13 January 2004

Hardliners

I was in Hanoi, in June of 1995.

I was sitting three stiff chairs away from Le Duc Ahn, former general, architect of the invasion of Cambodia and President of the Socialist Republic. I wouldn't have been there except for Mr. Clinton's unfortunate letter to his Draft Board. With the stigma of the Draft Dodging thing he couldn't be too aggressive about normalizing relations. It was the reverse Nixon-China thing.

President Anh had twinkling eyes and a sly grandfatherly manner to him. We were in the Presidential Palace where Uncle Ho lived in a modest shack out back. He spent his last years contemplating the past and the future, smoking Salem menthol cigarettes.

It was a fancy reception room, all crimson wallpaper and gold leaf. I did not have a speaking part. The Congressman, supported by the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council, had worked out the agenda.

I personally thought President Anh was O.K., hard-liner or not. Anyone who had a role in toppling that monster Pol Pot had to have some goodness in him. After returning from Cambodia, he held a succession of government posts, including internal security, foreign policy, and defense. He was elected state president, replacing a collective presidency, in September of 1992.

The normalization process had been going on for years. It was a non-partisan issue with a lot of emotion. President Reagan had sent General Vessey to chat. President Bush opened up a joint office to look for POW-MIAs. If he had been re-elected I'm convinced I wouldn't be sitting in the third seat away from President Ahn. But President Clinton needed a justification to act.

It was close to the twentieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Ostensibly our delegation was looking at POW-MIA issues. That process seemed to be going pretty well. Our Joint Task Force in Hanoi was the de facto embassy. Our meeting with the President was just another step.

There was some chit-chat through the interpreters. I had the luxury of taking notes and watching. There was a calm exchange about the Missing, very positive, and the President asked with a rhetorical flourish what the American veterans groups were doing to locate the million of his missing.

The Congressman asked about a U.S. passport holder the Vietnamese had locked up, and the President graciously said he would permit visitation by the Red Cross. He was very accommodating. The Congressman asked if he had any concerns, and the President said something to the interpreter. "Can you fix the maps?"

"The Maps?" said the Congressman. This was not in the briefing book.

"Yes, your Defense Mapping Agency publishes aeronautical charts for our region. You print a small text next to Vietnam's Air Defense Identification Zone indicating that a state of hostilities exists." After a pause the President said "The insurance companies are robbing us, charging wartime rates to land here."

"I'm sure that can be changed," said the Congressman. His eyes were large. Could something this trivial be the breakthrough? "I'll mention it to President Clinton in the next Democratic Leadership Meeting."

The meeting was over. I got my picture taken with President Anh. He was a charming hardliner, a pragmatist. The delegation dragged itself back into Washington a week later. The Congressman talked to the President. The text came off the maps and Mr. Clinton announced the normalization of relations on the 11th of July. I imagine the passport holder got out of jail eventually, but I'm not sure. He was dealing with pragmatic hardliners.