[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 114 (Friday, July 14, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10072-S10075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           CHINA AND VIETNAM

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, last month, William Ketter, vice 
president and editor of the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, MA, traveled to 
China and Vietnam to observe first hand the rapid economic and social 
changes taking place in those countries. At this crucial juncture in 
our relations with both nations, Mr. Ketter's articles provide 
interesting insights into China and Vietnam. I ask unanimous consent 
that his articles may be printed in the Record, along with his 
editorial on the importance of normalizing relations with Vietnam.
  There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Patriot Ledger, June 19, 1995]

                        Young Want a Better Life

                         (By William B. Ketter)

       Buoyed by the opportunity to practice his English, the 
     Beijing University graduate student reeled in his year-of-
     the-pig kite from high above Tiananmen Square and motioned 
     for me to step closer.
       ``The most important thing to young people in China today 
     is a better economic future--for themselves, for their 
     family, for their friends,'' he whispered. ``Politics is 
     politics. . . . We don't try to influence it.''
       Our conversation occurred a few days before the sixth 
     anniversary of the anti-government uprising of workers and 
     students in this very square, a convulsive episode in the 46-
     year history of communist China.
       Yet this young man, who identifies himself as Li Zeng, a 
     23-year-old master of science student, appeared uninspired by 
     the significance of that defining event. What's more, he 
     seemed to represent the prevailing mood in today's China: a 
     changed attitude that places the pursuit of material well-
     being over the fight for democracy.
       ``How can I put it? Li Zeng continued, ``Protesting in the 
     streets, yelling slogans, causing rebellion doesn't work. We 
     are more interested in buying a car and getting ahead. 
     There's no future in worrying about what happens after Deng 
     Xiaoping or what Premier Li Peng and President Jiang Zeming 
     might think.''
       His predication that few people would gather in Tiananmen 
     Square of June 4 to mourn the massacre of 500 demonstrators 
     on that fateful day in 1989 proves correct. The cry for 
     political reform in China has been muted by the heavy hand of 
     the government (a dozen dissidents were detained in advance 
     of the anniversary) and by the sprouting riches of a market 
     economy.
       Marxism is still central to the political process, but it 
     is fading fast from the economic scene as farmers and city 
     dwellers are encouraged to improve their individual lot and 
     not to rely entirely on the state. Free market offer 
     everything from antique furniture to bicycles to exquisitely 
     carved Buddha statues to fresh turnips.
       Furthermore, there is evidence this strange mix of 
     political communism and market capitalism is working, at 
     least to some degree. Gone are the drab-looking Mao suits 
     nearly everybody wore eight years ago when I was last in 
     China. Designer jeans, Western suits, formfitting skirts, and 
     Italian shoes are the dress of the day.
       Gone too, is the sight of boulevards filed only with 
     bicycles.
       Motorscooters and motorcycles are quickly becoming the 
     Great Wheels in China. There are also many more cars on the 
     road, especially taxicabs. The consequence: cram-jammed 
     streets and rush-hour gridlock.

[[Page S10073]]

       High-rise apartments, office buildings and hotels are 
     multiplying as fast as you can say Mao Tse-tung, creating 
     dazzling towers of steel, glass and chrome over the dusty 
     plains of Beijing.
       ``Does all this surprise you?'' asked Li Jianping, deputy 
     director of the U.S. Division of the Chinese People's 
     Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. He was 
     host to the group of American newspaper editors I joined for 
     a week in China as part of an Asia tour.
       ``It shouldn't,'' he continued. ``We even have a McDonald's 
     and a Hard Rock Cafe not far from Tiananmen Square.''


                          a buck for a big mac

       A visit to both confirms that the Chinese are no different 
     than Americans when it comes to Big Macs and ear-numbing 
     music. Only the prices are lower: 25 cents for a plain 
     hamburger, $1 for the Big Mac, and Beijing beer goes for 75 
     cents a glass at the Hard Rock. Save The Planet T-shirts sell 
     for $6.
       The disco in the China World Hotel features American songs, 
     strobe lights and hip-hop dancers. So, too, the hottest 
     nightspot in Beijing, The NASA. It features a helicopter 
     jutting from the wall and prostitutes that slink after 
     businessmen on expense accounts. The hookers make more in a 
     week ($500) than the average person takes home in a year. But 
     if they get caught, the penalty is an automatic year in jail 
     for first-time offenders, longer for repeaters.
       One club-hopping beauty, who identified herself only as 
     ``Winnie,'' said the risk is worth it. ``I can buy what I 
     want: clothes, makeup, CD-player, color TV,'' she said. ``I 
     live the good life.''
       And if the long arm of the law should tap her bare 
     shoulder, she has cash reserves to pay off the police. ``They 
     like money, too,'' Winnie laughed.
       Indeed they do. Corruption and nepotism are widespread in 
     China despite efforts to curtail them. The daughter and son 
     of Deng Xiaoping, the ailing paramount leader, who is 90, 
     hold high government jobs, as so the children of most other 
     senior officials.
       It is nearly impossible, government leaders admit, to keep 
     track of the multitude of underpaid bureaucrats who approve 
     licenses and the cadres that enforce loose laws in the 
     overpopulated cities and provinces. They consider gifts and 
     payoffs part of their compensation. So do some high 
     government officials because of the system of low pay. The 
     premier and president of China make only $125 per month in 
     salary. The perks are generous, however. Free food, housing, 
     transportation, medical services and vacations.
       Taxi drivers aren't as fortunate, and so they regularly 
     overcharge unsuspecting foreigners by speeding up their 
     meters or driving around in circles. A 10-mile ride from my 
     hotel in Central Beijing to visit a friend on the northern 
     edge of the capital cost $3 out, $7 back. Complaining to the 
     Beijing Taxi Control Bureau brings a shrug and the excuse 
     that there aren't enough inspectors to control the 60,000 
     licensed cabs on the streets of Beijing.
       And while China has eliminated the two-currency system--one 
     for foreigners, another for natives--that encouraged black 
     market money dealers, outsiders still pay inflated prices for 
     many goods and services.


                       ethics rules for officials

       Vice Premier Lo Lanqing, a dour hardliner, stiffened at the 
     suggestion that China's move to a market economy has created 
     greater corruption and brought Western vices to the land 
     known as the Middle Kingdom.
       ``Oh, yes, we have (corruption) problems with some 
     people,'' he said during an interview in the Great Hall of 
     the People overlooking Tiananmen Square. ``Our problems, 
     though, are no greater than others, and we are dealing with 
     them through reform. Certainly your country has this 
     problem.''
       Among the reforms are new rules requiring government and 
     party officials to disclose their sources of income and 
     banning gifts and favors that might influence their 
     decisions. The regulations even apply to the children of 
     senior party leaders.
       Disclosing sources of income and prohibiting conflict-of-
     interest gift-giving ``will keep clean and honest 
     organizations of the Communist Party and government bodies 
     and strengthen their ties with the people,'' the official New 
     China News Agency declared.
       The unanswered question is whether the government will ever 
     enforce the new ethics rules. Similar crackdowns in years' 
     past were never fully implemented.
       Vice Premier Lanqing was more forthcoming when the 
     conversation turned to Chinese-American relations. He said 
     China needs U.S. technical know-how and access to our markets 
     to develop into a world economic power.
       ``We have a long way to go to catch up to the United 
     States, and we may not even be able to do so by the end of 
     the next century,'' he said. ``You are our most important 
     international trading partner. We only wish you would see us 
     that way.''
       U.S.-China trade currently amounts to $50 billion per year, 
     with imports from China accounting for 65 percent of the 
     total. China's major exports to the United States are 
     electrical machinery, footwear, clothing, toys and sports 
     equipment. The fastest growing U.S. exports to China are 
     aircraft, cotton, fertilizer and wood pulp.
       One thing Lanqing does not want from America is ``your 
     violent and pornographic culture of movies and music. This is 
     bad for our people, and we won't allow it.''
       The reality is that what Lanquing fears is already there. 
     Hollywood movies and music are pirated by unscrupulous 
     businesses and sold on the black market throughout China. So, 
     too, computer software, textbooks, sneakers and watches. 
     They're called knockoffs, and they are a major concern of 
     corporate America.
       Lanquing admitted that piracy of American goods occurs, but 
     he said U.S. business interests in southern China, not 
     Chinese nationals, are primarily responsible for the illegal 
     activity.
       ``We have courts to deal with this,'' he said, pointing out 
     that China recently established a copyright law designed to 
     punish knockoff manufacturers and distributors.
       And, in fact, during our visit a Beijing court issued a 
     verdict under the new law against three Chinese publishing 
     houses that had published a series of Disney-character 
     children's books without permission from the Walt Disney 
     Company.
       The court fined the defendants $26,100, ordered them to 
     stop selling the books, and required them to issue an apology 
     to Disney through the news media.
       Mickey Mouse punishment for years of profit at the expense 
     of the Disney Company, but an American official in Beijing 
     said it was an important step toward establishing some 
     semblance of legal protection against trademark 
     counterfeiters.
       ``We would like to see greater punishment of these knockoff 
     artists,'' the U.S. official said. ``But something is better 
     than nothing, and it does appear the Chinese government is 
     trying to stop the piracy.''


                         curbing the birthrate

       It is also trying to stop the runaway birthrate--without 
     great success. China is now home to 1.2 billion or one-fifth 
     of the world's people. And the population is growing at the 
     rate of 15 million a year. That's more than twice the 
     population of Massachusetts.
       Thus there's enormous pressure on the women of China to 
     have just one child, and abort subsequent pregnancies, even 
     up to the eighth month. But the Confucian tradition of ``the 
     more sons, the more blessings'' dies hard in the countryside, 
     where 80 percent of China's population lives. There the 
     government allows two children; many families have five or 
     more.
       There are substantial economic incentives to restrict 
     family size. One-child families get priority in new housing, 
     medical care for children, and education. Mothers who sign a 
     pledge to have only one baby get generous maternity leave.
       But first you must apply to the government for permission 
     to have a child. If approved, you are given 12 months to get 
     pregnant or go to the back of the line. Permission is denied 
     to anyone who is not married. Or if you are under 25 years 
     old.
       Divorce is legal in China, but not an easy option out of an 
     unhappy marriage. Chinese culture frowns on divorce and less 
     than 1 percent of the marriages are dissolved. Yet our guide, 
     Li Jianping, conceded that more than half the couples would 
     probably call it quits if Chinese attitudes on marriage were 
     similar to those in the United States.
       ``I would guess that one-third of the families are happy, 
     one-third want a divorce now, and one-third have at least 
     thought about divorce,'' he said. ``It is not a simple social 
     question now. Maybe it will change in time.''


                         credit cards unwanted

       Like the use of credit cards. They were unknown in China 
     until recently. Now, ordinary folk can apply for one from the 
     Bank of China. All you need is proof of employment, an above-
     average income, and a person of means to vouch for your 
     trustworthiness.
       ``Image the potential for the credit card companies,'' 
     smiled Jianping. ``More than a billion prospective card 
     holders. But they shouldn't hold their breath waiting or 
     they'll turn blue. This is not something we want or need.''
       The reason: Save and pay-as-you-go remain valued economic 
     traits among the Chinese masses, a holdover tradition from 
     the days of a managed economy and central control of their 
     lives.
       And the millions of unemployed, unskilled peasants who roam 
     the big cities are obviously not candidates for credit cards. 
     They are desperate for work. But the Chinese economy 
     struggles to keep up with the crush of population growth and 
     the ranks of the jobless grow ever more crowded. Some experts 
     estimate that 200 million Chinese will be unemployed within 
     the next 5 years.
       In an effort to create more jobs, the government recently 
     changed the work week from 60 hours over six days to 40 hours 
     in five days. The change applies to everyone but doctors, 
     nurses and other medical personnel; they still work six and 
     sometimes seven days per week.
       ``We don't have enough medical people to handle the 
     country's medical needs,'' Jianping explained. ``Training 
     more doctors and nurses has become a priority.''
                           Colleges need cash

       But huge obstacles lie between that goal and the desired 
     result. Only 5 percent of China's high school graduates are 
     allowed to go on to college because of limited classroom 
     capacity. The elite are chosen through a rigorous series of 
     tests. Those who don't pass are sent to vocational schools or 
     left to fend for themselves.
       If the University of International Business and Economics 
     in Beijing is typical, the colleges of China need an infusion 
     of cash. A visit to the campus turned up outdated 

[[Page S10074]]
     equipment, tattered textbooks, sweltering classrooms, and too few 
     faculty members. Even university President Sun Weiyan is 
     required to teach four hours a week. He doesn't complain. Nor 
     do the students. They're just happy to be in school.
       Small wonder. During China's Cultural Revolution of 1966-
     76, the university was closed down. Millions of Chinese 
     scholars, including President Weiyan, were exiled from their 
     life's work. Many had to work on farms and in factories. He 
     was relegated to teaching English to Vietnamese students in a 
     rural high school and tending to a flock of ducks after 
     classes.
       Now, he speaks optimistic of the future. ``The leaders of 
     the country are very much aware that education is critical to 
     progress,'' he said. ``They are planning to broaden the 
     higher education system. This can and will happen as we move 
     toward a socialist market economy.''
       Just who are the leaders of China now that Deng Xiaoping, 
     the resilient compatriot of the late Chairman Mao, has been 
     incapacitated by advanced Parkinson's disease and no longer 
     holds sway?
       No one knows for sure. Chinese political experts look for a 
     generational change in leadership over the next several years 
     and the shifting of more authority to the National People's 
     Congress, or national legislature. The Communist Party, while 
     gradually losing membership, will continue to set the agenda, 
     including any political reform that might occur.
       President Jiang Zemin, at 69, has been consolidating his 
     power since Deng's illness forced him to curtail his role two 
     years ago. He was Deng's choice as his successor. But there 
     has been growing criticism of Deng's reform movement lately, 
     and Zemin, who is also general secretary of the party, has 
     been among the principal detractors.
       ``He's trying to assert himself as his own leader,'' an 
     American official in Beijing said. ``If he gets the support 
     of the army, he will be the next Deng Xiaoping.''
       Prime Minister Li Peng, 66, is perhaps the best known 
     senior Chinese official to the outside world. His future was 
     clouded by his role in the Tiananmen massacre, and China 
     experts say he does not enjoy the support of economic 
     reformers.
       Such is political life in today's China. Even Chairman Mao, 
     who overthrew Chiang Kai-shek in 1949 and made China a 
     communist nation, is falling from favor. His massive statue 
     at the entry to Beijing University has been removed. The only 
     prominent image left of the once ubiquitous Great Helmsman, 
     who died in 1976, hangs in Tiananmen Square. Only foreigners 
     bother to photograph it.
       ``Mao represents the past,'' said the Beijing University 
     graduate student in Tiananmen Square. ``We're more interested 
     in the future--and with making money--than the teachings of 
     Mao.''
       In these and other ways, China is undergoing transformation 
     from a command-and-control government to a land of economic 
     opportunity. That, one can hope, will also eventually result 
     in a Western-style political system.
                                                                    ____

                [From the Patriot Ledger, June 20, 1995]

                  In Vietnam, Only the Future Matters

                         (By William B. Ketter)

       The story of Miss Saigon, that popular musical about doomed 
     romance between a Vietnamese bar girl and an American 
     soldier, has taken a new and happy twist on Vietnam's real-
     life stage.
       Miss Saigon of 1995, Nguyen My Hanh, dances for tips in a 
     karaoke bar by night, scoots to college and modeling gigs on 
     her Honda Dream motorcycle by day, and cheerfully flips pizza 
     dough at her family's hole-in-the-wall eatery ``Manhattan'' 
     on weekends.
       She doesn't have time to pine for anyone--and certainly not 
     a GI lover. At 19, she wasn't even born when American troops 
     fought in Vietnam. Nor does she ask her mother and father 
     about that sorry era.
       ``Why bother?'' she asks. ``That's the past. I have other, 
     more important things to do. These are exciting times.''
       Welcome to today's Vietnam, where more than half the 
     population is under 30 and too young to know or care about 
     the war that still haunts the American psyche. Economic 
     success through individual ingenuity is Vietnam's top 
     priority--and no wonder. The average income is only $450 a 
     year in this ancient land of mythical dragons.
       ``Oh, yes, our history courses cover the American war, and 
     all the other wars against Vietnam, from the perspective of 
     our long struggle for liberation,'' Hanh says.
       ``I've seen the American war movies. You know, `Deer 
     Hunter,' `Platoon,' `Born on the Fourth of July.' But that's 
     about it. No big deal. OK?''
       And so it goes during a week of talking with government 
     leaders, military heroes, journalists, businessmen and 
     ordinary people. Twenty years after their civil war ended, 
     the Vietnamese give the impression they are not bitter; they 
     just want to get on with improving their lot.
       ``Well, we like Americans,'' smiled Nguyen The Quynh, vice 
     director of the official Vietnam News Agency. ``You come from 
     a rich and successful country. You won't find hard feelings. 
     You will find people who want to get ahead . . . to be 
     successful--like you.''
       With that goal in mind, communist Vietnam has initiated a 
     radical economic development program called doi moi, or 
     renewal. It is designed to breathe life into this enfeebled 
     socialist society by loosening restrictions on free 
     enterprise and introducing the profit principle to state-
     owned industries.
       Slowly, a tradition-bound culture is acceding to modern 
     ways. On city streets you see hip, fashion-conscious young 
     people bustling by old women in conical hats sweeping 
     sidewalks with twig-bundle brooms. At night the streets come 
     alive with heavy-metal music and T-shirted rogues peddling 
     fake American dog tags. At dawn aging war veterans practice 
     tai chi and play badminton in the parks. In the cities 
     motorcycles rule the road; in the country the water buffalo 
     is still king.
       Will a new age of prosperity for Vietnam emerge from this 
     paradoxical blend of the old and the new?
       Perhaps.
       Office buildings, hotels and restaurants are sprouting like 
     rice grass in Hanoi, the national capital and home
      to 3 million people. Even the notorious Hoa Lo prison, known 
     to American prisoners of war as the Hanoi Hilton, is 
     changing into an office building-hotel complex. A small 
     section will be preserved for a monument to the most 
     famous prisoner, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. He spent 
     5\1/2\ years there after parachuting into Hanoi's West 
     Lake from his disabled Navy fighter jet on Oct. 26, 1967.
       Construction cranes also loom over Saigon, which is 
     officially called Ho Chi Minh City but which everybody refers 
     to by its old name. Rooms at the Floating Hotel on the Saigon 
     River go for $200 a night. Small merchants do a brisk 
     business, selling their wares at free markets and in street 
     stalls. Whole blocks boast tinseled stores displaying TV 
     sets, stereos, VCRs.
       But beggars and pickpockets also roam the streets, and 
     malnutrition afflicts 40 percent of the nation's children, 
     many of whom wander about hawking stamps, gum, postcards. 
     Anything they can get their hands on.
       And boat people still set sail for refugee camps in Hong 
     Kong and Malaysia, fleeing not from political oppression but 
     rather from starvation, even though Vietnam is the world's 
     third-largest producer of rice.


                      french, u.s. movies popular

       Economic liberalization is fast changing the colonial 
     character of Hanoi, the drab citadel of communism. Movie 
     theaters feature French and American fare, including ``True 
     Lies'' and ``The Fugitive.'' A national TV channel plays pop 
     music videos a la MTV. Karaoke clubs thrive, as do the 
     attractive young ladies who gladly dance and sing with the 
     patrons for $5 an hour and tips. Prostitution has become a 
     national worry because of a dramatic increase in AID--20,000 
     cases reported last year alone. Breweries work overtime to 
     keep up with the consumption of Tiger and ``333'' beer.
       Much of this buzz is old hat to Saigon, a larger, more 
     colorful and livelier city. It experienced free-wheeling 
     commercialism during the American presence in Vietnam and 
     obviously hasn't forgotten how to enjoy it. Successful 
     enterprises from the war years are back in business, sharing 
     their expertise and helping to stimulate economic growth.
       But the centerpiece of national reverence is not the 
     American dollar or the Vietnamese dong. It is Ho Chi Minh's 
     waxen body, lying in serene attentiveness in a neo-Stalinist 
     marble mausoleum in the heart of Hanoi. Lines of people file 
     into the tomb, paying respects to the whispy-bearded man who 
     brought communism to Vietnam. His remains are mechanically 
     raised from a freezer for viewing in a glass-enclosed casket, 
     the lowered again at night. Once a year the body is shipped 
     to Moscow for touching up. Russia, home to Lenin's tomb in 
     Red Square, is apparently the expert on embalmed patriots.
       A Sunday visitor to Ho's tomb allowed that he would surely 
     roll over in his grave--If he were in one--at the thought of 
     the government touting his body and modest nearby home as 
     prime tourist shrines. Yet every cent counts in a cash-poor 
     Third World country.
       More than anything, the doi moi policy is aimed at enticing 
     foreign investors and tourists to Vietnam. And the primary 
     target in America.
       ``Vietnam needs many things from the United States--
     technology, machinery, medicine, consumer goods,'' 
     acknowledged Luu Van Dat, a government trade expert. ``We are 
     a poor, backward country. You are the most advanced nation in 
     the world.''
       And what can Vietnam offer in return?
       ``The short answer is cheap labor,'' Dat said. ``We also 
     have rice, seafood, leather goods. And we do have some of the 
     best beaches in the world.''
       So good that an American company, BBI Investment Group of 
     Chevy Chase, Md., plans to build a $250 million resort and 
     golf complex on China Beach along the South China Sea near 
     the spot where the U.S. Marines first landed in 1965. And 
     Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola fight for the soft drink market. The 
     Boston-based Gillette Company sees gold in the faces and legs 
     of 75 million Vietnamese.
       ``There are encouraging signs of real progress,'' reports 
     Nguyen Xuan Oanh, the Harvard-educated Saigon businessman, 
     who was the chief architect of doi moi.
       ``Inflation is under control. And the reform policy has 
     transformed Vietnam into a market mechanism that's allowed to 
     operate freely and efficiently. The growth rate, which has 
     been some 3 percent for several decades, has jumped to 9 and 
     10 percent per year. What's more, the best is yet to come.''


                        u.s. companies cautious

       Oanh's optimism springs from his personal experience. Twice 
     the acting prime minister 

[[Page S10075]]
     of South Vietnam, he was placed under house arrest for ``re-education'' 
     when the communist North captured Saigon in 1975. But later 
     he emerged as the principal economic adviser to the unified 
     government, was allowed to set up an international management 
     and finance company, and eventually became a millionaire 
     again.
       ``I gambled (by not fleeing Vietnam), and I won,'' he said. 
     ``My message to American business is you can also win.''
       Still, most U.S. companies are cautious about investing in 
     Vietnam right now. For one thing, we do not have full 
     diplomatic ties with the government. The 19-year American 
     embargo was lifted 15 months ago, and this has led to the 
     opening of diplomatic liaison offices in Hanoi and 
     Washington. But further thawing of relations could be delayed 
     by the American presidential campaign.
       There are other concerns, too--trademark and patent 
     protections, an uncertain legal environment, inadequate 
     infrastructure, and rampant corruption among government 
     officials. Bribery is the best way to fast-track an 
     application to do business in Vietnam. But American companies 
     are prohibited by U.S. law from offering money or gifts in 
     return for regulatory favors.
       U.S. business interests, with an aggregate outlay of $525 
     million per year, rank eighth among Vietnam's foreign 
     investors. Taiwan is No. 1 at $2.5 billion. Hong Kong, 
     Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Australia and Malaysia rank 
     ahead of us.
       All of which frustrates the Vietnamese leaders to no end.
       ``We want to close the past with America, and build 
     cooperatively with you for a better future,'' said Communist 
     Party General Secretary Do Muoi during an interview of his 
     Hanoi headquarters, a lifesize bust of Ho Chi Minh casting a 
     shadow in the background.
       ``Why can't you do that? Why does your government put up 
     roadblocks? This is not helpful to you or to us--and we both 
     know we need each other for economic opportunity.''
                      attitude called wrong-headed

       Muoi, considered Vietnam's shrewdest senior official, noted 
     that the United States has been reluctant to normalize ties 
     with Vietnam until more progress is made on accounting for 
     the 1,648 American military listed as missing in action in 
     Vietnam.
       To him, and other Vietnamese leaders, this is wrong-headed.
       But the question persists: Are there any still any American 
     MIAs living in Vietnam?
       ``No,'' replied retired Gen. Nguyen Giap. ``If there were, 
     we would have turned them over to your government long ago. 
     The war is over. We have no reason to hold anyone against 
     their will.''
       Furthermore, Muoi said, Vietnam has ``cooperated 
     completely'' with U.S. officials in searching for the remains 
     of the MIAs, including turning over military records and 
     digging up grave sites.
       Vietnam, he said, long ago gave up looking for its 300,000 
     missing soldiers.
       ``This is not entirely a humanitarian issue with the United 
     States,'' the 78-year-old Muoi said. ``This is linked to 
     politics--and we are very sad about that.''
       To underscore his point, he mentions that the United States 
     had thousands of MIAs in Korea and World War II and ``no 
     similar conditions were placed on diplomatic relations with 
     Germany and Japan.''
       Because of the MIA issue, Vietnam has been deliberately 
     downplaying the military side of the war of late. That 
     includes renaming the House of American War Crimes in Saigon 
     to simply the War Museum.
       But the reminders of horror have not been toned down. An 
     oversized Life magazine photograph of the March 16, 1968, My 
     Lai massacre that shocked the conscience of America adorns 
     one wall. Other photos show the deforming effects of U.S. 
     bombs and the defoliant Agent Orange on the women and 
     children of Vietnam.
       There are, of course, no similar photos of the hurt and 
     sorrow caused by the North Vietnamese military. To the victor 
     goes the privilege of selecting which images of war's hell go 
     on public display.
       American planes, tanks, bombs and other war materials 
     captured or abandoned prominently occupy the museum grounds 
     and viewing rooms.


                          why we lost the war

       Such an impressive collection of modern-day weaponry begs 
     the question of how we could lose a war against a lesser-
     armed enemy. The answer comes into focus the next day during 
     a trip to the famous Cu Chi tunnels. Communist North Vietnam 
     used narrow passageways--just 3 feet high and across--to wage 
     a relentless guerrilla war that baffled, enraged and 
     ultimately defeated the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese 
     government.
       More than 100 miles of the underground network stretch from 
     northwest to Saigon to the Cambodian border and functioned as 
     subterranean Viet Cong villages--with kitchens, dormitories, 
     hospitals and command posts.
       They were cleverly defended: Americans small enough to 
     descend into them were often trap-doored to death over pits 
     of razor-sharp poles.
       Burrowed three stories deep into rock-like soil, the 
     tunnels were the most bombed, gassed and defoliated section 
     of Vietnam. Yet they withstood the heavy assault and serve as 
     a monument to man over machine.
       Gen Giap, the mastermind of the communist victories over 
     the French and the Americans, said it was far more than 
     tunnel soldiers that resulted in America's defeat in the only 
     war it has ever lost. Resiliency, a history of nationalism 
     and the will to win at any cost were the real keys to 
     victory, he said.
       ``Our weapons were not as good as yours,'' the 84-year-old 
     general said in an interview. ``But your human factor was not 
     as good as ours. We had a popular patriotic cause; you had 
     confusion over why you were in Vietnam. We had patience; you 
     wanted instant victory.''
       Now Vietnam is counting on that same purposeful spirit and 
     unswerving focus to win its economic struggle. But no one 
     really expects significant progress until the government 
     invests billions of dollars in highways, bridges, railroads, 
     commercial port facilities--and public education.
       Five decades of war have left Vietnam with a large 
     unskilled labor force and growing illiteracy. The population 
     is exploding and the school system is ill-equipped to 
     respond. Even health care is a touch-and-go matter.
       As the deputy minister of education, Tran Xuan Nhi, put it: 
     ``We are learning the lessons of the free market, and one of 
     those is the need to train and educate our people so we can 
     build our country into an industrialized society. The future 
     will belong to the educated.''
       Like Miss Saigon 1995, who is driven by a passion ``to 
     study and learn so I can make more money and buy the things I 
     want. OK?''
                                                                    ____

                      Ties That Bind Us to Vietnam

       Fifteen months ago, President Clinton lifted the trade 
     embargo against Vietnam. Now he should establish full 
     diplomatic relations with this important Southeast Asia 
     country.
       Twenty years have passed since the Vietnam war ended. It is 
     time to replace bitterness and recrimination with peace and 
     reconciliation.
       Private visits and business relationships are pushing the 
     process along. Just this week, a Massachusetts trade 
     delegation led by Lt. Gov. Paul Cellucci is talking business 
     in Vietnam--business that can create local jobs. And the U.S. 
     already has opened a diplomatic liaison office in Hanoi.
       The next logical step is to exchange ambassadors, and 
     there's little to be gained by waiting. The sooner we open an 
     embassy, the better we'll be positioned to expand trade, 
     investment and influence in this vibrant nation of 75 
     million.
       Vietnam is a young, eager and changing society which 
     harbors no grudge against the United States despite our 
     decade-long involvement in their civil war. That's over, as 
     far as most Vietnamese are concerned. And that's the word 
     from the top: ``We want to close the past with America, and 
     build cooperatively with you for a better future,'' Communist 
     Party General Secretary Do Muoi recently told a group of 
     visiting American editors.
       The welcome mat is out and the timing is fortuitous. 
     Vietnam has launched a radical economic development program 
     that relaxes restrictions on free enterprise and encourages 
     state industries to be profitable. Political change will 
     surely follow.
       Vietnam, moreover, wants and needs American know-how and 
     investment in order to modernize and raise living standards. 
     This is a process in which the United States, with its 
     sizable Vietnamese population and experience in the region, 
     should want to participate. But we need to get going to make 
     the most of the opportunity. American business ranks only 
     eighth among foreign investors there. Establishing full 
     diplomatic ties would give U.S. companies greater support and 
     confidence in doing business with Vietnam. It also would put 
     us in a better position to influence Vietnam's policies.
       Normalizing relations does not mean abandoning our efforts 
     to get as full an accounting as possible from Vietnam about 
     Americans still listed as missing from the war years. And, in 
     fact, the Vietnamese are trying to help us do that. They have 
     no real reason to detain Americans against their will or 
     withhold information about MIAs.
       Congressman Bill Richardson, D-N.M., for one, is convinced 
     that's the case. He recently returned from Vietnam with more 
     than 100 pages of material relating to American MIAs, and 
     found no traces of alleged underground prisons or other 
     places of detainment. He thinks it's time to normalize 
     relations. So does U.S. Secretary of State Warren 
     Christopher.
       So President Clinton should act now--and avoid the risk of 
     making recognition a political football in next year's 
     election campaign. Hesitating can only work against our 
     interests in the region, leaving other countries to gain from 
     Vietnam's budding economy at our expense.
     

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