Clinton Addresses Vietnamese People
HANOI - President Clinton told the Vietnamese
people on Friday that the ``shared suffering'' of war has
intertwined their nation and his in both the pain of the past and
the promise of a better future. He spoke and toured in what was
an enemy capital until 25 years ago, reconciled during his eight
years as president.
No president before had come to Hanoi, and none had been to
Vietnam since the end of ``the conflict we call the Vietnam war
and you call the American war,'' as Clinton described it.
Although cool to his call for greater freedoms, Vietnamese
leaders welcomed the prospects for even greater cooperation
between the two nations.
``It is necessary that our two governments take positive action
and create a favorable environment to exploit these immense
potentialities,'' Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong said in a
state dinner toast.
To a communist nation still suspicious of the West, Clinton urged a more open society and economy, both in his
speech at the Vietnam National University and in private conferences with Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van
Khai.
He also told the Vietnamese leaders that greater freedom and human rights would make theirs a more stable
and ultimately more prosperous society. They did not agree, saying, according to Clinton's national security
adviser, that they have different interpretations of human rights.
The president told the audience of mostly students that it is time for the former enemies ``to remember our history
but not to perpetuate it, to give young people like you in both our countries the chance to live in your tomorrows,
not in our yesterdays.''
He did not speak of his own yesterday as an opponent of the war who avoided the draft in 1969 and had to deal
with the issue in his political campaigns.
Clinton gave his speech, the major address of his three-day Vietnam visit, to about 600 people at the university,
and to the nation beyond by television.
In an unprecedented act, Vietnamese authorities broadcast the address, live and in a taped replay on Friday
night.
Along Hanoi's Hai Ba Trung Street, a stretch of TV and stereo shops, passersby stopped to watch — at least a
few at every shop, over a dozen at some.
Clinton grasped hands in the sidewalk crowd along Van Mieu Street after walking the walled grounds of the
Temple of Literature, a 1,000-year-old museum, once a university dedicated to literature and philosophy.
At the university, where much of the audience listened through translation headphones, Clinton ventured a brief
welcome in Vietnamese, saying the crowd could feel free to laugh if he messed it up. ``Xin chao cac ban,'' he
said. Which means, ``Hello, everybody.''
His wife, Sen.-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton, and his daughter, Chelsea, were in the audience. Her election
success drew a compliment from Vietnamese President Luong. ``We are all very happy,'' he told her.
In urging a more open Vietnamese trading economy and society, Clinton acknowledged that no one can force
change on a nation determined to make its own decisions — a nation which fought off the United States when it
tried to block communism here.
Speaking of the toll of war, 3 million dead in Vietnam, 58,000 American lives, Clinton said ``this shared suffering
has given our countries a relationship unlike any other.''
He said it links the 1 million Americans of Vietnamese ancestry, the 3 million U.S. veterans and others who
served here during the conflict, and ``are forever connected to your country.''
Clinton also spoke of the effort to find and identify the remains of 1,400 Americans still listed as missing in action
in Vietnam, and U.S. assistance to the Vietnamese in trying to account for their 300,000 missing. He said it was
Vietnamese cooperation in that mission that made possible the resumption of trade in 1994, of diplomatic
relations in 1995, and a new trade agreement in 2000.
``Finally, America is coming to see Vietnam as your people have asked for years, as a country, not a war,'' Clinton
said.
Clinton urged that it be a future built on freer trade — and also on freedoms now restricted by the communist
regime. On the red carpeted stage behind him was a larger-than-life bust of the man who emblemized that
regime and the American defeat of 1975 while he lived, Ho Chi Minh.
The president said the knowledge to be gained on campuses like Hanoi's will be vital in the future of globalization
of economies, and so will the freedom to explore, travel, think, speak, worship and dissent.
``All this makes our country stronger in good times and in bad,'' Clinton said. ``We do not seek to impose these
ideals, nor should we. Vietnam is an ancient and enduring country.''
``You have proved to the world that you will make your own decisions,'' he said. But his words were a summons to
turn away from the barriers of the communist way.
At the state dinner, Clinton made the same point. ``The history we leave behind is painful and hard,'' he said. ``We
must not forget it but we must not be controlled by it.''
On a hectic day, there was a quiet moment in his tour of the ancient Temple of Literature, now a park-like
museum, sponsored in part by American Express.
Outside its head-high walls, Vietnamese street life blared on, a cacophony of horns and street noise, the rush of
cars and bicycles. The street where Clinton's motorcade waited had been blocked to traffic, yet crowded with
people who stood eight and 10 deep on the sidewalk.
They cheered as he emerged, and he walked straight to them, to grasp hands in the style of the old vote hunter.
Smiling, then waving, he worked his way a half block, then went into a Vietnamese handicrafts shop. He strolled
among the scarves, tapestries, purses and baskets, buying a shopping bag full but keeping his purchases to
himself.
He said they were Christmas gifts and he didn't want to spoil the surprise.
Clinton then went next door, to KOTO restaurant, for lunch. The restaurant is a vocational training and guidance
center for Vietnamese street youths.
Crowds lined the streets all along Clinton's route from the Daewoo Hotel, first to the mustard-yellow presidential
palace, in the park-like setting of Ba Dinh Square, just beyond the giant mausoleum memorial to Minh.
Clinton conferred privately with Luong, then the two presidents watched as U.S. ambassador Pete Peterson and
Vietnamese officials signed an agreement for cooperation in science and technology, including efforts to control
AIDS and other diseases. They also signed a memorandum on labor cooperation, for worker safety, dealing with
the disabled, skills training and other points.
The Vietnamese told Clinton they will sign an international convention aimed at curbing child labor abuses, White
House Press Secretary Jake Siewert said.
By Walter R. Mears - Associated Press - November 17, 2000.
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