By Charles Aldinger
ABC NEWS
H A N O I, March 13 — U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen kicked off a historic visit to Vietnam today with wide-ranging talks that an American official described as “incredibly comfortable.”
     The U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, Pete Peterson, said Cohen and his Vietnamese counterpart, General Pham Van Tra, discussed possible military cooperation in de-mining and search-and-rescue operations.
     Cohen also referred to joint efforts to account for the some 2,000 American servicemen listed as missing in action (MIA) from the Vietnam War as a “partnership,” Peterson added.

Cordial and Comfortable
“I would characterize the meeting as very cordial, very comfortable,” Peterson told reporters traveling with Cohen.
     “[The exchange] was rather free-wheeling, without reading from notes. It was incredibly comfortable,” he said.
     Cohen, who also met briefly with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, is the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 in which the U.S.-backed South Vietnam fell to the communist North.
     His March 13-15 trip coincides with two months of events across the Southeast Asian nation to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of that conflict on April 30.

Moving Forward
Peterson said Cohen’s visit signaled a new phase in relations between Hanoi and Washington, who only normalized diplomatic ties in 1995.
     “This today was a real step and what I felt is a maturity in this relationship,” said Peterson, a former U.S. pilot who spent more than six years in the “Hanoi Hilton” prison after his jet fighter was shot down in 1966 during the Vietnam War.
     “You couldn’t have imagined this occurring four or five years ago, certainly, maybe not even two or three years ago. And here we are now, two nations standing side by side with essentially the same purposes, the same goals.”

VIP Treatment
Earlier on Monday, Vietnam gave Cohen a red-carpet welcome at a French-style colonial military guesthouse.
     Cohen reviewed 100 Vietnamese troops holding rifles affixed with bayonets as Vietnamese and American national flags swayed from poles. A Vietnamese military brass band played both nations’ anthems.
     Other topics likely to be on Cohen’s agenda in Hanoi include humanitarian aid, flood relief and tropical medicine.

No Apologies
But Cohen has said he will not bring any apologies for the Vietnam War, which killed some 58,000 American soldiers and an estimated three million Vietnamese troops and civilians.
     Cohen has also said military relations were important “but [this] has to proceed in the context of an overall improvement in our bilateral relations.”
     “This [trip] is an important step forward and I look forward with some anticipation that I can help put in place the foundation that is slowly being built for normalization of relations and improvements for the future,” he said before arriving in Hanoi from Hong Kong.
     Cohen also visited an MIA site in a field south of Hanoi where a U.S. F-4 Phantom jet crashed during the conflict.
     Analysts say Vietnam’s cooperation in resolving the fate of MIAs has been a key reason for the strengthening of ties.
     But while relations between Hanoi and Washington have broadened in recent years, sticking points remain.

Ulterior Motives?
“There is a sensitivity and somewhat of a suspicion as to America’s motives for having returned here,” Peterson said.
     “The reality is we have returned here for all of the right reasons — to help the Vietnamese to improve their circumstances economically, and thereby improve the prosperity and peaceful stability of this whole region,” he said.
     On Tuesday, Cohen will fly to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, once capital of the vanquished South Vietnam but now the economic engine and largest city of Communist Vietnam.
     Cohen’s Vietnam visit is part of a major Asian trip. After Vietnam he will travel to Japan and South Korea.