TRANSCRIPT: LAKE 7/13 PRESS CONFERENCE IN VIETNAM
(MIA Accounting Remains Most Important Bilateral Issue)

Quang Tri, Vietnam -- Cooperation on the MIA issue has allowed the United States and Vietnam to move beyond the past and work together on other areas of mutual interest, according to Anthony Lake, National Security Adviser to the President.

"I have been very pleased with the cooperation that the Vietnamese have been showing ... My talks here suggest that it will continue to be very good and we will be moving on in our other relationships with Vietnam, now and in the future," Lake said at a press conference at the Quang Tri MIA Recovery Site July 13.

The Clinton administration remains committed to achieving the fullest possible accounting of American MIA's according to Lake. "As I've said many times, this is the most important issue in our relations ... It is a matter of the most fundamental importance to families all across America".

At the press conference, Lake identified other areas of common interest. These issues include refugee resettlement and fighting narcotics traffic as well as developing the economic relationship between the two countries.

Lake said that his talks with Vietnamese officials were successful. "We talked about very practical issues that will allow us to advance what are not just the interest of governments, but the interests of our peoples," he said.

Following is a trancript of the press conference.

W. ANTHONY LAKE
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER
PRESS CONFERENCE AT MIA RECOVERY SITE
IN QUANG TRI, VIETNAM JULY 13, 1996

OPENING REMARKS

How are we doing? This is Colonel Jonathan Chase, who is in charge of our efforts in Vietnam to recover as many traces and remains of Americans missing in action as we can. We can see at a site like this just how much good and hard work has gone into this operation. It is very important to the President and all Americans that we do this work. As I've said many times, this is the most important issue in our relations. I have been very pleased with the cooperation that the Vietnamese have been showing, and also with the way in which Vietnamese leaders have said that they will continue their cooperation both in joint efforts with us and unilaterally. This is really more than a policy issue between two nations. This whole effort is an extraordinary human issue. It is a matter of the most fundamental importance to families all across America. I want to thank, on behalf of all Americans, Colonel Chase and everyone out here for their extraordinarily good and hard work in this effort.

I think it's a reflection of American values. As the President said, "America takes care of its own." We are doing so here.

Q & As

QUESTION: We are obviously seeing the difficulties of this very trying and arduous work. Would you like to see the process moved forward and a speedy decision that the fullest possible accounting achieved?

LAKE: Well, we have talked about that. We really shouldn't set an artificial deadline. When the fullest possible accounting has been achieved, we will know it. I have discussed with Vietnamese officials about how, increasingly, joint operations like this will have covered most of the leads we have and we will become increasingly reliant on the Vietnamese government, unilaterally, to come up with further leads. This is an issue that will always be with us. I don't think we need to set an artificial date when this issue will be closed.

Q: Perhaps after the election things could start to move on?

LAKE: Well, after the election, as before it, we will continue to achieve the fullest possible accounting. This is not a partisan issue in the United States. As I said, the cooperation of the Vietnamese government has been very good. My talks here suggest that it will continue to be very good and we will be moving on in our other relationships with Vietnam, now and in the future. We have important mutual interests economically. We want to work together to resolve the questions of refugee resettlement, our common fight against narcotics flow, etc. My visit here has been very encouraging that we will work together in our mutual interests.

Q: So it doesn't worry you then that the relationship is being held up because this fullest possible accounting requirement is still somewhere in the future?

LAKE: Well, the speed with which we normalized was held up in order to make sure that this most important issue was being addressed fully. That was important not only on the merits, but because we wanted to make sure that as we build the kind of relationship we want with Vietnam, we are bringing Americans together rather than having them remain divisive. And the progress we have made on this, I think, has contributed to building a consensus behind the policies that we are conducting in Vietnam. Much of the credit for that goes to the Colonel and his colleagues.

Q: Mr. Lake, could you elaborate on the next steps that will take place after the MIA issue?

LAKE: There are many different issues, all of which we can keep making progress on as we make progress on this. So I have been discussing the next steps in our economic relationship, again, how we can cooperate on resolving issues of refugee resettlement, the refugees that are outside of Vietnam and those that have now come back to Vietnam and who wish to go to the United States, how we can cooperate on building diplomatic ties and creating ways in which Vietnam can become more integrated into the region. There are lots of issues before us, practical issues. I think we are making progress on all of them because it is in our mutual interest to put the past behind us as we make this accounting and move on toward the future.

Q: Tell me how you can speak fluent Vietnamese?

LAKE: Well, I studied Vietnamese in the United States and as a young diplomat, I spent two years here in Vietnam. I discovered a strong admiration for the culture and the people of Vietnam. And as you look around at a sad sight like this, you still recognize it as a country of extraordinary beauty.

Q: And when was your actual time in Vietnam before 1975?

LAKE: I was here from 1963 to 1965, many years ago.

Q: Both sides view the search for American MIA as a humanitarian issue. At a press conference the day before you arrived, a Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman suggested that maybe the United States was not doing enough to help Vietnam recover from its problems with the war -- things like Agent Orange, their own MIAs, and "demining", things like that. Has any thought been given to increasing American help in that regard?

LAKE: Well, I have discussed that issue with every official I met so far. Our own strong feelings about our own missing has helped us understand how so many Vietnamese feel about thousands of missing Vietnamese. As a result, we declassified and gave to the Vietnamese over a million documents that could help them find their own missing. It has been very important to the Vietnamese. Many of them have mentioned to me how our veterans organizations have encouraged our veterans who have mementos that they brought back from Vietnam to try to be helpful with any specific leads they have about missing Vietnamese.

Q: Can I ask you on a personal level, does this bring back memories of your time in Vietnam?

LAKE: Of course.

Q: Like what?

LAKE: Not just personal memories, although I had many as I flew over Hue where I served for a year. I have many feelings here and not just my own personal memories, feelings about the men who apparently died on this hillside and the many others who died.

Q: Do you think the cause was worth their sacrifice?

LAKE: The point is that American soldiers in Vietnam fought very bravely. They were sent here. The policy was not theirs to make. And I, for one, feel extremely strongly that America did not do a service to them in putting any blame for what happened on the men who died here, or who fought here and returned.

Q: Can you say that there has been total cooperation on the Vietnamese side, have they overcharged for the going rate for the cost of helicopter fuel, rental costs, etc.?

LAKE: I really don't feel the cost is the issue in something like this. Again, the President meant it when he said that "America takes care of its own". We should do whatever we have to do to provide the fullest possible accounting to the families, and we continue to continue that. We don't put a cost on the efforts to recover the remains of Americans missing here at a time like this.

Q: Is the President actively considering the political decision to start to use circumstantial evidence to take names off the missing list? There is no way you will ever find remains.

LAKE: Well, we have been talking about that over the last day or two, to review it, because it is a very difficult issue that involves not just policy questions but what we can honestly tell the families. We always err on the side of being sure of whatever it is we are telling them, rather than guessing. But I have been very impressed that in fact we do try, that Col. Chase and his people here, along with the people in Honolulu, try to tell the families everything we can about the investigation so that they will have the greatest possible knowledge, whatever the conclusion that we draw from it.

Q: Before the Vietnamese Party Congress there was a lot of anti-foreign, even anti-American, rhetoric, including at the Congress itself. A former party chairman said that there were hostile forces in the United States and that the CIA was reactivating agents here. First of all, has any event effected discussions or progress on the relationship that you can see? And please comment on that.

LAKE: The truth is that none of that has come up in a single one of my meetings with Vietnamese officials. I saw those reports also. But the meetings could not have been more straightforward. The atmosphere allowed for very direct and straightforward exchanges on many different issues, including, I might note, on human rights. Vietnamese officials agreed that we may continue a dialog on that. It's a subject important to us and to many people around the world.

Q: Could you make some comments on the talks between you and the Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi and Danang?

LAKE: They were very good. And, again, the point is that they were the kind of talks in which we were not simply sitting down and reading talking points to each other. They were the kind of talks in which, first of all, we could discuss longer term strategic issues; the kind of stability and the progress we want to see in this region. We talked about very practical issues that will allow us to advance what are not just the interest of governments, but the interests of our peoples. I was very pleased.

(end transcript)