Mitterrand Visits Vietnam, Promises More French Aid : Diplomacy: He also expresses hope that U.S. economic embargo will be lifted, saying it is no longer necessary.

French President Francois Mitterrand on Tuesday became the first Western leader to visit Vietnam since 1975 and promised to double aid to the former French colony as long as Hanoi continues to improve its human rights record.

Mitterrand also expressed hopes at a state dinner that the U.S. economic embargo against Vietnam will be lifted, saying it is no longer necessary.

France normalized relations with Vietnam in 1989, ending a U.S.-led boycott imposed after the Communist North took over the South nearly 18 years ago. France took the action after Vietnam withdrew its troops from Cambodia, which it invaded in 1978 to overthrow the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

Despite the bitter colonial legacy, economic and cultural ties between Vietnam and France run deep. Many older, educated Vietnamese speak French, and France is a preferred destination for Vietnamese studying abroad.

Mitterrand brought business people from France to help Vietnam emerge from its economic isolation.

On the first day of a four-day visit, he stressed that Vietnam’s economic opening to the West must be accompanied by increased liberties.

“The respect for human rights has become a universal demand. With its inseparable companion, economic development . . . democracy and development are inseparable,” the 76-year-old French leader said at the dinner hosted by President Le Duc Anh.

“A day like today marks the reunion of two nations, two peoples,” Mitterrand said.

France, he announced, is prepared to double aid to Vietnam this year to $65 million.

Vietnam has allowed foreign investment to spur a sluggish economy hamstrung by Communist bureaucracy. France is the third-largest foreign investor in Vietnam, after Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The official Voice of Vietnam said Mitterrand’s visit shows that “at last the West has acknowledged Vietnam’s open-door policy, the policy of renovation, and its will to join the mainstream economy.”

A 200-member delegation accompanied Mitterrand, ranging from Air France President Bernard Attali to filmmaker Pierre Schoendoerffer and Foreign Minister Roland Dumas.

Mitterrand traveled to the Presidential Palace from Noi Bai airport through streets decorated with French flags and welcoming banners in Vietnamese and French.

At the palace, a turn-of-the-century colonial-style structure that served as the office for the French governors of Indochina, a military band played the “Marseillaise” and the Vietnamese national anthem. Young girls in traditional dress presented flowers to Mitterrand and his delegation.

France held Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia and Laos as colonies until the 1950s.

While in Vietnam, Mitterrand is scheduled to visit the Dien Bien Phu battlefield where 14,000 French soldiers were killed, wounded or captured in 1954. The loss was the death knell for French colonialism in the region.

Mitterrand is scheduled to fly today to Ho Chi Minh City and Thursday to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, where he will hold talks with head of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

Mitterrand is scheduled to return to Paris on Friday.