Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/u-s-needs-new-formula-for-s-e-asia-sen-webb-says-following-myanmar-visit Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb talks about his unusual mission to reclusive Myanmar to secure the release of an American prisoner, and the other stops on his Asia tour. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. MARGARET WARNER: For more than 10 years, the southeast nation of Myanmar, formerly Burma, has shut its doors to top American officials and foreign journalists. Most Americans' clearest images of Myanmar are stealthily filmed pictures of the government's repression of dissent. This was its violent crackdown two years ago on Buddhist monks who protested against the regime.The U.S. and European Union have maintained economic sanctions on Myanmar for more than a decade, but China is investing heavily there. The country has been so closed off to the West that, after last year's devastating cyclone, which killed more than 80,000, it took immense international pressure to get any foreign aid into the country.Yet the Burmese junta, which has been ruling for more than 50 years, did welcome Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia 10 days ago.In quick succession, Webb met with the regime's reclusive leader, General Than Shwe, and then with Nobel Peace Prize-winner and leading democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. Just days earlier, Suu Kyi had been convicted once again and her house arrest extended, triggering new street protests. The government imposed its latest punishment on her after an American, John Yettaw, swam across a lagoon and entered her house.Yettaw, a Vietnam veteran suffering from epilepsy, had been sentenced to seven years' hard labor, but Webb gained his release. This week, Senator Webb authored an op-ed in the New York Times entitled, "We Can't Afford to Ignore Myanmar."The senator's trip also took him to Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. I spoke with Senator Webb yesterday asked him why he thought the reclusive Burmese leader met with him, released the American prisoner, and let him talk with Suu Kyi.