News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Press Briefing

Date: November 18, 2000

"White House Press Briefing on Asian Affairs
To: National Desk
Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2580

 PRESS BRIEFING BY JACK PRITCHARD, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR ASIAN AFFAIRS, NSC; STANLEY ROTH, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF STATE; GENE SPERLING, ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR ECONOMIC POLICY AND DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL; JAKE SIEWERT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY

National Stadium Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam

7:00 P.M. (L)  

NON-POW-MIA MATERIAL EDITED OUT BY AII POW-MIA.

In addition, a couple of you asked me run through some of the themes of the President's speech tomorrow at Hanoi National University. That is a speech addressing both current political leaders in Vietnam, but also the next generation of leadership, much like the speech the President gave in China to university students there. I expect that to be focused very firmly on the new chapter that we have developed, that we are developing in U.S.-Vietnamese relationship.

The President will talk at some length about the history of our relationship, but, more importantly, about the future and where he sees that relationship going. There will obviously be discussion about the challenges inherent in globalization, what Vietnam and the United States can do to embrace globalization and ensure that it doesn't undermine national identity and cultural heritage in both countries.

The President will also talk about the cooperation that the United States has received from Vietnam on the fullest possible accounting for MIAs, and urge Vietnam and the United States to continue to do everything they can to account for the missing there.

He will also talk about the importance of accelerating cooperation on scientific endeavors, on fighting disease. We will have some -- may have some news for you on those fronts, relatively minor order, but some steps we are taking to increase cooperation on science, particularly regarding some of the efforts to help Vietnam better control the flooding that wreaked so much havoc this year, and also on combatting infectious disease, like AIDS and others.

While Gene is not here, I will take some questions on other topics if there are any.

EDITED

Q Jake, on the Vietnam trip, American officials have said in the past that the Vietnamese have been quite helpful of late trying to recover remains of the missing. Do you have any figures on what's the missing count now, and any figures on, any estimates on remains that could be recovered? Or do we think we're sort of reaching the end of the line on recovering remains?

MR. SIEWERT: Let me see if I can get -- there is some reference -- there are some specific figures in the speech, but since this speech is not in final form, I'll try to get you the best possible numbers we have.

We have provided a great deal of documentation to the Vietnamese to help locate -- over 350,000, 400,000 pages of documents that can help them in their efforts to find both Vietnamese and American soldiers who are missing in action. And we're prepared to provide more documentation that could help now the search for some of those who are missing. But in terms of actual recoveries, I think we're going to try to prepare a briefing in Vietnam on the status of that, that will be more detailed, and the President may have some final numbers for you tomorrow.

Q Jake, does the President believe that his opposition to the war as a youth been a facilitating factor in being able to bridge the divide between the two countries?

MR. SIEWERT: I've never heard him actually address that directly. I know he was asked this question the other day. This is not a visit that's really about the President's past or about -- this is a visit that is designed to mark a new chapter in our relationship with the Vietnamese. Obviously, the war divided Americans, divided Vietnam in a lot of ways. But we're not here to reflect upon the history at any great length, or to highlight some of the divisions. And, if anything, this is meant to heal those divisions and point the way towards a new future.

I think many of you have noted in the stories I've seen that 60 percent of Vietnamese have been born since the war, and for most of them that's a very distant memory. I don't think the President has any intention of spending a lot of time thinking too much about his own personal past here. He's focused on what we can do to build a better future between the United States and Vietnam.

Q Did Mrs. Clinton share President Clinton's opposition to the war?

MR. SIEWERT: I have no idea. You can put that to her or to her staff. I've never seen any reporting on that.

Q Jake, do you know why the President signed that "bring them home alive" legislation last week on Vietnam? Does he or the administration believe that there are MIAs, alive MIAs out there, that we would need to promise citizenship to Vietnamese that might help bring them back?

MR. SIEWERT: I think he believes that we should leave no stone unturned in the search for MIAs. He did address this question directly in an interview he conducted the other day with the Associated Press and he said that he had -- there's no reason to think right now, that there is no evidence right now that there are any living MIAs. But we follow every lead and try to leave no stone unturned as we try to search and find any such people. So he feels -- I don't know the particulars of that legislation, but I assume it's designed to help encourage that search for MIAs.

END 8:05 P.M. (L)"