    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [July 11, 1995]
    [Pages 1073-1074]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing the Normalization of Diplomatic Relations With
    Vietnam
    July 11, 1995

        Thank you very much. I welcome you all here, those who have been
    introduced and distinguished Members of Congress and military leaders,
    veterans, others who are in the audience.
        Today I am announcing the normalization of diplomatic relationships
    with Vietnam.
        From the beginning of this administration, any improvement in
    relationships between America and Vietnam has depended upon making
    progress on the issue of Americans who were missing in action or held as
    prisoners of war. Last year, I lifted the trade embargo on Vietnam in
    response to their cooperation and to enhance our efforts to secure the
    remains of lost Americans and to determine the fate of those whose
    remains have not been found.
        It has worked. In 17 months, Hanoi has taken important steps to help
    us resolve many cases. Twenty-nine families have received the remains of
    their loved ones and at last have been able to give them a proper
    burial. Hanoi has delivered to us hundreds of pages of documents
    shedding light on what happened to Americans in Vietnam. And Hanoi has
    stepped up its cooperation with Laos, where many Americans were lost. We
    have reduced the number of so-called discrepancy cases, in which we have
    had reason to believe that Americans were still alive after they were
    lost, to 55. And we will continue to work to resolve more cases.
        Hundreds of dedicated men and women are working on all these cases,
    often under extreme hardship and real danger in the mountains and
    jungles of Indochina. On behalf of all Americans, I want to thank them.
    And I want to pay a special tribute to General John Vessey, who has
    worked so tirelessly on this issue for Presidents Reagan and Bush and
    for our administration. He has made a great difference to a great many
    families. And we as a nation are grateful for his dedication and for his
    service. Thank you, sir.
        I also want to thank the Presidential delegation, led by Deputy
    Secretary of Veterans Affairs Hershel Gober, Winston Lord, James Wold,
    who have helped us to make so much progress on this issue. And I am
    especially grateful to the leaders of the families and the veterans
    organizations who have worked with the delegation and maintained their
    extraordinary commitment to finding the answers we seek.
        Never before in the history of warfare has such an extensive effort
    been made to resolve the fate of soldiers who did not return. Let me
    emphasize, normalization of our relations with Vietnam is not the end of
    our effort. From the early days of this administration I have said to
    the families and veterans groups what I say again here: We will keep
    working until we get all the answers we can. Our strategy is working.
    Normalization of relations is the next appropriate step. With this new
    relationship we will be able to make more progress. To that end, I will
    send another delegation to Vietnam this year. And Vietnam has pledged it
    will continue to help us find answers. We will hold them to that pledge.

    [[Page 1074]]

        By helping to bring Vietnam into the community of nations,
    normalization also serves our interest in working for a free and
    peaceful Vietnam in a stable and peaceful Asia. We will begin to
    normalize our trade relations with Vietnam, whose economy is now
    liberalizing and integrating into the economy of the Asia-Pacific
    region. Our policy will be to implement the appropriate United States
    Government programs to develop trade with Vietnam consistent with U.S.
    law.
        As you know, many of these programs require certifications regarding
    human rights and labor rights before they can proceed. We have already
    begun discussing human rights issues with Vietnam, especially issues
    regarding religious freedom. Now we can expand and strengthen that
    dialog. The Secretary of State will go to Vietnam in August where he
    will discuss all of these issues, beginning with our POW and MIA
    concerns.
        I believe normalization and increased contact between Americans and
    Vietnamese will advance the cause of freedom in Vietnam, just as it did
    in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. I strongly believe that
    engaging the Vietnamese on the broad economic front of economic reform
    and the broad front of democratic reform will help to honor the
    sacrifice of those who fought for freedom's sake in Vietnam.
        I am proud to be joined in this view by distinguished veterans of
    the Vietnam war. They served their country bravely. They are of
    different parties. A generation ago they had different judgments about
    the war which divided us so deeply. But today they are of a single mind.
    They agree that the time has come for America to move forward on
    Vietnam. All Americans should be grateful especially that Senators John
    McCain, John Kerry, Bob Kerrey, Chuck Robb, and Representative Pete
    Peterson, along with other Vietnam veterans in the Congress, including
    Senator Harkin, Congressman Kolbe, and Congressman Gilchrest, who just
    left, and others who are out here in the audience have kept up their
    passionate interest in Vietnam but were able to move beyond the haunting
    and painful past toward finding common ground for the future. Today they
    and many other veterans support the normalization of relations, giving
    the opportunity to Vietnam to fully join the community of nations and
    being true to what they fought for so many years ago.
        Whatever we may think about the political decisions of the Vietnam
    era, the brave Americans who fought and died there had noble motives.
    They fought for the freedom and the independence of the Vietnamese
    people. Today the Vietnamese are independent, and we believe this step
    will help to extend the reach of freedom in Vietnam and, in so doing, to
    enable these fine veterans of Vietnam to keep working for that freedom.
        This step will also help our own country to move forward on an issue
    that has separated Americans from one another for too long now. Let the
    future be our destination. We have so much work ahead of us. This moment
    offers us the opportunity to bind up our own wounds. They have resisted
    time for too long. We can now move on to common ground. Whatever divided
    us before let us consign to the past. Let this moment, in the words of
    the Scripture, be a time to heal and a time to build.
        Thank you all, and God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:03 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Gen. John W. Vessey, Jr., USA
    (Ret.), Special Emissary for POW/MIA Affairs; and Deputy Secretary of
    Veterans Affairs Herschel Gober, Assistant Secretary of State Winston
    Lord, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense James Wold, members of
    the Presidential Delegation on POW/MIA Issues.