Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994 TAG: 9401280186
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
War veterans, conservative Republicans and members of the Armed Services Committee joined some liberal Democrats to approve by 62-38 a nonbinding resolution sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a decorated Vietnam veteran who later turned against the war.
Virginia Sens. Charles Robb and John Warner voted to lift the embargo.
The lineup could provide substantial political cover for Clinton as he weighs a recommendation from senior foreign policy advisers to lift the embargo.
According to administration sources, Clinton has hesitated to take the step, which would symbolically end the 30-year conflict between the United States and the Vietnamese communists, because of his history of avoiding the draft for military service in Vietnam.
Clinton has said he will not lift the embargo until he is satisfied Vietnam is doing all it can to help determine the fate of more than 2,200 Americans still listed as missing from the nation's longest war.
The Senate vote was the second big political boost this week for those who favor ending the embargo and allowing U.S. firms to participate in Vietnam's fast-growing economy.
Earlier, the Defense Department released an analysis of two documents that surfaced last year from intelligence archives of the former Soviet Union purporting to show Vietnam held hundreds more U.S. prisoners of war than it acknowledged. Intelligence analysts concluded the documents are authentic but their information cannot be correct.
by CNB