[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 26 (Thursday, February 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2425-S2426]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, a few weeks ago, Senator Frank 
Murkowski and I had the chance to visit Vietnam. And shortly after we 
got back, I read the column by Tom Friedman in the New York Times about 
Vietnam, which makes so much sense.
    
    
  We are now inching toward full diplomatic relations that should have 
occurred years ago. Sixteen years ago I had lunch with the Vietnamese 
delegation at the United Nations and urged full diplomatic recognition 
at that time. We should do it now--the sooner, the better.
  I ask that the Tom Friedman column be printed in the Record.
  The column follows:

                [From the New York Times, Jan. 18, 1995]

                         Good Morning, Vietnam

                        (By Thomas L. Friedman)

       Hanoi, Vietnam.--In 1966, at the height of the Vietnam War, 
     Senator George Aiken became famous for suggesting that we 
     simply declare victory and bring American troops home. That 
     victory was phony, but 29 years later we truly have one in 
     Vietnam, if winning is measured by a Vietnam that is 
     economically, politically and strategically pro-Western. Yet 
     despite that victory, Washington is reluctant to open full 
     diplomatic relations with Hanoi and consolidate its tentative 
     move into America's orbit. It's time. It's time we started 
     relating to Vietnam as a country, not a conflict. It's time 
     that we declare victory and go back to Vietnam to reap it.
       President Bush should have been the one to open relations. 
     He knew it was the right thing to do, and he had the 
     credibility with veterans' groups to do it. But he didn't. 
     (Wouldn't be prudent.) President Clinton, despite his 
     problems with Vietnam vets, has inched closer to Hanoi, by 
     lifting economic sanctions last year and agreeing to a low-
     level liaison office this year. For months the State 
     Department has been quietly recommending full normalization, 
     but after the midterm Republican rout the White House said 
     ``Forget it.'' (Wouldn't be prudent.) That is America's loss.
        [[Page S2426]] Vietnam's 72 million industrious, literate 
     people are building a market economy from the ground up. 
     Because U.S. diplomats and businesses are not here in force 
     as the foundation stones are laid and the legal system is 
     reformed, this means U.S. standards, regulations and laws are 
     not being wired in. Australia already dominates the phone 
     system, British Petroleum has the oil sector and Singapore 
     advises on the legal code.
       I was riding in a taxi here the other day and the driver 
     was studying English from BBC tapes. For 30 minutes I had to 
     listen to a repetition of: ``I like football. I like 
     Manchester United,'' the prominent British soccer team. When 
     they think football here they don't think Dallas Cowboys, and 
     when they think telephones they don't think AT&T.
       Strategically, the big issue in Asia will be the 
     containment of China, whose military might, and appetite, 
     will grow as China grows. There is no more powerful 
     counterweight to Beijing than Hanoi, whose tiny army 
     bludgeoned China's in their 1979 border war. China is 
     Vietnam's historical enemy. Most of Hanoi's boulevards are 
     named for heroes of the wars against China. The biggest 
     display in the Hanoi Army Museum is not of Vietnam's victory 
     over the U.S. in 1975, but its victory over the Mongols from 
     the north in 1288. A U.S.-Vietnam entente would get China's 
     attention--and keep it.
       As for our M.I.A's, every U.S. official dealing with this 
     issue says Vietnamese cooperation has improved (not 
     diminished, as opponents of relations predicted) since we 
     lifted the economic embargo. The reason is not anything the 
     Hanoi Government is doing, but because the Vietnamese people, 
     villagers and veterans, are now coming forward with 
     information about graves and bones that they were holding 
     back as long as America was embargoing them economically. 
     U.S. M.I.A. officials say normal relations and more Americans 
     traveling here would only elicit more grass-roots 
     cooperation, which is the only way the 1,621 remaining M.I.A. 
     cases will be resolved.
       It is pathetic that a small, vindictive cult of M.I.A. 
     activists in America--who broadcast U.F.O. sightings of 
     P.O.W.'s roaming the Vietnamese countryside and demand we 
     withhold normalization to punish Hanoi for war we never 
     should have fought--have intimidated Washington into a 
     Vietnam policy that is bad for M.I.A.'s and bad for America.
       The Vietnamese, who have 300,000 M.I.A.'s, have let the 
     future bury the past. As Deputy Foreign Minister LeMai told 
     me: ``If we nursed all of our grudges with all the powers 
     that we have fought against, we wouldn't have relations with 
     anyone. The war divided your society; recognizing Vietnam 
     would put this behind you. It would heal your own wounds.''
       He's right. It's time we too buried the past. Hue today is 
     a cuisine, not a battle; Tet is a New Year's celebration, not 
     an offensive; Haiphong is a harbor, not something to be 
     bombed at Christmas; and Highway 1 is where they run the 
     Hanoi Marathon, not the military artery of an enemy nation. 
     President Clinton didn't start this war, and he didn't fight 
     this war, but with a little bit of courage, he could finally 
     end this war.
     

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