AMERICA AND VIETNAM: A NEW ERA : Division at the Wall : Visitors at the War Memorial Voice Their Anger, Understanding

Black POW/MIA flags were flying upside down near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a sign of distress over President Clinton’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam. Veterans selling T-shirts and MIA bracelets were already calling it “Black Tuesday.”

“It’s a betrayal of the Americans who are still missing and their families,” said Larry Bice, a Vietnam veteran who represents the Last Firebase, a group of families of servicemen never accounted for after the war.

While Bice and some veterans visiting the wall expressed bitterness over the President’s announcement, others who had served in Vietnam or lost loved ones in the conflict agreed that the time had come to patch up relations with the old enemy.

Two sisters, Thelma Sweet and Mildred Badgley, sobbed at the sight of their brother’s name, one of the tens of thousands etched into the black marble memorial.

They spoke vividly of the despair they felt 27 years ago when they heard that their 20-year-old brother, Dale Badgley, had slowly bled to death from two bullet wounds above his heart in a place called the Plain of Reeds.

Yet, they said, they are ready to treat Vietnam like any other nation.

“All of these men and women are remembered and mourned, but that does not mean that all these years later we shouldn’t renew our relations with Vietnam. [Normalizing] relations doesn’t mean that we don’t still feel a terrible loss. But it’s time for life to go on,” said Sweet, a 40-year-old police dispatcher from Coldwater, Mich., who sat with her sister for a long time at the wall in front of their brother’s name, talking softly and crying.

The memorial, built in 1982, draws more than 2 million visitors annually. Many use paper and crayons to trace the names of loved ones, talk quietly about the people they once knew and leave behind flowers and notes.

On Tuesday, the discussions at times touched on America’s relations with Vietnam.

The divergent views expressed by the wall’s visitors echoed the polarity of politicians’ opinions on the issue. While some people agreed with the President, others argued ardently that the United States has no business opening relations with a Communist nation that, they assert, has failed to account for more than 2,200 Americans who fought in the war.

“The Vietnamese have fought us tooth and nail about the missing-in-action issue,” said Jim Gourley, 44, a restaurant manager who had traveled from Nashville with his two sons. “I don’t really think [the President] should have done it until there was some kind of public apology or big gesture on the part of the Vietnamese. They haven’t done anything to say that they want to be our friends.”

Others said that the President’s decision confirmed their contempt for him.

“He’s a dip----,” said Dave Jones, a retired Navy enlisted man who served on patrol boats for 13 months in the rivers of Vietnam. “I don’t think it was right because they’ve still got our people over there.” Gesturing at the wall’s list of dead, he added, “There are 58,000 reasons why he shouldn’t have done it.”

Clinton was not the only target of hostility. Veterans working at the nearby memorabilia stands also heaped criticism on Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.), both Vietnam veterans who have been in the forefront of the campaign to establish normal relations with Hanoi.

“We’re really infuriated with Sen. McCain and Sen. Kerry for telling the President that the Vietnamese were cooperating with us on Americans who are missing,” Bice said. “The Vietnamese only returned eight sets of remains last year. If they’re cooperating, why can’t they even tell us about guys who we know were alive in prison camps when the war ended?”

Bice and some other veterans at the wall took issue with the Clinton Administration’s view that normal relations with Vietnam will provide the United States with increased leverage for solving the remaining missing-in-action cases.

But Jim Vieland, who was looking for the names of some of the men he fought with in Vietnam in 1966 and ‘67, said that he hopes Hanoi will respond to the extension of diplomatic relations by resolving more of the missing-in-action cases. “It all should come together now,” said Vieland, a resident of Chardon, Ohio, who works at a nuclear power plant.

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The MIAs

The Pentagon believes no servicemen are still being held as prisoners of war in Vietnam, although some people insist there is evidence to the contrary. Current figues, according to the Pentagon:

Highest-priority MIA cases* 1975: 196 1995: 55 ****

The six from California David Demmon: Venice Steven Hastings: Baldwin Park Di Reyes Ibanez: San Diego James McLean: Los Angeles Michael Millner: Marysville Donald Newton: San Pedro ****

Unaccounted for in Vietnam 1975: 1,928 1995: 1,618 * Pentagon refers to these 55 as “discrepancy cases,” those who were known to be alive on the ground in Vietnam and whose fate remains unknown. It does not include men presumed dead but whose remains are still missing. The Pentagon has given highest priority to resolving the discrepancy cases.