Amb. Pete Peterson, a former prisoner of war captured in Vietnam, is the first American ambassador to that country since the war.
American missing in action
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And finally, Mr. Ambassador, what's the current situation with the American missing in action? There were around 1,500, right, who were unaccounted for. What's the status of those people now and what do you think will -- when will that be closed, those cases be closed?
PETE PETERSON: I can't answer the timeline. We're working very, very hard and have been very successful, I might add. It's one of the untold stories in the nation, I'm afraid, and we're trying to get the word out to the extent and to the commitment that both nations have placed to the fullest possible accounting effort. There are roughly 1,500 cases in Vietnam that are not yet fully determined. However, we have enormous amount of information on every one of those cases. And I would suggest that we're making some major progress in that. We continue our excavations. And the Vietnamese cooperation on this is just excellent. In fact, I'm calling it a partnership now. They have 300,000 MIA's, and we're helping them make their determinations, they're helping us with our determinations and in that process, I think in the years ahead we will be able to conclude this very, very honorable, humanitarian effort.
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Ambassador Peterson has extensive experience in the private sector having formed Peterson and Associates, Inc., a general contracting company in Tampa, Florida and later served as the General Manager of Odom Tank Company, a general contracting firm located in Marianna, Florida. In 1984, he entered into a partnership to create CRT Computers, Inc., a currently active full service computer enterprise with facilities in Marianna, Florida.
Ambassador Peterson is a native of Nebraska, but has resided in Florida for more than 40 years. He is a graduate of the University of Tampa, Tampa , Florida and served on the faculty of Florida State University for over 5 years as the administrator of a specialized therapeutic mental health program at the University.
Ambassador Peterson is married to Vi Le and has two children, Michael of Jacksonville, Florida, and Paula of Bascom, Florida.
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Q Ambassador, here it is, 25 years after the war and the President of the United States is here dealing with the communist government of Vietnam, trying to establish cordial relations. With all due respect, sir, to you and to others who have served in the war, might not the families of those who perished in that war ask what did their loved ones die for?
AMBASSADOR PETERSON: Well, each of those families would have to answer that for themselves, of course. I would never try to preempt their feelings, because I know -- I know -- how they feel. My family, too, suffered greatly. In fact, I personally suffered every imaginable hurt and problem that one could, short of death.
But I am convinced that those who lost their lives, those who suffered here would be among the first to stand up and say, we don't want this to happen again. And that by constructive effort and engagement on our part, the United States can make sure that we do not have a circumstance arise that could give the opportunity for misunderstanding, and then therefore an opportunity for the renewal of a conflict either here or in the region.
So my view on it is that you have an opportunity here to prevent. And I know that those people who served here, I think every single one, even though they have painful memories, would engage with me and others to prevent any similar conflict in the future. And that's why I'm here.
Q It's such a sensitive topic about these MIA excavations and continuing search for our soldiers. Do you foresee a day when the administration, whichever administration it is, finally says, enough, rest in peace, let's withdraw, we'll stop?
AMBASSADOR PETERSON: No, I don't see any administration doing that. I don't see any politician doing that. I certainly don't see any ambassador doing that. And I don't see any military general doing that. The decision of fullest possible accounting -- and that is difficult to define, because there's no written word on that -- it has to be defined by the American people, and most assuredly by America's veterans and the families of those who were lost here.
Fullest possible accounting is a great descriptive, but it's incredibly difficult to define. And it has to be defined ultimately, in my view, by those who served here and by those whose lives were most deeply touched by our engagement here.
Anything else?
Q Not too long ago at least one Vietnamese official, military official, complained about the lack of cooperation from the United States' side in finding -- in searching for the missing North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Now with the release of these new documents or the transfer of these new documents by the United States, do you see that as a response to that complaint, or were these documents in the pipeline already?
AMBASSADOR PETERSON: No, it was clearly not a response. In fact, I'm aware of that statement and I just feel that that person was uninformed.
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