The following was provided by Phill Coleman

Mr. Coleman can be reached at: amerwar@primenet.com

ARE RELATIONS WITH V'NAM IN OUR BEST INTEREST?

Over the last few days indications from the White House imply that the reason for President Clinton's decision to exchange Ambassadors with Vietnam is motivated chiefly on the Administration's long-range strategic interest in forging an alliance with a close Chinese neighbor. This surprise "leak" provides us a Kennedyesque view of Bill Clinton many Americans felt he possessed but failed to articulate or example: a perception and interest in greater, far-reaching issues than the contemporaneous domestic agenda he has so far failed to fully achieve.

Those of us who served in Vietnam, and who unarguably know the Vietnamese better than the President, are naturally wary of establishing a formal relationship with a government whose political philosophy has not changed. Like Cuba, Vietnam is still led by a communist government. Nor can we pardon or forget the tortures inflicted on American military personnel or the hostage psychology of the post-war Vietnamese government which demanded millions in "reparations" before it would grant even minimal assistance in locating our MIA's and known POW's still unaccounted for. Vietnam veterans and their families are justifiably concerned and distrustful.

However, Vietnam vets and the families of Americans still unaccounted for must face the reality that we are a fractional minority in America. And, despite those in our shrinking community who objected to Bill Clinton in 1992, a nation that chose to elect a President who came to symbolize the anti-war movement in the 1960's, will not yield to pleas today to hold-off a while longer before shaking hands with Hanoi. All Vietnam vets can ask for, indeed demand, are concessions from Vietnam and American businesses which stand to make billions on our soon-to-come "alliance".

Concessions demanded from Vietnam and American businesses by Vietnam veterans and family members of MIA/POW's should include the following Three Points:

          1. MIA/POW:
          a) free travel to Vietnam to research MIA/POWs for
          a minimum  of 1,000  Vietnam  veterans  or  family
          members per year for at least five years,
          b) unrestricted  diplomatic protection and freedom
          to,
          travel anywhere  in Vietnam for those Americans to
          investigate suspect areas,
          c) funding  for travel  to be  paid for by Vietnam
          and  all  American  companies  doing  business  in
          Vietnam.
          
          2. NATIONAL SECURITY:
          a) White  House demands  for  a  UN  committee  to
          establish undisputed  border lines between Vietnam
          and  China   to   prevent   future   US   military
          involvement  resulting   from  the   centuries-old
          border disputes  between Vietnam  and  China  that
          could lead to war.
          
          3. PRESIDENTIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
          a) "That  although every American has the right to
          express his  or her  feelings on  any  issue,  the
          overt public  protest against an American military
          mission during  its exercise  could be interpreted
          by our  adversaries as  an encouragement  to  harm
          American military personnel."

As indicated in the personal letters sent by Ho Chi Minh to President Dwight Eisenhower, Vietnam and America may well share some philosophical ideas on democracy. Ho's references, praise and respect to the ideals written and spoken by an American president during America's potentially divisive ordeal, Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, cause us to reconsider North Vietnam's actual democratic desires during the French and British occupations prior to direct American involvement.

The Administration's strategic hope that a formal relationship with a communist government in Asia might encourage North Korea toward a lesser or non-threatening direction deserves a chance. President Clinton's grand China strategy apparently holds greater promise to curb Beijing's Guevarrist philosophy to perpetuate anti-American friction than withholding Most Favored Nation status. No one can doubt William Jefferson Clinton's sincere desire to move all humanity Vietnam world closer toward a New World Order where disagreement is settled not through battle but through discussion and compromise.

Perhaps there is a light at the end of the tunnel for open relations with Vietnam. Vietnam veterans and family members of MIA/POWs can only be assured that the light now dimly flickering from the tomb of Vietnam's Abraham Lincoln, Ho Chi Minh, will shine upon our hopes and desires to exhaust every effort to ascertain the disposition of their loved ones.

The American War Library urges the Administration, the Government of Vietnam and American businesses in Vietnam to consider the above Three Points.

Phill Coleman
Senior Librarian
08 July 1995

The American War Library - 25601 Narbonne, Suite 6 - Lomita CA 90717 310-530-0177 - Fax 310-373-9792 - Modem 310-373-6597 Internet amerwar@primenet.com

The below information was provided by Judee Strott. She can be contacted at the email addresses listed below.

Many are more eloquent than I in putting forth the reasons why we should not normalize relations with Vietnam. Here are but a few thoughts and feelings of myself and others on this question.

• A Returned POW....

  "....to restore full diplomatic relations with North Vietnam before putting this question (POW/MIA) to rest will cause a further deterioration of the trust and faith the American people have in their elected officials."

  Ted Guy, Former POW/MIA

• Family members....

  "We will be happy to move forward with normalization after we have had our answers on our loved ones! Why is that so much to ask?"

  Carol Hrdlicka, wife of David Hrdlicka POW/MIA

  "Rather than further concessions in the hope of results, an approach which has proven ineffective, the administration should immediately undertake high-level negotiations with Vietnam to make clear U.S. willingness to move forward, but only on the basis of concrete results which actually account for missing Americans."

  Ann Mills Griffith - National League of Families
  and sister of a POW/MIA

  "I did not, do not, nor will I ever support normalization with Vietnam until we have all information and the live POWs."

  Janice Visconti, wife of Frank Visconti POW/MIA

  "McCain and Kerry are turncoats as far as I'm concerned. Both have hurt the POW/MIA issue."

  "Chip" Bernhard, retired Lt. Col. USAF, uncle POW/MIA

• Activists....

  "Why should we be against normalization? One question with 2,204 answers, the names of the prisoners, missing and unaccounted for as a result of the war in Southeast Asia."

  Lynn O'Shea, NY Director of National Alliance of Families

  "To actually work for normal relations with a trecherous communist government who tortured our men, have no respect for human rights and who are now masters of deceit is beyond the comprehension of any decent American. What would the men whose names are on The Wall or on the POW bracelets I wear think...?"

  June Harden

  "We want truth before trade; we want answers before embassies. The only business the United States ought to be doing in Vietnam is the business of finding what happened to these men."

  Sen. Bob Smith

  "To normalize relations with Vietnam will mean the deaths of any remaining live POW/MIAs. To normalize relations with Vietnam will sound the death knell for obtaining remains and new POW/MIA information. Vietnam will have everything it wants, and will not have any need to cooperate even the slightest bit in providing a full accounting of our POW/MIAs."

  Judee Strott

  "Would Kerry or McCain be so quick to normalize relations if they still had a loved one still unaccounted for? What is the rush for normalization of relations? Is there a hidden reason such as money?"

  Jim Dundon

  "Who benefits from normalization? Big business and communism. "How could we possibly benefit? Give them everything that they want so that they will then admit they have been withholding information for all this time? -admit they've been lying? I don't think so."

  Ruth Downing, POW/MIA Grassroots Association

The bottom line is this:

• - Live American POW/MIAs will be murdered.

• - Stored remains and documents will be destroyed.

• - Crash site investigations will be abandoned.

• - The motivating factor for Vietnam to cooperate on resolving the POW/MIA situation will be gone. They will have everything they want...big business and big bucks. We (families, friends and supporters of POW/MIA movement) will have nothing.

• - The American public will lose even more faith in the elected officials of this country.

• - Those currently in the military, and those who will be in the military service of our country in the future, will know that their government does not value them or care what happens to them if they are captured. Other countries will know it too.

We owe it to the 2,204 who cannot be here to speak for themselves, their families and friends and supporters, and future generations of Americans, to resolve that there be no normalization of relations with Vietnam until there has been a full accounting, including the return of all live POW/MIAs.

Call, fax or write to your Senators and Congressmen. Let them know that you are opposed to normalization of relations with Vietnam. Support S.J. 34 and H.J.R. 89 "The Vietnam POW/MIA Full Disclosure Act of 1995."

The number for the Senate in Washington DC is: (202) 224-3121
The number for the House of Representatives is: (202) 225-3121

For further information, contact Judee Strott at: Judee@cfrvm.bitnet or : Judee@cfrvm.cfr.usf.edu

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