Clinton says Vietnam on 'virtually irreversible' course toward greater freedom, openness

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HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (CNN) -- U.S. President Bill Clinton expressed guarded optimism Sunday that his historic three-day visit to Vietnam had opened a positive "new chapter" between the United States and its former enemy.

"I hope it will be good for them, and good for us," Clinton told CNN Senior White House correspondent John King during an interview in Ho Chi Minh City.

TRANSCRIPT •  Read President Clinton's interview with CNN's John King    VIDEO Watch CNN's John King's complete interview with President Clinton in Vietnam.(November 19) Part 1 Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Part 2 Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Part 3 Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Mike Chinoy on the last day of Clinton's Vietnam visit (November 19) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) U.S. President Bill Clinton addresses American and Vietnamese business community (November 19) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) • Overview • U.S.-Vietnam ties • America at 25 • Remembering Kent State • A soldier's diary • The boat people • Covering two wars • Dien Bien Phu • About the War • Vietnam Guide • Photo Gallery • Postcards • Vietnam's Neighbors   MESSAGE BOARD Clinton's trip to Vietnam     ALSO • Clinton: No need for 'hand-wringing' over presidential standoff • Survivors of old Vietnam remember a past fast forgotten

The president, who arrived back at the White House early Monday morning, asserted that the communist country was on a "virtually irreversible" trend toward greater openness and freedom.

Vietnam already has "made a lot of progress in the last few years," Clinton said. "The economy is diversifying; it's becoming more open to the rest of the world."

With 60 percent of Vietnamese younger than 30, Clinton said, they have no memory of the war, and are eager for positive changes.

"They are very much oriented toward the future. They are asking themselves all kinds of fundamental questions about what the world is like now; how they are going to relate to it; and what their country should be like."

Although Clinton said he felt a spirit of "good will" from Vietnamese who greeted him in the street, he mentioned a conversation with a Communist official who had called the U.S. "imperialistic."

"I stoutly disputed that we were an imperialistic country," Clinton said. He responded that the U.S. involvement in Vietnam concerned "self-determination for the Vietnamese people ... and what freedom and independence really meant."

The president said such conversations, along with a speech he broadcast to the Vietnamese, showed Vietnam was undergoing positive change.

Clinton, who had opposed the war as a youth, said he could not help but recall friends who died in Vietnam.

"For me, personally, my overwhelming feeling when I first got here was thinking about the boys I grew up with who died in Vietnam -- four of my high school classmates."

Clinton's comments came at the end of a busy three-day visit.

Declaring that "the years of animosity are past," Clinton on Sunday had encouraged Vietnam to open its economy and society to innovation and freedom.

Under a humid, midday sun, Clinton spoke at a container terminal in Ho Chi Minh City on the Saigon River. The city formerly was known as Saigon, the old capital of South Vietnam in the Vietnam War era.

"I have been deeply moved by my visit here," said Clinton, wrapping up a three-day visit to Vietnam. "I came here in part because I believe America and Vietnam are linked not just by a shared and often tragic past that must be honored and remembered, but because we have a bright future that we can build together."

"Today we have a shared interest in your well-being and your prosperity," he added. "We have a stake in your future, and we wish to be your partners."

During his historic visit to Ho Chi Minh City, named after Vietnam's late communist leader, Clinton also stopped in narrow market streets to greet shop workers and passersby.

Clinton also was slated to address the U.S.-Vietnam Business Forum. /p>

The president, the first to visit the city in 31 years, has received a rousing welcome from citizens, some of whom retain positive memories of old ties between the United States and South Vietnam. American forces withdrew from Saigon in 1975, ending a more than 10-year bid to help South Vietnam fight its communist neighbor to the north.

Clinton, accompanied by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and daughter, Chelsea, is set to begin a journey back to the United States later today. This likely is his last major international trip before concluding his term of office in January.

Clinton arrived in Ho Chi Minh City late Saturday following an emotional visit to a site outside Hanoi where an Air Force captain's U.S. F-105D plane is thought to have crashed in 1967. Authorities believe Capt. Lawrence Evert's plane was shot down November 8, 1967.

Joined at the site by David and Dan Evert, Capt. Evert's twin sons, a tearful Clinton pledged that the United States would not rest until "we bring every possible fallen hero home."

Vietnamese and Americans worked side-by-side in the rice paddy between Evert's target, a railroad bridge, and a Vietnamese village, sifting the muddy soil bucket-by-bucket looking for wreckage or remains.

Clinton said such cooperation would lead to stronger ties between the one-time foes.

"While working together to recover those who were lost in a long-ago war, we reduce the chances that any of our children will know war," he said.

Evert's sons said that their father had been "a great American" who "died in the honor of his country."

"When we were younger, about six or seven, we used to talk about how we would come over to Vietnam and come get him out of jail. We thought he was alive, so we thought we'd come get him and take him home and rescue him," David Evert said. "And we kind of feel that's what we're doing right now."

More than 1,900 Americans are still classified as missing in action from the war. The remains of 283 Americans have been recovered since the president took office, the White House said.

Some 300,000 Vietnamese also remain unaccounted for, and Clinton pledged the United States would help find them. He brought 350,000 pages of U.S. military records to help in the efforts, and promised 1 million more pages before the end of the year.

"Whether we are American or Vietnamese, I think we all want to know where our loved ones are buried," Clinton said. "I think we all want to be able to honor them and be able to visit their grave sites."

The president -- an anti-war protester in his youth who once wrote that he "opposed and despised" U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia -- also saw the Vietnamese side of the war's tragedy when he met with children maimed by leftover landmines.

"This is the tragedy of war for which peace provides no answer," Clinton said, shaking hands with a young boy with only a stump remaining of his left arm.

In June, the Vietnamese joined the United States in a humanitarian de-mining program. Since then, the White House said, it has contributed nearly $5 million to help Vietnamese de-mining efforts.

CNN Correspondent Mike Chinoy, CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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