[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9723-S9724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            RESTORATION OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH VIETNAM

 Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I support the President's decision 
today to restore full diplomatic relations with Vietnam. This would not 
be an easy decision for any President to make. President Clinton has 
shown courage and honor in his resolve to do so.
  President Clinton, like Presidents Bush and Reagan before him, took 
very seriously his pledge to the American people that the first 
priority in our relationship with Vietnam would be the accounting for 
Americans missing in action in Vietnam.
  Given the importance of that commitment, President Clinton insisted 
that Vietnam cooperate with our accounting efforts to such an extent 
that normalization was clearly justified and that tangible progress 
toward the fullest possible accounting be clear enough to assure us 
that the prospects for continued cooperation were excellent.
  Vietnam has shown that level of cooperation. The President has kept 
his commitment. Normalizing relations with our former enemy is the 
right thing to do.
  In 1991, President Bush proposed a roadmap for improving our 
relations with Vietnam. Under its provisions, Vietnam was required to 
take unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral steps to help us account 
for our missing. Vietnam's cooperation has been excellent for some time 
now, and has increased since the President lifted our trade embargo 
against Vietnam in 1994.
  That view is shared by virtually every American official, military 
and civilian, involved in the accounting process, from the commander in 
chief of U.S. Forces in the Pacific to the enlisted man excavating 
crash sites in remote Vietnamese jungles. It is also shared by Gen. 
John Vessey who served three Presidents as Special Emissary to Vietnam 
for POW/MIA Affairs, as capable and honorable a man as has ever worn 
the uniform of the United States.
  It is mostly my faith in the service of these good men and women that 
has convinced me that Vietnam's cooperation warrants the normalization 
of our relations under the terms of the roadmap. It would be injurious 
to the credibility of the United States and beneath the dignity of a 
great nation to evade commitments which we freely undertook.
  I should also note that Adm. Jeremiah Denton, my acting senior 
ranking officer at the Hanoi Hilton and a courageous resister, as well 
as my dear friend Ev Alvarez, the longest held POW in Vietnam, join me 
and many other former POW's in supporting the restoration of diplomatic 
relations.
  Other factors make the case for full diplomatic relations even 
stronger. Increasingly, the United States and Vietnam have a shared 
strategic concern that can be better addressed by an improvement in our 
relations.
  I am not advocating the containment of China. Nor do I think such an 
ambitious and complex strategic goal could be achieved simply by 
normalizing relations with Vietnam. But Vietnam, which will become a 
full member of ASEAN later this month, is an increasingly responsible 
player in Southeast Asian affairs. An economically viable Vietnam, 
acting in concert with its neighbors, will help the region resist 
dominance by any one power. That is a development which is clearly in 
the best interests of the United States.
  Human rights progress in Vietnam should also be better served by 
restoring relations with that country. The Vietnamese have already 
developed complex relations with the rest of the free world. Instead of 
vainly trying to isolate Vietnam, the United States should test the 
proposition that greater exposure to Americans will render Vietnam more 
susceptible to the influence of our values.
  Vietnam's human rights record needs substantial improvement. We 
should 

[[Page S 9724]]
make good use of better relations with the Vietnamese to help advance 
in that country a decent respect for the rights of man.
  Finally, the people of Arizona expect me to act in the best interests 
of the Nation. We have looked back in anger at Vietnam for too long. I 
cannot allow whatever resentments I incurred during my time in Vietnam 
to hold me from doing what is so clearly my duty. I believe it is my 
duty to encourage this country to build from the losses and the hopes 
of our tragic war in Vietnam a better peace for both the American and 
the Vietnamese people. By his action today, the President has helped 
bring us closer to that worthy goal. I strongly commend him for having 
done so.


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