Inside the Ring

Kerry and Vietnam

If Sen. John Kerry is elected president, he will be the first commander in chief whose photograph is honored by a one-time enemy in thanks for helping it defeat the United States in war.

A photo of Mr. Kerry meeting with Vietnamese communist leaders in 1983 hangs in the War Remnants Museum, which used to be called the “War Crimes Museum,” in Ho Chi Minh City. According to best-selling book “Unfit for Command,” that wing honors Americans who helped the North Vietnamese communists chase Americans from the South. Others in the wing include anti-war activist David Miller, who is shown burning his draft card in 1965.

A plaque at the museum quotes from a Vietnamese Communist Party report in 1974 stating that “we would like to thank the communist parties and working class of the countries of the world … peace-loving countries … and progressive human beings for their whole-hearted support and strong encouragement to our people’s patriotic resistance against the U.S. for national salvation.”

A separate women’s museum displays a photo of Jane Fonda meeting with Viet Cong Foreign Minister Madame Nguyen Thi Binh.

China plank

Republicans this week were divided over how to characterize communist China and its threats to Taiwan in the party platform.

Administration and congressional officials involved in the debate say it is a reflection of the major policy battle inside the U.S. government over whether to abandon the so-called “one-China” policy that says there is only one China — not two, as in the mainland and Taiwan.

The final language of the platform was a mix of good and bad.

The good: “America’s policy is based on the principle that there must be no use of force by China against Taiwan. We deny the right of Beijing to impose its rule on the free Taiwanese people.”

The second sentence was a significant departure from past platform China planks in that it recognizes that China will never succeed in getting Taiwan to submit to Beijing’s form of government and the United States will not give up its posture of defending the island from mainland attack.

The platform also says that Republicans welcome “the emergence of a strong, peaceful, and prosperous China.”

The China section of the platform was developed by the White House National Security Council staff, with help from the offices of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

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