CLINTON VISIT TO VIETNAM PICKS AT OLD SCABS

The road to full reconciliation with Vietnam is paved with memories more durable than any asphalt. There is no doubt that White House advisers cautioned President Clinton that his history-making visit to Hanoi in these final months of his presidency would rekindle many recollections best left alone.

But Clinton's presidency has never been bothered much with convention, just ratings. Clinton calculated that he would be remembered for being the first president to visit Vietnam since the war, a place in history he not only wanted for himself, but clearly did not want any successor to have, not even his own vice president should he become the next head of state.

The pain of Clinton's visit was shared both by Vietnam veterans and by those who stayed at home avoiding the draft and protesting the war. There has never been a great comfort level between the two groups. Even a quarter-century hasn't been long enough for all the scars to heal. Clinton's visit was a major scab remover, and it didn't need to happen.

There are convincing reasons for the United States to take an active interest in the affairs, both domestic and military, of Vietnam. One is the ever-lingering issue of MIAs and POWs from the war. Even as Clinton toured Hanoi, searchers were retrieving bone fragments and other evidence of the Americans who lost their lives.

Still other reasons for U.S. interest in Vietnam are trade relations, military expansion and human rights.

But couldn't the United States have handled these important matters without a visit by Clinton? The executive branch has legions of bureaucrats, from the Cabinet on down, who have been processing trade and other negotiations in an orderly fashion. By personally going to Hanoi, Clinton managed mostly to bring back those bad memories instead of creating bright, fresh dreams.

At the same time, the Communists in Hanoi got a boost of their own from the Clinton visit. The victorious Vietnamese can now lay claim to the fact that the head of the imperial Americans came to them, hat in hand.

In a part of the world where such ceremony can mean the difference between success and failure, the Vietnamese clearly have won the public-relations war.