Clinton Cheered During Vietnam Visit

H A N O I, Vietnam, Nov. 17, 2000 -- Twenty-five years after the end of a war that claimed 58,000 U.S. and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese lives, President Clinton told the Vietnamese people ontoday that the United States joins with them in honoring thesacrifices of war so that “a painful past can be redeemed in apeaceful and prosperous future.”

To a communist nation still suspicious of the West, Clintonpleaded for a more open Vietnamese society and economy.

He said the new generation deserves “the chance to live in yourtomorrows, not our yesterdays.”

“We cannot change the past,” said the first American presidentto come to Vietnam since the war ended in U.S. surrender of theSouth 25 years ago. “What we can change is the future.”

In an unprecedented act, the authorities broadcast his speechlive. His immediate audience was mostly students at VietnamNational University, listening to a translation through earphones.Passers-by along Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung street, a stretch of TV andstereo shops, stopped to watch — at least a few at every shop, overa dozen at some.

Clinton: Tourist, Diplomat, PoliticianClinton was first the diplomat, then the tourist, then thecampaigner, grasping hands in the sidewalk crowd along Van MieuStreet after walking the walled grounds of the Temple ofLiterature, a 1,000-year-old museum, once a university dedicated toliterature and philosophy. But his high point came in talking at the university, cautiouslytrying an occasional phrase in Vietnamese. His wife and daughtersat in the audience.

In urging a more open Vietnamese trading economy and society,Clinton acknowledged that no one can force change on a nationdetermined to make its own decisions — a nation which fought offthe United States when it tried to block communism here.

Speaking of the long war he opposed and avoided by maneuveringaround the draft three decades ago, Clinton said the sufferingshared by Americans and Vietnamese alike in the war “has given ourcountries a relationship unlike any others.”

The pain, he said, is shared through the 1 million Americans ofVietnamese ancestry, the 3 million U.S. veterans and others whoserved here during the conflict, and “are forever connected toyour country.”

“Finally, America is coming to see Vietnam as your people haveasked for years: as a country, not a war,” Clinton said. He saidit is a country “emerging from years of conflict and uncertaintyto shape a bright future.”

Clinton urged that it be a future built on freer trade — andalso on freedoms restricted by the communist regime. On the red-carpeted stage behind him was a larger-than-life bust of the manwho emblemized that regime and the American defeat of 1975 while helived, Ho Chi Minh.

The president said the knowledge to be gained on campuses likeHanoi’s will be vital in the future of globalization of economies,and so will the freedom to explore, travel, think, speak, worshipand dissent.

“All this makes our country stronger in good times and inbad,” Clinton said. “We do not seek to impose these ideals, norshould we. Vietnam is an ancient and enduring country.”

“You have proved to the world that you will make your owndecisions,” he said. But his words were a summons to a turn awayfrom the barriers of the communist way.

“Let us continue to help each other heal the wounds of war, notby forgetting ... but by embracing the spirit of reconciliation,”he said.

Clinton Greeted with Cheers

On a bustling day, a moment for quiet reflection came in hisvisit to the ancient Temple of Literature.

Outside its head-high walls, Vietnamese street life blared on, acacophony of horns and street noise, the rush of cars and bicycles.The street where Clinton’s motorcade waited had been blocked totraffic, yet crowded with people who stood eight and 10 deep on thesidewalk.

They cheered as he emerged, and he walked straight to them, tograsp hands in the style of the old vote hunter.

Smiling, then waving, he worked his way a half block, then wentinto Craft Link, a Vietnamese handicrafts shop. He strolled amongthe scarves, tapestries, purses and baskets, buying a shopping bagfull but keeping his purchases to himself.

He said they were Christmas gifts and he didn’t want to spoilthe surprise.

Clinton then went next door, to KOTO restaurant, for lunch. Therestaurant is a vocational training and guidance center forVietnamese street youths.

Crowds lined the streets all along Clinton’s route from theDaewoo Hotel, first to the mustard-yellow presidential palace, inthe park-like setting of Ba Dinh Square, just beyond the giantmausoleum memorial to Minh.

A bust of Ho was the dominant feature of the ornate receptionroom where President Tran Duc Luong welcomed Clinton. First, thetwo presidents stood in the morning sun on a yellow-canopied, red-carpeted stand while a military band sounded the national anthemsof the two nations, then played on as they walked the wide stairwayto the palace.

“I’m glad to be here,” said Clinton, who arrived late Thursdaynight. “I’m looking forward to building toward the future.”

The two leaders posed for photographs standing before the bustof Ho, then sat together briefly in a first exchange ofpleasantries. “I’ve been very moved by the friendliness of thepeople on the streets,” Clinton told Luong. “It is a very goodomen for our relationship.”

Clinton conferred privately with Luong, then the two presidentswatched as U.S. ambassador Pete Peterson and Vietnamese officialssigned an agreement for cooperation in science and technology,including efforts to control AIDS and other diseases. They alsosigned 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 internationalconvention aimed at curbing child labor abuses, White House PressSecretary Jake Siewert said.

The crowds lining Clinton’s route were indeed friendly, andwhere he stopped, there were cheers. But there seemed to be morecuriosity than celebration.

These were not organized turnouts. Often, a foreign governmentprepares for a presidential visit by distributing tiny flags foronlookers to wave. There were none here, although U.S. andVietnamese flags flew side by side on flagpoles at each officialstop.

While there had been little advance billing, a Vietnamesegovernment newspaper said the visit bode well. “The Vietnamesepeople have built and developed relations with the U.S. that lookforward to the future, not to repeat the painful pages of thewar,” said an editorial in today’s state-run People’s Armynewspaper.