Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the U.S. has recently displayed a remarkable diplomatic ingenuity in its efforts to improve ties with certain communist countries. A lot of that ingenuity involves using MIA remains as a diplomatic tool in pursuit of its new policy of containing China. PNS commentator Thi Lam, a former general in the South Vietnamese armed forces, is an author based in San Jose, Ca.

Twenty five years ago ping pong matches were a diplomatic tool for opening the door to a U.S.-China rapprochement aimed, in good part, at containing the then-communist Soviet Union. Today the U.S. is using similar tools in its new global strategy to contain a still communist China.

Since the demise of the Soviet Union, China has been steadily emerging as a new economic and military superpower. Its ambitions in the South China Sea, manifested in armed clashes with Vietnam and the Philippines, are sparking new political re-alignments in the strategic Asia-Pacific region. The search for MIA remains from the Vietnam war provided an opportunity for the U.S. to re-establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam, China's traditional enemy to the south. Now a search for MIA remains from the Korean war is providing a similar opportunity for the U.S. in North Korea, China's edgy neighbor to the east.

China's recent saber rattling in the Taiwan Straits has heightened Washington's resolve to seek a new strategic balance in this fast growing region of vital interest to the U.S. The recent strengthening of the U.S.-Japan alliance is a key component. Under the new security accord signed by President Clinton and Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, the U.S. will maintain troops in East Asia while Japan's Self-Defense Forces will play a greater security role in the region.

To further tighten the knot around China, Washington is now working on a rapprochement with North Korea. Some analysts believe that North Korea is now eager for a bilateral peace agreement with the U.S. They view last month's armed intrusion into the DMZ by North Korean troops as a bizarre overture by Pyongyang to the U.S.

Once again, as earlier in Vietnam, the search for the remains of some long-forgotten U.S. soldiers -- in this case 8,000 missing from the Korean War -- offers a convenient pretext for starting talks. The dialogue between Washington and one of the world's most closed societies would likely result in improved ties and shipments of food urgently needed by hunger-plagued North Korea.

However, in international relations, even more than in normal business transactions, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Vietnam and North Korea's cooperation in the hunt for MIA remains comes with a price. As recently reported by the San Jose Mercury News, the U.S. government has spent $33.6 million on the MIA program in Vietnam over the last four years. More than one-third of last year's $11.2 million expenditure was unaccounted for.

A new agreement recently reached in New York provides for the U.S. to pay $2 million to North Korea for its efforts in delivering more than 200 sets of American remains. Of those, 46 were returned between 1990 and 1992, and 162 were returned between 1993 and 1994, but only five sets have been positively identified.

The misuse of MIA funds and the high fees paid to the Vietnamese government have raised some questions in the U.S. But these current monetary costs and the earlier costs in human lives and money of the Korean and Vietnam wars were spent for the same objective: to contain communist expansionism in South East Asia.

In war, it appears, it is often difficult to identify winners and losers. North Vietnam, which won the Vietnam War, used the remains of American MIA's as a tool for extracting economic and political gains from the U.S. Ironically, the U.S., the loser in that war, is now using MIA remains to achieve what it could not achieve through war: halting Chinese expansionism.

For the grieving families of the MIA's, the MIA diplomacy also offers a certain solace: whatever their personal feelings about the Korean and Vietnam Wars, their loved ones did not die in vain.