Vietnam Trade Embargo Ends

* In response to “Wrong Time, Wrong Man to Lift the Embargo,” by Susan Carpenter McMillan, Column Right, Feb. 8, about POW/MIAs:

McMillan included a quote by me about my father, Maj. Albro L. Lundy Jr., POW/MIA, Laos, Dec. 24, 1970. Unfortunately a typographical error made the last paragraph, which was clearly the author’s opinion, appear to be my words.

I wish to correct the record and state my personal opinion. Whatever other motives President Clinton had in lifting the trade embargo against Vietnam, his actions prove that he held commercial and political interests above those of the servicemen and their families, contrary to his publicly stated position. His hollow reasoning that trading with Vietnam would further the POW/MIA cause is belied by the fact that at least 80 men were left as last known alive in Vietnam, according to Henry Kissinger, as well as another 350 in Laos, according to Lawrence Eagleburger. The Vietnamese now, and in the past, refuse to return or even account for these men. At the very least, these men last known alive should have been returned, or had their cases credibly resolved prior to lifting the embargo.

The POW/MIA situation is a microcosm of the war in Vietnam--which was a lie from beginning to end. The conflict, fueled by corporate interests, was the external manifestation of the corruption that evolves in and revolves around Washington to this day.

ALBRO L. LUNDY III

Beverly Hills

* How many American soldiers turned up missing out of how many who served combat duty in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War? How many actually served abroad in Cuba, the Philippines and France (two wars) and how many are still missing? Of our younger family members, two went to Vietnam. One (his father was shot down and killed over Korea after flying in World War II) came back unwounded; we went to a West Point funeral for the other. Clinton was (is) correct that we never should have gotten suckered into fighting for French interests, even after France had given up. McMillan has so bludgeoned and belabored the point that I am now about to declare peace.

JOHN D. ANDREWS

Palos Verdes Peninsula

* Hurrah for McMillan’s column. First with NATO and now with lifting the embargo on Vietnam, President Clinton is clearly showing us what kind of a New Democrat he is. One that big business has securely in its back pockets.

LARRY McDONOHUE

Chino

* McMillan’s column criticizing President Clinton’s lifting the embargo against Vietnam uses two very tired and fallacious arguments. One, Clinton is a draft dodger. Excuse me, but didn’t he use the rules made by the White House and Congress at the time? Those rules were available to everyone, and he didn’t make them. Two, Clinton demonstrated on foreign soil against his country. Does McMillan mean that our constitutional rights end at our borders? Whether you agree with Clinton’s anti-Vietnam War position or not, we all have a constitutional right to address our government.

CHARLES FERGUSON

Mission Viejo

* I applaud President Clinton’s normalization of trade with Vietnam. Certainly as an American presence in that country develops we should have a far better chance of ascertaining the status of the remaining POW/MIAs. And certainly if they develop a trade dependency on us, we can monitor and mitigate civil rights violations in Vietnam.

I do wonder if it means it is necessary for a country to have to fight us to get normal trade relations--what about Burma and Cambodia?

ROBERT M. CROWDER

Laguna Beach

* As the daughter of a man who died in Vietnam in 1971, and as a member of the national organization, Sons and Daughters in Touch, I was surprised to hear of the return of 12 sets of remains four days after the U.S.-Vietnam trade embargo was lifted (Feb. 8). I applaud the healing motion of lifting the embargo. I feel that because the media made so little of the return of the remains, another opportunity for the healing of this nation’s sorrow over Vietnam was lost. Let’s please give any subsequent homecomings the respect and media attention those heroes deserve. After all, even Achilles showed respect for Hector by eating a ceremonial burial feast with Priam, Hector’s mourning father.

STACY TUMLIN

Temecula