The Past Is Over--So Is the Embargo : Clinton lifts the 19-year-old trading ban--and maybe long-range hopes about Vietnam, too

Difficult as it was for President Clinton, lifting the trade embargo against Vietnam was the only way to go. It is indeed time to move on, toward closure of an unpopular war whose scars remain etched on the nation’s psyche and on individual lives. Even so, as the President made clear in his announcement Thursday, ending the 19-year trading ban does not mean normalization of relations between the two countries. For that, Hanoi must and should do more.

First, Vietnam must continue to cooperate in accounting for the more than 2,200 military personnel still missing in the Vietnam War and in providing information on MIA-POWs. Hanoi’s recent cooperation prompted the President’s action. But quite rightly, Clinton said that establishing of relations depends on Hanoi supplying “more progress, more cooperation and more answers.”

The President is of course hardly unaware that many critics of this decision have an abiding faith that Hanoi forever will be perfidious. Consider the views expressed in today’s Commentary page by two former national security officials of the Reagan and Bush era, both Vietnam veterans. Clinton, however, believes that lifting the trade embargo was “the best way to resolve the fate of those who remain missing and about whom we are not sure.” We share that view--though in the end only Hanoi’s action will determine which side is right.

Second, Hanoi should pursue the genuine human rights dialogue Clinton wants through a liaison office to be set up in Vietnam to provide services for Americans there. The Vietnamese American community in Southern California is, at best, cautiously embracing the end of the embargo; it remains concerned about Hanoi’s human rights practices and its treatment of political prisoners.

Ending the embargo is not simply an economic opportunity, though the United States was the last major industrial nation to refuse to do business with Vietnam. It should present an opportunity to further address the unanswered questions, pain and heartaches of the families of the MIA-POWs.

In announcing the dramatic shift in policy toward Vietnam, the President acknowledged the unhappiness among these families and said he shared their goal of getting the fullest possible accounting of their loved ones. We all do.

Clinton could have ducked this decision. It was a politically sensitive issue under any circumstances--and it was even more sensitive for a President who did not support the Vietnam War, a stand that became a campaign issue. But he is attempting to take the nation beyond its deep wounds to a new beginning with Vietnam. This is what a President should do.