The War Is Over : Improving relations with Hanoi will require patience and pragmatism

Washington’s recent efforts to forge a meaningful dialogue with Hanoi get a welcome boost with the scheduled sit-down in New York City today between Secretary of State of James A. Baker III and Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach. It marks the fourth meeting between U.S. and Vietnamese officials since July. Talks with Hanoi then were prompted by the desire to end the 12-year-old Cambodian conflict. Perhaps the Cold War with Hanoi will thaw even more today when Cabinet level officials from the United States and Vietnam meet for the first time since the Vietnam War.

Hanoi and Washington have a long list of issues to talk about. Baker wants to acknowledge and discuss the progress made toward a settlement in Cambodia, including the acceptance of a United Nations peace plan and the formation of a Cambodian National Supreme Council. Such a new Cambodian government, composed of Vietnamese-backed Hun Sen, and the three opposition parties, would assume the country’s U.N. seat.

Baker also will press Thach to be more forthcoming about the fates of more than 2,400 Americans missing since the Vietnam War. Some Americans fervently believe that 1,700 of that number might still be--or at least had been--within the territory of Vietnam itself.

A resolution of the MIA issue has been one of three conditions that Washington has insisted Hanoi fulfill before better relations. A second one is for Hanoi to help work out some solution to the heartbreaking Vietnamese refugee problem. But the third condition has already been met: Hanoi has withdrawn its troops from Cambodia.

Vietnam’s cooperation, so far, has helped to bring Hun Sen to the bargaining table. It is important to recognize that contribution and encourage Hanoi to do more of the same. Baker’s meeting might go quite a way toward doing just that. The secretary of state’s penchant for pragmatism is widely noted. That’s exactly the tone that needs to prevail in these talks.