From: tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com (Nhan Tran)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: NEWS: Nixon says US should not recognize VN
Date: 9 Jan 92 15:38:08 GMT
Sender: cuong@haydn (Cuong T. Nguyen)
NIXON SAYS U.S. SHOULD NOT RECOGNISE VIETNAM
WASHINGTON, Jan 8, Reuter - Former U.S. president Richard Nixon on
Wednesday accused Vietnam of a series of misdeeds and said the United States
should continue to withhold diplomatic recognition.
Nixon, in a television interview on Cable News Network, said Vietnam had
not complied with the 1973 Paris peace agreement under which he agreed to
withdrew U.S. forces two years before the communist victory.
He also cited the thorny issue of resolving the fate of the 2,267 American
servicemen still unaccounted for in Indochina.
"They've got to know a lot more than they've (admitted), and they're trying
to dribble it out and get (credit) for it. They should get none whatever,"
Nixon said.
He faulted Vietnam for what he called continued aggressive actions in
neighbouring Laos, benighted economic policies and repressive measures against
former soldiers of the defeated South Vietnamese government.
"Until they change their policies, we should not recognise them because it
is in no interest of ours to do so," said Nixon, who was president from 1969
until he resigned in 1974 because of the Watergate scandal.
Vietnam's envoy to the United Nations could not be reached for comment.
The administration of President George Bush began to discuss the
normalisation process with Vietnam on November 21 after the signing of a
U.N.-brokered peace agreement in neighbouring Cambodia on October 23. The
United States says progess hinges on Vietnam's help in pinning down the fate
of missing Americans.
Nixon was interviewed on Cable New Network's "Larry King Live" programme.