so-called "road
map" to normal relations, a source who knows Vietnam's leaders well said, the
Bush administration scrapped the fiction that it was merely a humanitiarian
issue rather than a political one.  Vietnam began to feel it was finally dealing
with an administration in Washington that would not lie to it or keep changing
the requirementss for lifting the embargo.  Once Vietnam had withdrawn its
troops from Cambodia and agreed to elections there, resolution of the MIA issue
became a matter of timing.
     Political events in the United States and other countries shaped Vietnam's
thinking, diplomats said.  The Senate's decision to create a special panel
created a useful bipartisan conduct for information Vietnam was prepared to
reveal.
     Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry official said, Hanoi began to believe last
spring that Bush could lose the election, and saw the potential change of
leadership as an opportunity to deal either with a president political liberatedby defeat or a newcomer unencumbered by the past policies.
     Vietnam understood, analyst said that Japan's decision to abandon the U.S.-sponsored embargo and resume aid to Vietnam increased pressure on Washington
from the U.S. business community, which wants the embargo lifted.  Vietnam was
delighted with Japan's decision, a longtime analyst of Vietnamese policy said,
but at the same time does not want to become an economic hostage to Japan, and
envision the United States as an economic counterweight against Tokyo.


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