Hanoi Show-and-Tell

DETERMINED TO PUT TO REST CHRONIC SUSPICIONS that they are hiding live American POWs, Vietnamese officials pulled out all stops to cooperate with a visiting delegation from the U.S. Senate. Not only were Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and his colleagues permitted to wander freely about the Vietnamese military headquarters known as the Citadel, they were buried in previously withheld documents and paraphernalia from dead and captured Americans. Included among the wartime artifacts handed over to Kerry were a handful of Social Security cards, a charred diary, flight suits worn by downed pilots, and a helmet said to have been left behind by Senator John McCain, a member of Kerry's subcommittee on MIA-POW affairs who was a prisoner in Vietnam for five years. Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet said his goal was to "resolve all aspects of the issue of missing Americans" so that full diplomatic relations could be restored. Kerry said he would tell President George Bush that the Vietnamese ^ had been "forthcoming." That may be the signal Bush is seeking to lift economic sanctions before he leaves office in January. "My hope is that the President will listen carefully to the arguments for why there ought to be a U.S. response," Kerry said. "You cannot make this a one-way street forever."