VIETNAM DECISION LEAVES QUESTIONS AND MANY DOUBTS

There are many reasons to normalize relations with Vietnam, some of them good ones. And in this age of political expediency and economic pragmatism, perhaps the bad reasons have lost their significance for many Americans.

Normalizing relations would put the United States in a favorable light in an economically burgeoning part of the world by offering help for a sickly Vietnam economy and a road map toward further Asian diplomacy. Many American businesses, eager to find new footholds in the hot Asian market, are enthusiastic about establishing ties. Already American companies have invested more than $500 million in Vietnam, making the United States the eighth largest foreign investor. Proponents also say that normalizing relations will help promote a free and peaceful Vietnam in a stable Asia.

All that might be true. But proponents seem unwilling to examine the darker side of the equation: By normalizing relations with Vietnam we ignore a deplorable track record and reward Vietnam despite its failure to live up to previous agreements with the United States.

The Paris Accords, signed by both governments in January 1973, stated that the "South Vietnamese people shall decide for themselves the political future of South Vietnam through genuinely free and democratic general elections under international supervision." The agreement also guaranteed democratic freedoms for the people of South Vietnam. Not only did North Vietnam invade and conquer the South in 1975, the Vietnamese people continue to be denied democratic freedoms.

With regard to the MIA-POW issue, the Clinton administration has lauded a new spirit of cooperation between the two nations. By lifting a trade embargo against Vietnam in February 1994, the administration assured Americans, the move would enhance Hanoi's cooperation. Clinton vowed to resist normalizing relations until there was a "full and final accounting" of the missing Americans. Vietnam made overtures at cooperation, but so far only a handful of the 2,200 missing Americans are accounted for.

The president's action to normalize relations has angered many Vietnam veterans and family groups. Powerful lawmakers also oppose Vietnam normalization. House Speaker Newt Gingrich told CNN that "this is not the time to be cozying up to dictators." Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan, echoed Gingrich's remarks, adding: "All signs point to Vietnam willfully withholding information which could resolve the fate of many Americans lost in the war."

But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former Vietnam war prisoner, is among many veterans who favor normal ties. They contend it is time to let old wounds heal and past hatreds fade. So do some veterans groups, like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, although that organization's endorsement included a stipulation that any ties further the fullest possible accounting of U.S. servicemen still missing in Indochina.

Twenty years after the fall of Saigon, Vietnam remains a painful subject that sharply divides Americans.