Senator McCain has special position in Viet Nam - US relation history: Ambassador
Senator John McCain, who passed away on August 25 at the age of 81, has a very special position in the history of the Viet Nam - US relationship, said Ambassador Ha Kim Ngoc.
In an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency on August 26, the Ambassador recalled his meeting with McCain in the early 1990s when the US Senator and Senator John Kerry were members of a special committee on American prisoners of war or missing in action soldiers. Ambassador Ngoc shared that he had opportunities to work with McCain as his interpreter during the US Senator’s working trips to Vietnam. From those trips, the Ambassador noticed the Senator’s strategic vision, leadership and high political determination for the normalization of Vietnam-US relations despite very great internal obstacles.
It can be said that Senator McCain is a symbol of the Vietnam-US reconciliation process during which the two sides overcame their past as old enemies to normalize and develop bilateral relations. McCain enthusiastically supported and made untiring efforts for the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership, Ambassador Ngoc said. Along with Senator John Kerry and other senators like Patrick Leahy or Jim Webb, McCain had been at the forefront in the normalization and enhancement of Vietnam-US friendship and cooperation, he added.
At the most difficult time of the bilateral relations when many still expressed suspicion and even protest about the Vietnam-US ties, McCain and Kerry and other senators had played a decisive role in the irreversible process of normalisation, the Ambassador said. Therefore, it could be said that McCain deserves credit for promoting the Vietnam-US relations and later, the comprehensive partnership between the two countries, according to the ambassador.
He said even during his illness, McCain still paid attention to Vietnam-related issues such as cooperation with Vietnam, the East Sea issues and the catfish program that affects poor farmers in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam.
The Ambassador believed that the work by McCain and other incumbent and former members of the US Congress had inspired young US Congressmen to promote the bilateral relations. He expressed his belief that with the support of both the Republican and Democratic Parties in the US Congress, the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership will continue thriving for the benefits of the two peoples./.
