Clinton to Lift Vietnam Trade Curbs, Aides Say : Foreign policy: Historic reconciliation may come this week. O.C. Vietnamese leaders, MIA kin condemn move.

WASHINGTON —  President Clinton has decided to lift the 19-year-old trade embargo against Vietnam and could announce the move before the end of the week, according to Administration officials.

The decision, which would mark a historic reconciliation step, follows a formal recommendation by Secretary of State Warren Christopher late last week after lengthy deliberations by the Administration over the highly emotional issue. The White House is expected to attach no conditions to ending the trade ban, officials said.

The formal signing ceremony will be delayed to give the Administration time to follow usual procedures and notify members of Congress of its plans. The President has sole authority to take the action, which will be accomplished through an executive order.

The embargo, which has prohibited all trade with Vietnam since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, has been relaxed slightly in recent months to permit some businesses to begin making contacts in the Southeast Asian country. Among those pressing for the move has been the Vietnamese government, which has been eager for the economic stimulus that trade with the United States would bring.

Word of the decision was welcomed by some local business leaders. But it but brought an angry reaction from Vietnamese Americans in Orange County, home to the largest group of expatriates outside Vietnam, family members of missing American servicemen and others.

“This will shock the community very much if the President lifts the embargo,” said Ban Binh Bui, president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California. “I know I’m very shocked.”

“We now feel very lonely in our battle against the Communists in Vietnam,” he said. “Concerning the embargo, we request the President tie in with his decision the issues of human rights, a clean and free election so the people of Vietnam can decide what kind of government should represent them, and to clear up the POW/MIA questions.

“The Communists have to account for all the soldiers so the dead don’t have to feel wronged and the living don’t have to feel frustration,” Bui said.

Huu Vo, co-chairman of the Vietnamese American Community in the United States, said he was “very sad” to hear that Clinton might lift the embargo.

In letters to the President, Vo and fellow expatriates have stressed that the United States is a leader of the free world and should require freedom in the countries wanting trade relationships, he said.

“If it’s come to this, then I’m very disappointed that they’ve put business over democracy,” Vo said.

POW/MIA family member Errol Bond of Fullerton was stunned when told the trade embargo might end this week.

“You’re kidding,” he said, his voice cracking, “I think it’s criminal. A couple of hundred of guys still over there alive and he’s giving up our leverage to get those boys back? . . . We’re being sold down the river.”

Dr. Co Pham, an obstetrician who heads the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce in Orange County, hailed the prospects for lifting trade sanctions.

“I feel very, very emotional,” Pham said. “President Clinton will do a great deal for 70 million Vietnamese as well as the families of MIAs and POWs. If we lift the sanctions, the issue of the POWs will be solved very quickly and Clinton will create a lot of opportunity for Americans who want to do business over there. A lot of American businesses are pressuring the President because they see the opportunities.”

Pham conceded that the end of sanctions could ignite some political battles within Little Saigon. The issue has long served locally as a litmus test about hostilities toward the Communist regime in Vietnam. Pham himself donned a bulletproof vest and hired bodyguards after his public support for trade normalization drew death threats.

“It will create some very small skirmishes with Vietnamese pro and con. Some Vietnamese people are still very bitter against Vietnam because of the bad memories,” he said.

But on the other hand, Pham said, he expected a rush of Little Saigon businessman heading off to Vietnam to investigate business opportunities.

“They go not to travel,” he said, “but to find the opportunities for business.”

Congress’ chief opponent of normalization, Sen. Robert C. Smith (R-N.H.), has argued, along with some veterans group and family organizations, that the Administration should continue to enforce the embargo as a way to pressure the Vietnamese into doing more to account for missing American servicemen.

“I’m disappointed, I’m angry and I’m sad. But there’s nothing we can do now. It’s over,” Smith said. He said that the decision appears to be “a done deal.”

The American Legion, the National League of Families and other veterans and family groups have objected strongly to removal of the embargo. They have continued to lobby the White House against the move, and some representatives of the groups met as recently as last week with National Security Adviser Anthony Lake.

But intense pressure for a resumption of trade came from American businesses, including California concerns that saw the potential rewards of trade ties to a nation that has long sought them. And other Americans--including some veterans--have been eager for the United States to finally heal the last wounds of a war that divided Americans and much of world opinion.

Laura F. MacLellan, a Newport Beach banker who is president of the Export Managers Assn. of California, said the opening of relations will provide a boost for small businesses and give the Vietnamese American residents in Little Saigon a larger trading role.

The Vietnamese “still want U.S. goods,” even though they have been trading with European nations for several years now, she said. But the delay of several years in opening up the markets will make it harder to switch from products they are now using.

Orange County computer and health care companies are anxious to explore the possibility of selling to the Vietnamese. Some, such as AST Research Inc., see Vietnam as a natural extension of other Far East enterprises.

Only last week, the Senate voted 62 to 38 in a non-binding resolution that the United States should end the embargo “as expeditiously” as possible. By providing some political cover, that lopsided vote made it easier for Clinton to make a decision that the Administration had long leaned toward.

Yet because it will enrage some veterans, lifting the embargo will still be politically difficult for Clinton: Like many others of his generation, he avoided the military draft.

About 2,200 Americans are still listed as missing from the war, but officials have said there are no more than a few dozen open cases.

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a leading proponent of normal relations with Vietnam and a veteran of the war, had not heard of the decision, a spokesperson said. Kerry and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was a prisoner of war during the conflict, sought last week’s vote as a means of encouraging Clinton to lift the embargo.

U.S. officials have made two special trips to Vietnam to discuss the issue, but their growing agreement in favor of ending the ban has been hinted at for some time.

Washington imposed a trade embargo against North Vietnam in 1964. It extended the embargo to cover the whole country after South Vietnam fell to Communist North Vietnam.

Deborah Robertson Bardsley of Chatsworth, daughter of Air Force pilot Col. John L. Robertson, who has been missing since 1966, said lifting sanctions is a mistake.

“We feel it will damage the issue irreparably,” she said. “We’re giving the Vietnamese what they wanted without them giving us anything we wanted. . . .

“What I’d like to see,” said Bardsley, “is for President Clinton to speak with POW families and activists who have many years on these issues and for him to send a clear message that when you give back those Americans we know are alive, then we will normalize.”

Times staff writers Doreen Carvajal and Chris Woodyard contributed to this report.