REMEMBERING VIETNAM

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The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour -- July 11, 1995 NORMALIZING RELATIONS An interview with Secretary of State Warren Christopher A discussion with Sens. Bob Kerrey and Bob Smith President Clinton moved to re-establish ties with Vietnam in 1995, ending over 20 years of diplomatic silence between that country and the U.S. Clinton said he believed nomalization of relations would "advance the cause of freedom in Vietnam, just as it did in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union." Secretary of State Warren Christoper said the president made the decision because "the time has come to do it." "I think they have the same desire we have-- to move beyond the war -- to move to a different platform," Christopher said in a NewsHour interview. "I know that Vietnam has got a desire to move into more normal relationships." Christopher said the Vietnamese government had been cooperating with the search for remains of American soldiers lost during the war. He said he expected their contributions to continue. Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE) agreed with the president's decision, saying that a resumption of relations with Vietnam would help American morale on the subject of the war. "It's one of those arguments ... that tends to make people feel bad. We ought to have our heads high and our chests out, and we ought to be going back 20 years later and not reading about the Secretary of Defense's book and 10 reasons why we lost and making everybody feel lousy one more time. We ought to be going back into Vietnam and say 'by God, we fought for freedom." But Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) said the Vietnamese had not done enough to help locate missing American soldiers, and that the U.S. should hold off on sending an ambassador to Hanoi until they had. "I'm going to do the best I can to cut the funding off [for an embassy in Vietnam]," Smith said in a NewsHour interview, "I'll even hold up the ambassador if that's what it takes to make my point."