Rumsfeld hosts Vietnam's defense chief in first visit to U.S. since end of war
Washington- Symbolism and substance blend when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld meets today with his Vietnamese counterpart, the first defense minister from the communist country to visit the Pentagon since the Vietnam War's end in 1975.
Some three decades after the war, Pham Van Tra is expected to talk with Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about lingering problems from the war and how the countries can become allies in the fight against terrorism.
The United States and Vietnam had no formal relations and limited contacts for two decades after the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam in 1973.
The first President Bush initiated cooperation in such areas as accounting for Americans missing in action. President Clinton lifted a trade embargo in 1994 and the next year established diplomatic relations.
Over time, Vietnam and the United States have developed trade ties and discussed issues such as U.S. misgivings about Vietnam's human-rights record.
Recent developments in the relationship include last month's aviation agreement to begin direct fights between the two countries. A U.S. Navy ship will visit Ho Chi Minh City this month in the first such port call since the war.
The Pentagon visit has been especially long in coming. It reciprocates one to Hanoi more than 3˝ years ago by Clinton's defense secretary, William Cohen.
Some 58,000 U.S. troops and 3 million Vietnamese military and civilians died in what the Vietnamese call the American War.
What the United States wants most now from Vietnam, analysts say, is more cooperation in promoting security and stability in its part of Asia, where terrorism is a growing problem.
Tra said recently that military cooperation would not be discussed in the Washington meetings. Talk arose in Vietnam this year that the U.S. military may be interested in opening a base in Vietnam to create a larger presence in the region. Hanoi has said it will not allow that but cleared the way for the visit by the U.S. warship.
Tra said his country will ask the United States to play a bigger role in helping those suffering from exposure to Agent Orange. The defoliant sprayed by U.S. planes during the war has been linked to cancer, diabetes, spina bifida, birth defects and other illnesses.
The Vietnamese defense chief also planned to ask the Bush ad ministration to do more to help clear unexploded ordnance that continues to kill and maim dozens of people every year.
He said he will talk about MIAs, too. Since the end of the war, the United States has accounted for more than 700 Americans missing from the fighting, which also spread into Laos and Cambodia. More than 1,800 still are listed as missing.
The Pentagon announced plans in September to hire retired senior Vietnamese intelligence officers to search classified Vietnamese government files, seeking to determine the fate of any U.S. servicemen who may have been held captive after the war.
By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press - November 9, 2003
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