News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Peterson Heads Home

Date: July 15, 2001

"Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Douglas "Pete" Peterson bids farewell to Tran Viet Tinh and other U.S. embassy employees before his departure at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi on Sunday, July 15, 2001. (AP)

HANOI (Reuters) - The first post-war U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, hailed by Hanoi as a caring American, ended his term on Sunday after more than four years pushing reconciliation with a country he once fought and which held him prisoner of war.

Douglas "Pete" Peterson, a Clinton appointee, left Hanoi en route for his home state of Florida, where he said his priority would be to decide whether to run for the governorship now held by Jeb Bush, brother of President Bush.

Peterson came to Hanoi as ambassador in May 1997 and worked tirelessly on reconciliation with a country that held him prisoner under harsh conditions for six-and-a-half years after his aircraft was shot down in 1966.

His work has been hailed by Vietnam's communist government.

In a speech last week, Le Van Bang, Hanoi's former ambassador to Washington and an assistant foreign minister, dubbed Peterson a "caring American," who had succeeded in changing Vietnamese feelings from "the bitterness of the war to a love of America."


Peterson said the Bush administration would need to show "strong leadership" in maintaining the new relationship with Vietnam through Secretary of State Colin Powell, another Vietnam veteran, who is due to visit Hanoi later this month.

"We need to keep building this relationship and he (Powell) is the key player in doing so," he told reporters.

NOT IN A HURRY

Peterson, a three-time U.S. congressman, said he was interested in the possibility of running as a Democrat for the Florida governorship. He said he would arrive back in Florida on July 17 and focus "virtually 100 percent on that decision."

"I am not in a big hurry, I don't think this is an emergency decision...I think I have plenty of time to make this decision and really set a good plan and a good organizational structure before I would make that decision."

In an emotional farewell at Hanoi airport, Peterson embraced American and Vietnamese members of embassy staff and the foreign ministry's deputy director of protocol, Do Trong Cuong.

He left with his Vietnamese-born wife Vi, whom he married while ambassador.

Boarding a Vietnam Airlines flight to Hong Kong, Peterson carried a folded American flag that had flown on his embassy vehicle and was handed to him by his Vietnamese driver.

The previous U.S. ambassador to Vietnam left in defeat from Saigon on April 30, 1975, carrying the flag of the embassy as victorious communist forces overran the capital of the former U.S.-backed south Vietnam, Saigon, how Ho Chi Minh City.

U.S. officials say the man expected to be nominated to succeed Peterson is Raymond Burghardt, a veteran foreign service officer now director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington's de facto embassy. Burghardt is not expected in Vietnam before late this year, or early the next.

LEAVING "PART OF MY HEART"

Peterson told reporters he was sad to be going and would be leaving "part of my heart" in Vietnam but was proud of the reconciliation work.

"I am proud that I had some contribution to make...to have the world and the United States look at Vietnam from a positive viewpoint instead of a negative viewpoint, and as a reverse to have the Vietnamese people recognizing Vietnam and America as friends, not enemies as we were."

During his mission, Peterson oversaw a historic reconciliation visit by President Bill Clinton last November and was a driving force behind a landmark bilateral trade pact signed in July 2000 and now in the U.S. Congress for ratification.

Under Clinton, the United States lifted a punishing trade embargo in 1994 and normalized diplomatic ties a year later.

Peterson said ties between Vietnam and the United States were now "clearly resilient and can handle virtually any kind of issues that might come into play."

He said his successor, who has yet to be named, would have a big job, overseeing a complex relationship and especially in ensuring implementation of the trade agreement kept to schedule."