Hanoi, Vietnam – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday that the United States wants to expand its military relationship with Vietnam but has no plans to seek access to military facilities in this former enemy nation.
Arriving in Hanoi just days after the United States signed a trade agreement with Vietnam, Rumsfeld planned to meet with the U.S. military team involved in finding and identifying the remains of hundreds of U.S. servicemen still missing in action from the Vietnam War.
En route to Hanoi, Rumsfeld talked only generally about his goals for the U.S. military’s relationship with a country that has come to symbolize one of the military’s most divisive and politically explosive wars.
“I don’t have a wish list, and I don’t have a set of things we’re trying to achieve,” he said. “What we want to see is a relationship between our country and Vietnam evolve in a way that is comfortable to them and comfortable to us. And it has been doing that over recent years, and I suspect it will continue on that path.”
Critics of the Iraq war and Rumsfeld’s leadership have compared it to the Vietnam conflict, noting that in both public support eroded as time went on with little to show for the loss of American lives.
On the trade deal with the U.S., which removes one of the last major hurdles in Hanoi’s bid to join the World Trade Organization, Rumsfeld said he has been impressed with the Vietnamese people and their economy.
“They’ve got a very good growth rate. They have a sizable population, and they’re industrious. And I think it would be a good thing to be in the WTO,” he said.
