Vietnam: It’s Time to Heal the Wounds

Vietnam’s Foreign Minister, Nguyen Co Thach, spoke in Hanoi with TIME’s Washington bureau chief, Stanley W. Cloud. Excerpts:

Q. Is anything going on between Vietnam and the U.S. that we don’t know about?

A. Up to now, we have met all the requirements of the U.S. ((on MIAs, family reunification, human-rights abuses in the re-education camps)). But in the State Department there is no change. For example, I am not allowed to go beyond 25 miles of New York City when I am in the U.S. ((retired General John)) Vessey can come here and go everywhere. American Congressmen are free to go everywhere in Vietnam.

Q. Does the situation in Cambodia interfere with the normalization of relations between Vietnam and the U.S.?

A. The Cambodian problem serves only as a pretext. The greatest mistake of the U.S. is not the Vietnam War. It is this strategy of using Vietnam as a pawn in the relationship between China and the U.S. It would be much better if the U.S. considered Vietnam in terms of its intrinsic value.

Q. What would be the main benefit to the U.S. of normalization?

A. Why can the U.S. have good relations with the Soviet Union and China and not with small ((Communist)) countries? This is not good for the image of the U.S. in the Third World.

Normal relations between the U.S. and Vietnam could contribute to peace and cooperation in Southeast Asia and to maintaining the independence of this area . vis-a-vis China.

Last but not least, it is time to heal the wounds of war. I don’t mention the physical or the mental wounds, but the moral ones. As long as this state of abnormal relations drags on, the moral wounds will bleed. It is time to sit down and talk and play and have fun. Why only hostile attitudes? When I meet the people from the State Department, their faces never smile. It is a pity. We could help you have good health and good morale.