ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150088
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Three decades after it was signed, the executive order declaring Vietnam a war zone was revoked Tuesday by President Clinton.
The action, which takes effect June 30, applies to Vietnam and the waters off its coast.
Clinton's decision to cancel the executive order ends one more lingering link to the war, which ended in 1975. The United States normalized diplomatic relations with Vietnam last year.
The 1965 order, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, made military personnel serving in Vietnam eligible for tax-exempt hostile-fire pay.
``It was kept in effect after the war to preserve benefits for POW-MIA families,'' said a White House official., who commented on condition of anonymity.
The official noted that the last person classified as missing in action was declared dead in 1994.
The war-zone status also remained in effect to protect the teams of Americans who regularly visit Vietnam to search for the remains of missing Americans., often in close proximity to unexploded bombs and shells, the official said.
When Washington and Hanoi normalized diplomatic relations last year, the government determined it was time to end war-zone status for Vietnam, the official said.
The June 30 date was set to make sure the pay records are correct for the 90 people who still travel to Vietnam to look for remains of U.S. service personnel, he said.
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