Cohen wants Vietnam to help find missing GIs

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen takes a salute at an official welcoming ceremony in Vietnam on Monday.

March 13, 2000
Web posted at: 5:48 p.m. HKT (0948 GMT)

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From staff and wire reports

HANOI, Vietnam -- Greater U.S.-Vietnamese military cooperation topped the agenda during the first day of U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen's historic visit to Vietnam.

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Pete Peterson, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, said Monday that Cohen and Vietnamese Gen. Pham Van Tra discussed possible U.S.-Vietnamese cooperation in demining and search and rescue operations.

Cohen also referred to joint efforts to account for the approximately 2,000 American servicemen listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War as a "partnership," Peterson added. Other topics likely to be on Cohen's agenda are humanitarian aid, flood relief and tropical medicine.

"I would characterize the meeting as very cordial, very comfortable," Peterson said. "It (the exchange) was rather free-wheeling, without reading from notes. It was incredibly comfortable."

Also Monday, Cohen was to visit a rice paddy in the countryside where American and Vietnamese recovery teams are searching for the remains of a U.S. fighter pilot, Navy Cmdr. Richard Rich of Stamford, Conn., whose F-4B jet crashed south of Hanoi on May 19, 1967.

Cohen arrived in Hanoi on Monday. He is the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Vietnam since the war ended in 1975. On Tuesday, Cohen is to visit Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. After Vietnam, he is scheduled to visit Japan and South Korea.

Peterson and a small Vietnamese delegation, headed by a two- star general, met Cohen at Noi Bai airport during a red- carpet welcome. Cohen reviewed 100 Vietnamese troops, and a Vietnamese military brass band played the national anthems.

Later Monday, Cohen met Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. Cohen's trip coincides with two months of events across the poverty-stricken Southeast Asian nation to mark the 25th anniversary of the war's end.

Peterson said Cohen's visit signaled a new phase in relations, which were normalized in 1995, between Hanoi and Washington.

"This today was a real step and what I felt is a maturity in this relationship," said Peterson, a former U.S. pilot who spent more than six years in the "Hanoi Hilton" prison after his jet was shot down in 1966 during the Vietnam War.

"You couldn't have imagined this occurring four or five years ago, certainly, maybe not even two or three years ago. And here we are now, two nations standing side by side with essentially the same purposes, the same goals," Peterson said.

Cohen said while his visit was symbolic, it was also important, and that the U.S. was interested in taking small steps towards building a military relationship with its former foe.

"I think it's a very significant step in looking to the future. This marks our fifth anniversary of our normalization (of relations). I think we are making good progress with what needs to be done. This is a step forward," Cohen said.

Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre and Reuters contributed to this report.

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