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December 19, 2001

New U.S. Ambassador Takes Up Post in Vietnam

Hanoi (Associated Press) - The new US ambassador to Vietnam, Raymond F Burghardt, arrived in Hanoi on Saturday, heading a mission to focus on implementing the new bilateral trade agreement.

Arriving at Noi Bai International Airport with his wife, Burghardt said he would work to ensure both nations benefit from that landmark pact.

"I'm looking forward to also making my own contribution to improving the relations between our two great countries," he said.

Burghardt, 56, a veteran diplomat, most recently served as the head of the American Institute in Taiwan, an embassy in all but name, for two years.

The period was marked by tension between China and Taiwan, including repeated threats by Beijing against the island it considers a renegade province.

Burghardt is replacing Douglas "Pete" Peterson, a former prisoner of war who served as America's first postwar ambassador from 1997-2001. Burghardt is not expected to present his credentials as ambassador until early 2002.

Peterson, who won high praise as a diplomat and peacemaker, helped guide reconciliation efforts between the two nations, which culminated in the signing of a landmark bilateral trade agreement and a historic visit by then-President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Burghardt's tenure is expected to primarily focus on overseeing implementation of that trade pact, which was ratified by the US Congress in October and Vietnam's National Assembly in November.

Under the trade deal, effective from December 10, Vietnamese goods and services will gain access to the world's largest market with the same low tariffs enjoyed by most nations. In return, Vietnam must open its state-controlled markets to foreign competition and international standards.

A graduate of Columbia College, he was the US consul-general in Shanghai from 1997 to 1999, and served before that in the Philippines and South Korea. He is fluent in Mandarin and Vietnamese.

During the 1980s, he specialized in Latin America, working as a US diplomat in Honduras and Guatemala and as a National Security Council assistant on Latin America in the Reagan administration. Working under Lt. Col. Oliver North, he was involved with the US policy of arming Contra rebels who were fighting Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government. That policy was highlighted during the hearings on the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages deal.
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