Secretary William Cohen visits downed-jet site HANOI - US Defence Secretary William Cohen visited the crash site of a navy jet yesterday, just one of hundreds of locations scoured for the remains of American servicemen who disappeared in Indochina during the Vietnam War. The search for the remains of Navy Commander Richard Rich, whose F4 Phantom was shot down on May 17, 1967, is nothing less than a sophisticated archaeological dig which employs state-of-the-art forensic techniques and will cost American taxpayers millions of dollars. But while the United States remains determined to discover the fate of every single US serviceman still missing, the bodies of more than 300,000 Vietnamese dead remain unaccounted for. The skeletons of 25 Vietnamese soldiers were recently uncovered by a road gang in central Quang Tri province, but it is highly unlikely that the vast majority of those still missing will ever be recovered. Last month US President Bill Clinton saluted the Vietnamese for their co-operation in helping in the search for America's missing-in-action (MIA), and in September last year Mr Cohen publicly stated his commitment to the MIA cause. Watching villagers dig for remains yesterday, Mr Cohen said accounting for the 2,029 MIAS remained "paramount for us". US experts told him a two-week search of the site had gathered five bags of metal fragments and two bone shards, and evidence an F4 had indeed crashed there. The US has offered some assistance to Vietnam and last year invited a team of researchers from Hanoi to visit the US war archives in Washington. The Vietnamese team returned to Hanoi bearing a number of documents which revealed the sites of mass graves where Vietnamese soldiers were buried after fire-fights with American soldiers. But Vietnam - a country whose Confucian traditions demand the spirits of the dead be honoured by the proper disposal of their earthly remains - is simply too poor to mount a recovery scheme anywhere near the sophistication of the MIA programme. The cost of such an operation in a country where the average annual income is just US$370 (HK$2,900) means that thousands of Vietnamese families will never know the fate of their loved ones from what they call the American War. By Huw Watkin - South China Morning Post - March 14, 2000.

Talks signal new era for former foes HANOI - Vietnam welcomed US Defence Secretary William Cohen with red carpets and an honour guard yesterday ahead of talks which may signal the beginning of closer military ties between the two former enemies. The small but symbolic ceremony - Mr Cohen is the first US defence chief to visit Hanoi since before American troops were officially committed to Vietnam in 1965 - preceded a meeting with Defence Minister Pham Van Tra which was later described as "incredibly comfortable" by US Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson. Mr Cohen said the talks were "cordial and warm". He added: "I did not detect any psychological baggage. I think both of us want to make sure that we proceed in a prudent and a responsible fashion." "That we don't overestimate what can be established in a short period of time, that we take it step by step and engage in mutual confidence building measures - that will be the best way to achieve a much broader relationship with Vietnam," Mr Cohen said. The Defence Secretary said he and his counterpart had discussed military medicine, demining and chemical dioxins that were sprayed during the Vietnam War. "I indicated we were certainly fully prepared to conduct joint research into the impact or effects of dioxins . . . ," he said. Mr Peterson said the exchange signalled a new era in the relationship between the countries, which re-established full diplomatic relations only in 1995. "You couldn't have imagined this occurring four or five years ago, certainly, maybe not even two or three years ago. And here we are now, two nations standing side by side with essentially the same purposes, the same goals." Earlier, Mr Cohen also briefly met Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, but details of their discussion remained unavailable. While in Hong Kong at the weekend Mr Cohen said, however, that he was not carrying an apology for America's military involvement in the Vietnam War. The Defence Secretary is scheduled to meet President Tran Duc Luong and Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien today before flying to southern Ho Chi Minh City, where he will have talks with government officials and representatives of American business. His three-day tour has prompted speculation that a long-stalled trade deal between the US and Vietnam may be signed soon. Both sides have played down expectations that Mr Cohen's visit will result in any substantive results - though he said yesterday Washington would "consider . . . the possibility of ship visits some time in the future". By Huw Watkin - South China Morning Post - March 14, 2000.