July 14, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S 10075 of South Vietnam, he was placed under house tograph of the March 16, 1968, My Lai mas- Private visits and business relationships arrest for ‘‘re-education’’ when the com- sacre that shocked the conscience of Amer- are pushing the process along. Just this munist North captured Saigon in 1975. But ica adorns one wall. Other photos show the week, a Massachusetts trade delegation led later he emerged as the principal economic deforming effects of U.S. bombs and the defo- by Lt. Gov. Paul Cellucci is talking business adviser to the unified government, was al- liant Agent Orange on the women and chil- in Vietnam—business that can create local lowed to set up an international manage- dren of Vietnam. jobs. And the U.S. already has opened a dip- ment and finance company, and eventually There are, of course, no similar photos of lomatic liaison office in Hanoi. became a millionaire again. the hurt and sorrow caused by the North Vi- The next logical step is to exchange am- ‘‘I gambled (by not fleeing Vietnam), and I etnamese military. To the victor goes the bassadors, and there’s little to be gained by won,’’ he said. ‘‘My message to American privilege of selecting which images of war’s waiting. The sooner we open an embassy, the business is you can also win.’’ hell go on public display. better we’ll be positioned to expand trade, Still, most U.S. companies are cautious American planes, tanks, bombs and other investment and influence in this vibrant na- about investing in Vietnam right now. For war materials captured or abandoned promi- tion of 75 million. one thing, we do not have full diplomatic nently occupy the museum grounds and Vietnam is a young, eager and changing ties with the government. The 19-year Amer- viewing rooms. society which harbors no grudge against the ican embargo was lifted 15 months ago, and WHY WE LOST THE WAR United States despite our decade-long in- this has led to the opening of diplomatic liai- Such an impressive collection of modern- volvement in their civil war. That’s over, as son offices in Hanoi and Washington. But day weaponry begs the question of how we far as most Vietnamese are concerned. And further thawing of relations could be delayed could lose a war against a lesser-armed that’s the word from the top: ‘‘We want to by the American presidential campaign. enemy. The answer comes into focus the close the past with America, and build coop- There are other concerns, too—trademark next day during a trip to the famous Cu Chi eratively with you for a better future,’’ Com- and patent protections, an uncertain legal tunnels. Communist North Vietnam used munist Party General Secretary Do Muoi re- environment, inadequate infrastructure, and narrow passageways—just 3 feet high and cently told a group of visiting American edi- rampant corruption among government offi- across—to wage a relentless guerrilla war tors. The welcome mat is out and the timing is cials. Bribery is the best way to fast-track that baffled, enraged and ultimately de- fortuitous. Vietnam has launched a radical an application to do business in Vietnam. feated the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese economic development program that relaxes But American companies are prohibited by government. U.S. law from offering money or gifts in re- More than 100 miles of the underground restrictions on free enterprise and encour- turn for regulatory favors. network stretch from northwest to Saigon to ages state industries to be profitable. Politi- U.S. business interests, with an aggregate the Cambodian border and functioned as sub- cal change will surely follow. Vietnam, moreover, wants and needs outlay of $525 million per year, rank eighth terranean Viet Cong villages—with kitchens, American know-how and investment in order among Vietnam’s foreign investors. Taiwan dormitories, hospitals and command posts. is No. 1 at $2.5 billion. Hong Kong, Singapore, They were cleverly defended: Americans to modernize and raise living standards. This South Korea, Japan, Australia and Malaysia small enough to descend into them were is a process in which the United States, with rank ahead of us. often trap-doored to death over pits of razor- its sizable Vietnamese population and expe- All of which frustrates the Vietnamese sharp poles. rience in the region, should want to partici- leaders to no end. Burrowed three stories deep into rock-like pate. But we need to get going to make the ‘‘We want to close the past with America, soil, the tunnels were the most bombed, most of the opportunity. American business and build cooperatively with you for a better gassed and defoliated section of Vietnam. ranks only eighth among foreign investors future,’’ said Communist Party General Sec- Yet they withstood the heavy assault and there. Establishing full diplomatic ties retary Do Muoi during an interview of his serve as a monument to man over machine. would give U.S. companies greater support Hanoi headquarters, a lifesize bust of Ho Chi Gen Giap, the mastermind of the com- and confidence in doing business with Viet- Minh casting a shadow in the background. munist victories over the French and the nam. It also would put us in a better position ‘‘Why can’t you do that? Why does your Americans, said it was far more than tunnel to influence Vietnam’s policies. government put up roadblocks? This is not soldiers that resulted in America’s defeat in Normalizing relations does not mean aban- helpful to you or to us—and we both know the only war it has ever lost. Resiliency, a doning our efforts to get as full an account- we need each other for economic oppor- history of nationalism and the will to win at ing as possible from Vietnam about Ameri- tunity.’’ any cost were the real keys to victory, he cans still listed as missing from the war said. years. And, in fact, the Vietnamese are try- ATTITUDE CALLED WRONG-HEADED ‘‘Our weapons were not as good as yours,’’ ing to help us do that. They have no real rea- Muoi, considered Vietnam’s shrewdest sen- the 84-year-old general said in an interview. son to detain Americans against their will or ior official, noted that the United States has ‘‘But your human factor was not as good as withhold information about MIAs. been reluctant to normalize ties with Viet- ours. We had a popular patriotic cause; you Congressman Bill Richardson, D-N.M., for nam until more progress is made on account- had confusion over why you were in Viet- one, is convinced that’s the case. He recently ing for the 1,648 American military listed as nam. We had patience; you wanted instant returned from Vietnam with more than 100 missing in action in Vietnam. victory.’’ pages of material relating to American To him, and other Vietnamese leaders, this Now Vietnam is counting on that same MIAs, and found no traces of alleged under- is wrong-headed. purposeful spirit and unswerving focus to ground prisons or other places of detain- But the question persists: Are there any win its economic struggle. But no one really ment. He thinks it’s time to normalize rela- still any American MIAs living in Vietnam? expects significant progress until the govern- tions. So does U.S. Secretary of State War- ‘‘No,’’ replied retired Gen. Nguyen Giap. ment invests billions of dollars in highways, ren Christopher. ‘‘If there were, we would have turned them bridges, railroads, commercial port facili- So President Clinton should act now—and over to your government long ago. The war ties—and public education. avoid the risk of making recognition a polit- is over. We have no reason to hold anyone Five decades of war have left Vietnam with ical football in next year’s election cam- against their will.’’ a large unskilled labor force and growing il- paign. Hesitating can only work against our Furthermore, Muoi said, Vietnam has ‘‘co- literacy. The population is exploding and the interests in the region, leaving other coun- operated completely’’ with U.S. officials in school system is ill-equipped to respond. tries to gain from Vietnam’s budding econ- searching for the remains of the MIAs, in- Even health care is a touch-and-go matter. omy at our expense. cluding turning over military records and As the deputy minister of education, Tran f digging up grave sites. Xuan Nhi, put it: ‘‘We are learning the les- Vietnam, he said, long ago gave up looking sons of the free market, and one of those is GEORGE SELDES for its 300,000 missing soldiers. the need to train and educate our people so Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, George ‘‘This is not entirely a humanitarian issue we can build our country into an industri- Seldes, who died Sunday in Vermont at with the United States,’’ the 78-year-old alized society. The future will belong to the Muoi said. ‘‘This is linked to politics—and educated.’’ the age of 104, was literally, a Witness we are very sad about that.’’ Like Miss Saigon 1995, who is driven by a to a Century—the title of his autobiog- To underscore his point, he mentions that passion ‘‘to study and learn so I can make raphy. the United States had thousands of MIAs in more money and buy the things I want. OK?’’ A true investigative reporter who re- Korea and World War II and ‘‘no similar con- fused to accept the subtle pressures im- ditions were placed on diplomatic relations TIES THAT BIND US TO VIETNAM posed upon journalists by publishers, with Germany and Japan.’’ Fifteen months ago, President Clinton lift- editors, and advertisers—he was un- Because of the MIA issue, Vietnam has ed the trade embargo against Vietnam. Now compromising in reporting what he saw been deliberately downplaying the military he should establish full diplomatic relations and heard, and printed those observa- side of the war of late. That includes renam- with this important Southeast Asia country. ing the House of American War Crimes in Twenty years have passed since the Viet- tions in his own independent publica- Saigon to simply the War Museum. nam war ended. It is time to replace bitter- tion—In Fact. But the reminders of horror have not been ness and recrimination with peace and rec- Izzy Stone called Seldes the ‘‘grand- toned down. An oversized Life magazine pho- onciliation. daddy’’ of investigative reporters—high S 10076 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE July 14, 1995 praise from another great independent In some cases, he was acting on tips from Seldes lived in Hartland Four Corners, Vt. journalist of our century. mainstream reporters who knew their own Until recently, he was self-sufficient at home My visits and frequent correspond- papers would never print what they’d dug up. and ever delighted to receive such pilgrims ence with George rank among the high- They would leak the news to Seldes who as Ralph Nader, Morton Mintz and Rick would print it. In other cases, In Fact be- Goldsmith, a California filmmaker who is lights of my Senate career. He never came a more reliable source of news for completing a documentary on Seldes’s life. intruded, but did on occasion offer mainstream newspapers than their own The film will include references to I.F. some very good advice to this senator— sources—the ultimate flattery for any news- Stone, who credited Seldes’ newsletter ‘‘In and most times, I was smart enough to paper person, and ultimate indictment of Fact’’—which had 176,000 subscribers for a recognize good counsel when I heard it. those who missed the news. time in the 1940’s—as the model for his own I had the great pleasure of joining him In his later years, Seldes was always care- carefully researched I.F. Stone’s Weekly.’’ ful to note improvements in the objectivity at his 100th birthday party in Ver- The titles of some of Seldes’s books give a of today’s newspapers—while holding firm to hint of the fires that burned within him: mont—an event that became a public the belief that when newspapers forget their ‘‘You Can’t Print That: The Truth Behind celebration of his life. responsibility to truth, they risk retreat the News’’ (1928). ‘‘Never Tire of Protesting’’ Here was a man who interviewed Wil- into those bad old days. (1986), ‘‘Tell the Truth and Run’’ (1953), liam Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roo- Nor was his burr-under-the-saddle style ‘‘Lords of the Press’’ (1935). In the 1980s, he sevelt, Eddie Rickenbacker, Generals without fault—his muckraking, make-waves wrote his memoir ‘‘Witness to a Century’’ Pershing, Patton, and MacArthur; a narrowness of vision caused him to miss and edited ‘‘The Great Thoughts,’’ the latter personal observer of Lenin and Musso- some of the bigger picture, too; a heavy dose a thick and rich collection of ideas Seldes of Seldes at this prime could be hard for any lini and a confidant of Picasso, Ernest had gathered throughout a lifetime of read- average reader with broader interests to ing and listening. Hemingway, and Sinclair Lewis. take. ‘‘Sometimes in isolated phrase or para- One of the great lives of our century What seemed most striking about his com- graph,’’ he said of his selections from has passed—but George Seldes left be- ments at that appearance in Hanover, N.H. Abelard to Zwingli and from Ability to Zen, hind a recorded history to guide our however—just as it does now—is the dimin- ‘‘will work on the reader’s imagination more understanding of the turbulent time. ished capacity of contrary voices like his to forcefully than it might when buried in a I attach an editorial that appeared in be heard today in the din of the modern in- possibly difficult text. Each time a formation age. the July 8, 1995 edition of The Bur- quotation in this book makes a reader think Today, so many loud, contrary voices com- in a new way, I shall have achieved my aim.’’ lington Free Press, and a column writ- pete for listeners’ ears, with so many public As a reporter and press critic, Seldes was ten by Colman McCarthy that appeared outlets for spreading their views, the prob- more than an iconoclastic outsider, as wor- in the July 11 edition of The Washing- lem is no longer an absence of facts, in some thy and rare as that calling is. His news- ton Post. cases it’s too many facts—and too few people gathering and analysis were ethics-based. They capture the spirit and dogged taking the time to make sense of them. Omitting the news is as vile a sin as slanting pursuit of truth that marked George More big-picture wisdom and few discon- the news, he believed. Too many papers nected facts in every type of media today avoid stories that might upset the powerful Seldes’ lasting contribution to journal- would go a long way—a need that’s grown ism and the history of our age. I ask or the majority, while printing news on safe wider with George Seldes’ passing. subjects and editorializing to bloodless con- unanimous consent that they be print- clusions. ed in the RECORD. [From the Washington Post, July 11, 1995] In ‘‘freedom of the Press,’’ Seldes recalled There being no objection, the mate- GEORGE SELDES: GIANT OF JOURNALISM how he was compromised while covering rial was ordered to be printed in the (By Colman McCarthy) World War I: ‘‘The journals back home that RECORD, as follows: As a traveling companion, George Seldes printed our stories boasted that their cor- [From the Burlington Free Press, July 8, didn’t believe in letting you rest. In the respondents had been at the fighting front. I 1995] spring of 1982 when he was 91 and in New now realize that we were told tonight but York to collect a George Polk Award for a buncombe, that we were shown nothing of A CONTRARY VOICE lifetime of contribution to journalism, I the realities of the war, that we were, in George Seldes, who died Sunday at 104, was took the Fifth Avenue bus with him for a 30- short, merely part of the Allied propaganda a journalist and harsh critic of mainstream block ride between the ceremony and his machine whose purpose was to sustain mo- journalists who might be best remembered nephew’s apartment. We would have taken a rale at all costs and help drag unwilling by Vermont newspaper editors and reporters cab but he preferred the bus: a better way to America into the slaughter. . . We all more from an appearance before the Vermont and get the feel of the city and its people. or less lied about the war.’’ New Hampshire Press Associations in the Along the jostling way, Seldes threw at me If so, that was to be the last time Seldes late 1980s. a half-dozen story ideas, mingled with side- shied from getting the whole story. For the Except for a slowed step and a bit of a bars of his opinions, plus advice on how not rest of his long life, his reporting on what stoop, nothing in Seldes’ appearance be- merely to gather facts but to cull the useless were often no-no subjects—workers’ rights, trayed his exceptional age, nor hints of any from the useful, and then a string of mirth- public health and safety, press sellouts, cor- mellowing on matters he found important— ful recollections from his newspapering days porate and government lies—was the essence beginning and invariably ending with a jour- going back eight decades. If we were the boys of truth-telling. Like his life, the telling had nalist’s responsibility to tell it straight. on the bus, George Seldes was some boy. fullness. What bothered this long-time resident of He died on July 2, in his 104th year and f Hartland Four Corners most during his 86 only a half-decade or so after retiring from a years of covering historic events was not so reporting career that began in 1909 with the ACDA ANNUAL REPORT IS IN- much what got into newspapers of his day Pittsburgh Leader. FORMATIVE, CLEAR-HEADED EF- but what didn’t—especially immediately pre- It’s well within the bounds of accuracy to FORT ceding and following World War II. Errors of say of Seldes—and this isn’t the kind of omission. gassy praise that’s the customary sendoff for Mr. PELL. Mr. President. Yesterday, It was a time when some journalists dou- the deceased—that for much of the 20th cen- the President transmitted to the Sen- bled as government informers for U.S. intel- tury he stood as a giant and a pilar of jour- ate the annual report for 1994 of the ligence agencies as a gesture of patriotism; nalism, a reporter’s reporter. He had the Arms Control and Disarmament Agen- when the Washington Press Corps kept many subverse notion that investigating the cy. In addition to detailing the Agen- elected officials’ personal foibles and pecca- press—the money-saving schemings of the cy’s many activities during 1994, the dillos a secret; and powerful publishers ran publishers of his day, editors cowering before report includes a major section on the newspapers more like personal fiefdoms in advertisers, reporters fraternizing with the pursuit of selective causes than purveyors of pashas they write about—should be as vital a adherence by the United States to its the larger truth. beat as skeptically covering politicians. arms control obligations and the com- Like I.F. Stone, Seldes figured if main- At the Polk ceremony, the citation of the pliance of other nations with their stream newspapers wouldn’t print what he awards committee succinctly summarized arms control obligations. wrote for fear of riling advertisers or power- the spirit of intellectual independence Seldes This compliance report, which was ful news sources, he would print it in his own committed himself to: ‘‘By mutual agree- provided in both classified and unclas- publication. In Fact, it was called, and it ment, George Seldes belonged not to the sified versions, is the most detailed an- took on, among many powerful interests, the journalism establishment, nor was he teth- nual compilation of arms control issues tobacco industry and its ability to keep dam- ered to any political philosophy. With a gim- aging health data out of newspapers—a con- let eye ever fixed upon transgressors, he available to us. It has been required of sequence, Seldes was never shy about charg- soared above the conventions of his time—a the agency for a number of years, and ing, or newspapers’ heavy reliance on ciga- lone eagle, unafraid and indestructible. He is it is particularly thorough and detailed rette advertising. 91 now and still a pretty tough bird.’’ in this year’s iteration. I believe that