GOOD MORNING,VIETNAM

President Clinton, who has been severely criticized for avoiding service in theVietnam War, plans to go down in the history books as the U.S. President who restored full diplomatic ties to Hanoi. Today, concluding an angry debate among the President's aides, Clinton's national security advisers drafted a formal order that he is expected to sign next week -- just soon enough,TIME's Dean Fischerreports, for Secretary of State Warren Christopher to make a landmark visit to the Vietnamese capital after an Asian economic conference at the end of the month. "Given the President's own opposition to the war when he was in college, there was some fear in the White House that this risk was not worth taking," Fischer says. "But there seems to have been a shift in attitude in support of recognizing Vietnam -- that if Clinton did not do it, he would also pay a price." The closed-doors debate in recent weeks pitted National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, who favors the move, against Clinton's political advisers. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.), bothveterans, have advocated the step, backed by a few veterans' groups and business leaders who want to get in on the ground floor of Hanoi's new economy. A preponderance of veterans and family groups that believe Vietnam has not come clean about American POWs plan a massive campaign to dissuade the President.