On July 11, 1995, President Clinton the normalization of diplomatic relations--that is, full mutual diplomatic recognition--between the United States and Vietnam (McManus, 1995, p. A1). This move touched one of the rawest of American political nerves. It raised immediately the question of the uncertain fate of service members still missing from the war, and ultimately that of the outcome of the Vietnam War itself and of whether American opponents of the war, including President Clinton, bore a share of responsibility for the American defeat in the war.
Thus the normalization of relations was immediately denounced by Republican congressional leaders Newt Gingrich and Robert Dole, as well as by the American Legion and organizations active in the issue of Americans still missing in action from the Vietnam War (Kempster, 1995, p. A7). Yet Republican Senator John McCain, who had been a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, stood at President Clinton's side to symbolize his own support for the normalization of relations, thus denying the GOP leadership the solidity within their own ranks that they would need to effectively challenge the normalization policy.
Although the Republican congressional leadership thus could not act to block the move, the normalization of diplomatic relations with Vietnam had the potential of re-opening deep political wounds. To many Americans this normalization of relations marks the final bitter acknowledgement of defeat. More specifically, these critics hold that Vietnam has never given a full accounting of the fate of Americans missing in the war. They argue that some Americans taken prisoner by Communist forces in Southeast Asia were never returned in accordance with the agreement that ended American participation in the Vietnam War; indeed, some believe that Americans are still being held, if not in Vietnam itself then in Vietnamese-dominated Laos (Dornan, Heeney, and Childress, 1995, p. A23). In ...