News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Peterson Stays

Date: January 18, 2001

"U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Staying

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Pete Peterson, a former U.S. Air Force pilot held prisoner for 61/2 years during the Vietnam War, will continue as America's ambassador to Hanoi under the new Bush administration, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.

``I am pleased to have been asked by the incoming Bush administration to remain at my post in Vietnam for an indefinite period,'' Peterson said in a statement.

Peterson, who was shot down in his F-4 Phantom in 1966 while making his 67th bombing run over North Vietnam, was sent to Hanoi in 1997 as the first U.S. ambassador since the war ended in 1975.

He played a prominent role in forging a bilateral trade agreement considered the last major step in the process of normalizing relations that began in 1995 with the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two former foes.

The trade agreement, under which Hanoi will open its state-controlled economy in exchange for improved access to American markets, is expected to be approved this year by the U.S. Congress and Vietnam's National Assembly.

Of Peterson's 61/2 years as a POW, three were spent in the notorious ``Hanoi Hilton'' prison where he was tortured and held in solitary confinement.

Peterson won a seat in the U.S. Congress in 1990 and served three terms. "