Clintons in Vietnam continued from front cover

Impressions worth highlighting:

¤ Average Vietnamese as well as the Vietnamese officials who work with Americans were very pleased with the visit overall.

¤ Bill Clinton’s record of opposing the war and establishing normal relations gave him special credibility with Vietnamese. He was regarded as a friend who could more appropriately offer criticisms.

¤ Hillary Clinton was welcomed as more than the wife of the President. She was respected for the strength of her own professional and political accomplishments, not least election to the US Senate. Her separate program of meetings with women in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City were well received and she brought attention to micro credit and HIV/AIDS programs of American NGOs and the Women’s Union.

¤ It was appreciated that the Clintons through act as well as words demonstrated awareness of and sympathy for the human cost of the war for Vietnamese people, including 3,000,000 deaths, 300,000 missing in action, and the 2000 victims annually of land mines and unexploded ordnance.

Accompanying the President and First Lady were Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Hershel Gober, US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, Director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling, and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth. Also in the President’s delegation were Senator John Kerry and Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Loretta Sanchez, Vic Snyder and Mike Thompson.

Secretary Mineta participated in meetings for a delegation of US business leaders organized by the American Chamber of Commerce, the US-Vietnam Trade Council and the US-ASEAN Business Council. The President provided further support by indicating that the US will provide $2 million a year over the next three years to help Vietnam implement the Trade Agreement. He also announced that the US will establish a $200 million OPIC line of credit to support US investment in Vietnam.

The US Labor Department signed an agreement with Nguyen Thi Hang, the Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, under which the US will provide in collaboration with the International Labor Organization $3 million in technical assistance in such areas as establishing skills training and employment services; development of unemployment insurance and pension systems; improving access to employment for workers with disabilities; eliminating child labor and child trafficking; and launching workplace education to prevent HIV/AIDS.

The most direct involvement of the President with American NGOs came in a little reported event focused on the problem of mines and unexploded ordnance at which Representative Snyder and Vu Xuan Hong of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations also spoke. President Clinton singled out the work of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Peace Trees and Catholic Relief Services. He and Hillary seemed particularly moved by seeing a CRS organized exhibit of paintings from bomb-injured children in Quang Tri Province and by meeting four of the artists. He told the audience, “I’d like to thank those four beautiful young boys for being here and for having the courage to help all the rest of us deal with this problem.”

President Clinton presented to President Luong 350,000 pages of US military documents which may help the Vietnamese locate their MIAs and pledged an additional million documents by the end of the year. He also brought satellite imagery from the Global Disaster Information Network that show in great detail the latest flood levels in the Mekong Delta and will help recovery efforts.

During his speech at Vietnam National University, the President announced a bilateral Science and Technology Agreement had just been signed; that the US would help Vietnam in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; that he supported efforts by US Senators who were veterans to fund 100 new fellowships every year (see page 12); and that the US and Vietnam would meet shortly in Singapore to begin, “to study together the health and ecological effects of dioxin on the people of Vietnam and the Americans who were in Vietnam.” Mrs. Clinton announced during a speech in Ho Chi Minh City that “during the next five years the US government will provide an additional $30 million to help Vietnam improve its detection of HIV/AIDS and to prevent its spread.” ($22.5 million from the Centers for Disease Control and $7.5 million from USAID)

Friday, November 17

President Clinton meets Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, tours the Temple of Literature, addresses Vietnam National University and a nationwide TV audience, attends a State Dinner and a cultural performance at the Opera House

Senator-elect Hillary Clinton visits Soc Son district and microcredit project of Oxfam America

Saturday, November 18

President Clinton visits MIA excavation site, meets General Secretary Le Kha Phieu, speaks at demining/UXO exhibit, participates in repatriation ceremony for MIA remains

Senator-elect Hillary Clinton participates in panel discussion at National History Museum with prominent Vietnamese women

Sunday, November 19 (Ho Chi Minh City)

President Clinton meets with group of young Vietnamese businesspeople, speaks at international container terminal of American Pacific Lines, and addresses US-Vietnam Business Forum reception

Senator-elect Hillary Clinton meets with educators and peer counselors in an HIV/AIDS awareness program and speaks at a program in the Municipal Theater organized by the Women’s Union