McCAIN, IN HANOI, SAYS IT'S TIME FOR "NEXT STEP"

IN U.S.-VIETNAM RELATIONS -- This, while Vietnam's

Agent Orange victims vow to fight on.

Visiting US Senator John McCain salutes students as he arrives at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. (photo AFP)

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Time for 'next step' in US-Vietnam relations: McCain

HANOI (AFP) — Vietnam and the United States must take the "next step" in their relationship, beyond the normalisation that followed years of war, Senator John McCain said during a visit Tuesday.

McCain, who lost his bid for the White House to Democrat Barack Obama in November, called for "a modernisation of our ties commensurate with Vietnam's rising status in the region and in the world."

In a speech applauded by students at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, McCain, 72, said the two countries should have closer economic and military ties.

He also said communist Vietnam, a one-party state, had a chance to extend its economic and diplomatic achievements by making changes of "historic magnitude" in its approach to political freedoms.

"It is time to take the next step" in relations, said the former navy pilot, who was shot down over Hanoi in 1967 and held prisoner for five-and-a-half years during the Vietnamese-American war.

The two countries normalised diplomatic relations in 1995, 20 years after Vietnam's re-unification and the war's end.

"The further strengthening of our relationship should occur not only because of the unprecedented economic transformation of Vietnam and the extraordinary progress of our relations in the last two decades," said McCain.

"But also because of the historic shift of economic power from the Western world to Asia," said the Arizona Republican, his party's senior member on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

McCain warned of voices, both in Asia and the US, urging a return to economic isolationism during the global recession.

"We must not heed them," he said.

"We must advance, not retreat," by exploring new ways, for example, of increasing trade between the US and Vietnam while expanding free trade benefits to other Southeast Asian states, said McCain, who has made many peacetime visits to Vietnam.

The two countries should conclude a bilateral investment treaty, McCain said.

Resisting the forces of anti-globalisation also requires action from Vietnam, including a further opening of society that will allow the already dynamic economy to thrive even more, he said.

"Now, I believe, Vietnam has the chance to extend its accomplishments by pursuing progress in the political and social spheres," said McCain.

He said that included greater freedom of expression, widening the scope for political activity, the release of those imprisoned for peacefully expressing their views, and improvement in human rights generally.

"This change... would be of historic magnitude," he said.

"You could become a model for others to emulate. And you would ensure that, over time, relations with the United States are anchored not in the shifting sands of mutual economic and security interests, but in the bedrock of shared values."

Security and economic growth are intimately connected, McCain said.

"We would like to see an increase in the military to military relationship between our two countries," he told a press conference.

The war between the two countries left more than 58,000 Americans and three million Vietnamese dead, but in 2003 the first US warship in almost 30 years docked peacefully in Vietnam.

McCain said he would like Vietnamese officers to attend US defence universities, and stepped-up cooperation on exchanging information related to terrorist threats.

Despite remarkable progress in relations, US wartime use of the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam remains an issue between the two countries, McCain said.

After meeting Vietnamese officials, including Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, McCain was to fly Wednesday to Beijing as part of an Asian tour with two senate colleagues.

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Vietnam Agent Orange victims vow to fight on

HANOI (AFP) — The US military used Agent Orange, named after its orange-striped containers, to defoliate areas believed to be harbouring opposing forces.

It contained dioxin, a chemical linked to a variety of diseases and which Vietnam has blamed for a spate of birth deformities.

Vietnamese victims' groups say the US military sprayed about 80 million litres (21 million gallons) of herbicides, much of it Agent Orange, over southern Vietnam during a 10-year period.

But there has been no internationally-accepted scientific study establishing a link between Agent Orange and Vietnam's disabled and deformed, a US embassy spokeswoman in Hanoi said.

Hoang Van Hue helps his dribbling 31-year-old son sit back in his rusting wheelchair. His daughter, 26, hunches over in her own wheelchair, sticking her fingers in her mouth to make a blowing noise.

"I think that my children were affected with Agent Orange from me," their father said.

The former Vietnamese infantryman said he was exposed to the herbicide dropped by American troops during the war which ended in 1975.

Hue and other Vietnamese who say they are victims of the toxin want the United States to compensate them for its wartime "mistake," and vow to press their claim despite a US Supreme Court decision in March.

The top court declined to hear the victims' appeal after a US district court in 2005 dismissed their lawsuit against manufacturers of the herbicides.

"We are angry but we stay calm and will continue our fight," says Nguyen Trong Nhan, vice president of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin, which he says represents about three million victims, and was a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Hue, 61, said his family's difficult life has its origins in his deployment to southern Tay Ninh province in 1969, when his unit passed through an area where "all the leaves of the trees were not there anymore," and they had to use towels to cover their noses.

He and Ung Thi Tam married the year the war ended, and have two adult children who are normal.

At first, everything also seemed fine with their son Hoang Binh Lap and daughter Hoang Thi Ngoc Ha, their mother told AFP during a visit arranged by the victims' association.

But when the youngsters did not start talking or walking, they knew something was wrong.

Today as adults they are still like babies, said Tam, holding a towel she used to wipe her daughter's face.

"I have to feed them. I have to clean them. They don't know when they pee," Tam said, sitting beside her husband outside their tiny home alongside a single-lane country road on Hanoi's outskirts.

"They are our children so we raise them" despite the difficulties, Hue said softly, with a plain face that makes his emotions difficult to read.

He still looks like a soldier, in sandals, olive slacks and a military-style olive shirt.

With Hue's army pension, and government aid for Agent Orange victims, the family receives about 3.4 million dong (200 dollars) a month -- not much, but considerably more than what they had before, said Tam.

She earns some extra income by grinding rice for villagers in the front room of their house, which contains little else except two beds without mattresses.

Nhan, of the victims' group, describes Agent Orange victims as "the poorest people in society" and said the wife typically bears most of the family's burden.

"I am the strongest person in the family," said Tam, 55, a gentleness shining from her face.

Her husband said "91 percent" of his health is poor, partly from Agent Orange which he thinks damaged his stomach, and from brain trauma caused by a bomb.

Yet, he still has to help care for his disabled children.

"He should have some time to rest but he can't even rest," Tam said, wiping tears from her eyes.

Compensation from the US would allow them to hire somebody to help them take better care of the children, she said.

Despite the lack of a definitive study on the health consequences of Agent Orange, the US has given 46 million dollars to assist Vietnam's disabled over the past 20 years, the embassy spokeswoman said.

Vietnamese and US officials last September said they would further cooperate in responding to environmental and health concerns associated with Agent Orange dioxin.

Both sides have identified at least three dioxin hotspots, including in the central city of Danang, and the US is working with other donors to mitigate damage from those areas, the spokeswoman said. She added that the US budget in March doubled to six million dollars the funding for that mitigation effort.

The Vietnam victims' association has not yet said how much compensation it seeks.

Major manufacturers of Agent Orange in 1984 paid 180 million dollars to US veterans without admitting liability.

In late 2007 the government of New Zealand agreed with its smaller number of veterans on assistance worth 30 million New Zealand dollars (17 million US) for problems including cancer, diabetes and birth defects related to Agent Orange exposure.

Nhan said he knows that filing lawsuits against American companies is "not a picnic".

Despite the Supreme Court's ruling there are a number of legal options such as filing their lawsuit in another country, he added, declining to specify the next step in their fight.

"We will continue it as long as is possible, because it is for justice," said Nhan, 79, who fought in the war against French colonialists.

Tam, 55, said she worries that as she and her husband get older, caring for the children will become even harder.

"I'll try my best, up until I cannot take care of them anymore," she said.

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