Foreign Minister’s Visit a Milestone in U.S.-Viet Relations

U.S. relations with Vietnam reached a symbolic milestone today as officials received Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach, the first Hanoi official of his rank to visit Washington since Vietnam’s independence 36 years ago.

The two sides agreed to “new levels of cooperation” in their efforts to account for nearly 1,700 American servicemen still missing from the Vietnam War.

President Bush’s special emissary on POW-MIA matters, Gen. John Vessey Jr., made the disclosure after several hours of discussions with Thach.

“He has agreed to all the proposals I made, and we agreed to the proposals that he has made,” Vessey said with Thach standing at his side.

In response to a question, Thach said there are no American war prisoners in government custody.

Vessey said technical cooperation for joint investigations was agreed to, as well as ways to seek information and to return the remains of U.S. servicemen.

He said the two sides “agreed to new levels of cooperation to resolve the fates of the missing in action in Southeast Asia.”

Thach’s ground-breaking visit is consistent with a pattern of improving relations that dates back to July when the Bush Administration agreed to open discussions with Vietnam for the first time on resolving the conflict in neighboring Cambodia.

Earlier, U.S.-Vietnamese contacts had been limited to humanitarian issues.

The visit comes at a time of fading American bitterness toward Hanoi about the loss of more than 55,000 U.S. servicemen in the Vietnam War. A Time-CNN poll last spring showed Americans support diplomatic relations by a 48-32 margin.

Thach, 66, is a leading proponent of normal ties with the United States and has been promoting that goal recently in interviews with American reporters.