Amb. Pete Peterson, a former prisoner of war captured in Vietnam, is the first American ambassador to that country since the war. Elizabeth Farnsworth talks to Amb. Peterson about his efforts to normalize relations, improve trade and find soliders missing in action.

When Douglas -- or as he's usually called Pete -- Peterson arrived in Hanoi as the first postwar U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam two years ago, he promised to continue the search for missing American soldiers and work on improving trade between the two former enemies. Late last month, Vietnam and the United States reached an agreement in principle on reestablishing normal trade relations. The pact, which took three years to negotiate, will give both countries increased access to each other's markets. Details are still being worked out, and Ambassador Peterson was in Washington last week briefing Congress, which must approve the pact.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: But its successful negotiation was a key step in finally normalizing relations between the two countries 24 years after the end of the Vietnam War. President Clinton had ended a tight trade embargo in 1994 and restored diplomatic relations in 1995. He appointed then-Congressman Peterson as the first U.S. Ambassador. He's a former Air Force pilot who was shot down on a bombing mission near Hanoi in 1966. He was captured and spent nearly seven years as a prisoner of war. Peterson's appointment was welcomed by the few Americans then living in Vietnam.

RUBY TRANG, American Business Executive, Vietnam: Well, I believe Peterson's arrival in Hanoi is the greatest symbolic leap between U.S.-Vietnamese relations in the last three decades. However it's perceived by the Vietnamese, it will certainly mean deeper, more cooperative relations politically and economically.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Peterson took office in a country, which remained Communist politically, but seemed to be opening up economically with great promise for American investors. They rushed in hoping to take advantage of very rapid growth in the mid-1990's, but the promise has yet to be realized. The reasons vary, but American executives who have returned home from Vietnam cite corruption and other bureaucratic and political obstacles. They also say the new trade bill will help.

I spoke to Ambassador Peterson late last week.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Ambassador, thanks for being with us.

PETE PETERSON: My pleasure.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: There was such hope for an economic boom in Vietnam, people who talked about as the next Asian tiger. What happened?

PETE PETERSON: Well, several things happened. One, the Asian financial crisis hit just as the Vietnamese were getting courage enough to make the reforms that they had to make in order to create the commercial infrastructure and the environment to attract investment. So they backed off and took really some wrong lessons from the Asian financial crisis, and it stalled out.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What do you mean wrong lessons? What lessons did they take?

PETE PETERSON: Well, they didn't make the differentiation between their country, which was very unsophisticated, to what was happening in Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, and other countries, and Thailand, of course, that had a collapse of currencies. Vietnam did not have and still does not have a convertible currency, nor does it have a stock market. So the things that occurred in those other countries couldn't be drawn as a lesson, at least, to Vietnam. And they just became frightened, and only now are they starting to come back and showing the courage necessary to create the reforms that will attract investment once again.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: So you think that the key to becoming much more vital economically would be both economic and political changes?

PETE PETERSON: Well, certainly. They're hand in hand. In fact, it's a political decision that the Vietnamese have made to make the economic reforms. And so one can't disconnect those two things. Now, the question about what happens with the empowerment of the people as to what happens politically in that regard, one just has to stand by and kind of watch and monitor for a while.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Tell me the kind of reforms that you'd be looking for that haven't taken place, that would get things moving in your view.

PETE PETERSON: Well, the reforms, first they have to reform the banking system. The banking system is just an antique. It cannot handle the kind of industrialization that they want to occur, and investors have to have infrastructure in a banking sector that just doesn't exist. That has to occur. They have to open up and remove the non-tariff trade barriers that are major reforms. They've got to look at privatization of their state-owned enterprises that are moving slowly but not fast enough. That has to occur because without the privatization sector, you don't get the competition and you don't get the efficiencies of the use of capital.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And what is the role of the trade bill that you've worked out in principle in all of this?

PETE PETERSON: Well, that is a very complex, comprehensive bill. In fact, it is designed specifically for Vietnam. I don't think that anybody's ever done one quite like this. And it covers non-trade barriers, it covers services, it opens up [the] marketplace, it helps the Vietnamese to see the kind of reforms that they have to take.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You've been ambassador for two years, but you first returned to Vietnam after the war in 1991. Describe the changes that you've seen, both bad and good, over those years. And give us a sense of in your view what the situation is with regard to political freedoms. As you know, human rights groups are quite critical of Vietnam for repressing political freedoms. In fact, the U.S. State Department report said that Vietnam represses political freedoms.

PETE PETERSON: Well, they are. It's a one-party state, and they're quite backward politically. But they're making slow changes. And I think we're, you know - You know, Americans, including me, we have a problem of instant gratification. We want things to happen right now. But if you look logically at the time that they went through the first trench of "Duemeis" [ph].

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Which was what they called the economic reform process.

PETE PETERSON: Correct. And measure it from that day to today, it's remarkable -- remarkable progress.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What do you see, for example?

PETE PETERSON: Well, you see -- when I went back in '91, there was really no evidence of privatization. I mean, the biggest effort of privatization was somebody's out on the street selling coal balls. I have some experience making those myself in my other life in my time there.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Selling what?

PETE PETERSON: Coal balls.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Oh.

PETE PETERSON: You know, you used to make coal balls, and that's -- they use that to make their - to heat their food and so on. They just had tiny little privatization efforts. Now no matter where you go, you have electronics, you have cars, you have tractors, you have motor bicycles, you have consumer goods all over the place. And these are mom-and-pop outfits in the first vestiges of privatization.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And for you, personally -- I know everybody always asks you about this -- but two years now after being there and all these years after having been a political prisoner, what is it like for you after the newness has worn off?

PETE PETERSON: Oh, I still feel very enthusiastic. It's a very exciting place to be. I still get sensory overload when I go out on the street. I mean, there's so many things happening. It's amazing to see all this and to see the energy that the country has with its incredible youthful population. You know it's the 12th most populous nation in the world, 40 percent of the population under age 18. That is an engine of success in itself. And when you see that and you try to empower that, it's an exciting challenge.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Some of those older people took part in your imprisonment, even maybe your torture. You must run into people. What's that like?

PETE PETERSON: I have. But we were at war. And it's not something that one needs to dwell on. I said long ago that what you do is have an experience like that and you try to take from that experience all of the lessons that were good and that you can apply someplace in the future. But why lament that? I mean, you can't fix it. Nothing that happened yesterday can be changed. But you can change and you have a responsibility, I think, to look to the future and do something constructive in that regard.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: There were about -- what? -- 7,000 prisoners released in a couple of amnestys last year. How many of those were political dissidents?

PETE PETERSON: About 24, 24 to 30. The number is not exactly correct because we never -- our lists are never certain. They're very hard to verify. But some very prominent individuals that we had a long petitioned for their release were in fact released and are living normal lives now.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The Vietnamese complained last month that the U.S. is intervening too much in their internal affairs - right? -- after a political dialogue, a human rights dialogue that you had with them?

PETE PETERSON: Well, they said that but I think some of that is for domestic consumption to be honest with you. I think they respect the fact that we're speaking very frankly, and that our relationship is very transparent. And they have understand very clearly that our commitments are constructive and not in any way trying to deteriorate from, or take away from the activities that they're trying to go in through their transitions.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What's the relationship between pushing for openings and the trade bill - because when you go to Congress you're going to be asked a lot about political opening?

PETE PETERSON: Well, the trade bill represents creation for an economic engine. You can no longer just shout into a nation or to a people and expect major change. You have to create a vehicle that carries them to change. And through the empowerment that comes with economic affluence, these folks are going to feel more secure about themselves, and the government will feel more secure. And that allows for changes to occur politically, culturally, generationally and certainly economically. And that's our objective, just to put something out there that will carry us to the goals we wish to achieve.

PETE PETERSON: I can't answer the timeline. We're working very, very hard and have been very successful, I might add. It's one of the untold stories in the nation, I'm afraid, and we're trying to get the word out to the extent and to the commitment that both nations have placed to the fullest possible accounting effort. There are roughly 1,500 cases in Vietnam that are not yet fully determined. However, we have enormous amount of information on every one of those cases. And I would suggest that we're making some major progress in that. We continue our excavations. And the Vietnamese cooperation on this is just excellent. In fact, I'm calling it a partnership now. They have 300,000 MIA's, and we're helping them make their determinations, they're helping us with our determinations and in that process, I think in the years ahead we will be able to conclude this very, very honorable, humanitarian effort.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Well, Ambassador Peterson, thank you for being with us.

PETE PETERSON: Thank you. I enjoyed it.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Next month, most PBS stations will air a documentary, "Assignment Hanoi," about Ambassador Peterson.