Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 8, 1995 TAG: 9507100080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
All of Clinton's top national security aides, including Secretary of State Warren Christopher, are recommending he establish normal ties with Hanoi, and a ``decision memo'' on the subject has been drafted for his approval.
State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns hinted Friday Clinton may be prepared to exchange ambassadors with Hanoi, citing what he described as a ``new level of cooperation'' with Vietnam on the MIA and POW issue.
But veterans and family groups reject such claims, saying Vietnam has not lived up to the demands for an accounting Clinton had set as a condition for normal relations.
These groups have been increasingly active since word spread last month that Christopher had recommended to Clinton that, after 20 years, the time for normal relations had arrived.
The National Alliance of Families, based in Washington state, admonished its members last week to ``Call, telegraph or write the president now! We must stop normalization. If you already have called and written, do it again and again.''
The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, headquartered here, also is active in the campaign.
League executive director Ann Mills Griffith, asked about her battle plan, said Friday, ``Truth. We've got the facts.'' She said group members will be taking their case to Congress. John Sommer, executive director of the Washington office of the American Legion, said his group plans a similar strategy.
If Clinton goes along with the recommendation, Republicans likely will make it a campaign issue. House Speaker Newt Gingrich told CNN on Friday, ``This is not the time to be cozying up to dictators.'' Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan, said at a news conference in St. Paul, Minn., ``I don't share President Clinton's views on normalizing relations with Vietnam.''
However, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former Vietnam war prisoner, favors normal ties, as do U.S. business groups.
And not all veterans groups are opposed. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, for instance, said in a resolution approved last month that it would go along with normalization if it furthers the fullest possible accounting of the more than 2,200 U.S. servicemen still missing in Indochina.
The administration lifted a trade embargo against Vietnam in February 1994, contending at the time that the step would enhance Hanoi's cooperation. Clinton said then normal relations would have to await a ``full and final accounting'' of the missing Americans.
by CNB