Back To Saigon

In what used to be Saigon, a new U.S. consulate office was dedicated Monday adjacent to the now-razed American Embassy, the site of one of the most lasting images of the Vietnam War.

Ambassador Pete Peterson said after the U.S. flag was raised that the new facility, expected to become one of the busiest American consular outposts, signals further reconciliation. It comes amid a flurry of developments in U.S.-Vietnamese relations.

Â"I personally see this as another event in a bright future,Â" said Peterson, a former prisoner of war who flew down from the U.S. Embassy, now located in Hanoi.

Last month, agreement in principle was reached on a bilateral trade agreement. Peterson said a deal on cooperation in science and technology is very close to being signed, and he talked hopefully of aviation, anti-narcotics and textiles pacts.

One of the Vietnam War's most dramatic images was people being airlifted by helicopter from the roof of the eight-story U.S. Embassy shortly before North Vietnamese troops captured the capital of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975, completing the communist takeover.

Some 2,000 Americans, Vietnamese and others were evacuated from the embassy compound as Vietnamese, desperate to escape, besieged it. News photos showed U.S. soldiers keeping the crowd at bay.

After the country was unified, the embassy housed the offices of Petro Vietnam, the state oil exploration company. It was returned to the United States in 1994, a year before Hanoi and Washington normalized relations, which had been suspended since the end of the war.

The former foes exchanged ambassadors in 1996. Washington opened a consulate in Ho Chi Minh City the following year, while Hanoi opened one in San Francisco.

Demolition on the embassy began in June 1998, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright laid the first brick soon afterward for the $3.5 million consulate, which was finished ahead of schedule and below budget.

There are no current plans to use the lot where the embassy stood other than perhaps for staff recreation.

Charles Ray, who served two stints in Vietnam as an Army captain and came back as consul general in May 1998, gave a tour before the dedication, proudly showing off one of the first permanent art collections in a consulate.

The pieces were specially chosen as representative of a fusion in American and Vietnamese cultures.

The building houses a growing staff of 20 Americans and more than 150 Vietnamese.

U.S. officials moved in at the end of June and began offering visas earlier this month. In the past, Vietnamese had to go to Bangkok, Thailand, to apply for most visa categories. By the end of the year, all will be available at the consulate.

The consulate is expected to process 25,000 immigrant visas per year from 150,000 or more requests.

Written by Paul Alexander
©1999 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed