
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991                   TAG: 9104110109
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

VIETNAM DIPLOMACY DETAILED

In testimony to members of Congress Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Solomon described a detailed "road map" for normalization of U.S. ties with Vietnam - contingent on Vietnam's help in bringing about a peace settlement in Cambodia.

Under the plan, which Solomon also outlined in a private meeting with a Vietnamese diplomat Tuesday, U.S. veterans' organizations and business groups could travel to Vietnam as soon as Hanoi and the Vietnam-backed government in Phnom Penh sign a Cambodian peace accord.

Gradually, the United States would lift its trade embargo, restore diplomatic relations to Vietnam and clear the way for Vietnam to obtain international loans.

With rare exceptions, Americans have been allowed to travel to Vietnam only under the sponsorship of a non-American organization.

"We believe that a new page of history could soon be turned in Indochina - that we can enter a period of political reconciliation and national development," Solomon said Wednesday. Until last summer, U.S. policy was aimed at keeping Vietnam in both diplomatic and economic isolation.

The administration proposal is an attempt to break the diplomatic deadlock over Cambodia.

by CNB