Let Vietnam ‘Fry a While,’ Walters Says

Vernon Walters, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said today that he thinks Vietnam should be left to “fry for a while” before the United States renews full diplomatic relations.

Walters made his remarks during a taping of the syndicated “John McLaughlin’s One on One” program for airing Sunday on network television.

“No, I don’t,” the outspoken retired Army lieutenant general told McLaughlin when asked if he expected Vietnamese cooperation--without economic enticements--to settle the question of whether U.S. servicemen from the Vietnam War remain prisoners in Southeast Asia.

Would Be a Surprise

“It will be the first cooperative Vietnamese I’ve ever met” if such willingness is shown, Walters said.

“I negotiated in Paris secretly with them for three years,” he said of the efforts of President Richard M. Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, to end the Vietnam War. “They’re the most difficult people I’ve ever negotiated with in my life.”

Walters acknowledged that the second sticking point with Vietnam is its continued occupation of Cambodia. He said, “We’re going to work to get them out.”

But on the question of the timeliness of resuming full U.S. diplomatic relations with Vietnam, Walters was adamant and negative.

“Perhaps politically we should,” he said, “but personally and emotionally, no.”

Didn’t Mince Words

McLaughlin pressed the point twice more, and Walters replied: “My answer is let them fry for a while.

“I think we, I am personally against it. I don’t know what decision is going to be made. I would say they’re not nearly ripe for it yet.”

Walters repeated his belief in the principle of communications with adversaries, “but there are some exceptions,” he said.

“In Vietnam, when American bombs were falling everywhere, when there was fighting in every village and all the young men were being drafted into the South Vietnamese army, there were no boat people,” Walters said.

“It took the coming of this gang to Saigon to drive 2 million people out to sea in open boats. . . . As far as we know, 200,000 have been lost at sea doing that. And you expect me to deal with this government . . . as though it’s an ordinary government?”