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- <text id=90TT1078>
- <link 90TT1981>
- <title>
- Apr. 30, 1990: "It's Time To Heal The Wounds"
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Apr. 30, 1990 Vietnam 15 Years Later
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- VIETNAM, Page 25
- "It's Time to Heal the Wounds"
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>By Stanley W. Cloud and Nguyen Co Thach
- </p>
- <p> Vietnam's Foreign Minister, Nguyen Co Thach, spoke in Hanoi
- with TIME's Washington bureau chief, Stanley W. Cloud.
- Excerpts:
- </p>
- <p> Q. Is anything going on between Vietnam and the U.S. that
- we don't know about?
- </p>
- <p> 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.
- </p>
- <p> Q. Does the situation in Cambodia interfere with the
- normalization of relations between Vietnam and the U.S.?
- </p>
- <p> 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.
- </p>
- <p> Q. What would be the main benefit to the U.S. of
- normalization?
- </p>
- <p> 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.
- </p>
- <p> 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.
- </p>
- <p> 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.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
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