A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

ld with a degree in agriculture . No one was going to hire me . So you do what y

ou got to do to survive . Actually , I 've got no complaints . The egg business 

was good to me for 20 years . We raised two boys we 're proud of . We 're paying

 our bills now . Hell , I 'm as happy as if I had brains . '' By the time the fl

ea market closed , the Lamkins ' receipts totaled $ 205 , less than half what th

ey had taken in the previous Friday . `` That 's why it 's time to get out of Fl

orida , '' Walt mumbled . `` You can't live on that . ''

 WASHINGTON Speculation is growing in Washington that Secretary of State Warren 

Christopher will make a groundbreaking visit to Vietnam this summer . Christophe

r is scheduled to travel to Bangkok , Thailand , on July 26 for the annual meeti

ng of the Association of Southeast Asian States . Nothing has been announced , b

ut chances are that he will go to Hanoi before or after that meeting . The Unite

d States announced recently that it had finished arrangements to set up a liaiso

n office in Hanoi. .. . Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord is about to go

 to Vietnam , and there is speculation that among his responsibilities is to mak

e preparations for a visit by Christopher . If Christopher does make the trip , 

he would be in position to open up the new liaison office himself . Christopher 

would be the first U.S. secretary of state ever to visit Hanoi . -0- BROWN VS. B

ROWN : Sen. Hank Brown , R-Colo. , says he has enough `` clear commitments '' fr

om both Democrats and Republicans to defeat the nomination of former anti-war ac

tivist Sam W. Brown Jr. as ambassador to the Vienna-based Conference on Security

 and Cooperation in Europe . The Northern California businessman , who is no rel

ation to the GOP senator , has been tapped by President Clinton to head the U.S.

 delegation to the organization that oversees arms control and security agreemen

ts in Europe . But his confirmation is being filibustered by Senate Republicans 

who note that Brown 's only military experience was as a prominent organizer of 

nationwide protests against the Vietnam War. .. . Echoes of the divisions that s

plit the nation 20 years ago reverberated on the Senate floor last week as Democ

rats twice failed to muster the three-fifths majority needed to break the filibu

ster and vote on Brown 's confirmation . But Sen. Brown insisted that nominee Br

own 's Vietnam record is not the issue . `` It 's not the war , '' he said . `` 

That issue 's behind us . The real concern is that Sam Brown is not qualified . 

'' -0- LINING UP : Out in the real world , the hot tickets are to World Cup socc

er games and Barbra Streisand concerts . But here in the government 's company t

own , some of the most precious tickets are to committee hearings , which are fr

equently held in small rooms with far fewer seats than lobbyists who want to sit

 in them. .. . And now the Capitol 's police force is investigating whether some

 lobbyists are getting in illegally by paying friendly congressional staff membe

rs , who have keys to the House and Senate office buildings , to go inside befor

e the buildings are open to the public and stand in line for them . If they are 

, the staffers in their employ would be violating congressional rules prohibitin

g anyone in an `` official position '' from using that position to gain outside 

employment. .. . Chris Van Horn , owner of the CVK Group , which provides `` lin

e-standing '' services to lobbyists , has complained that his place-holders most

ly college students have found as many as 10 people in line ahead of them when t

hey entered office buildings at their 7 a.m. opening . -0- COURT PLAN : The pres

ident , having passed over federal Judge Jose A . Cabranes for the Supreme Court

 , has now nominated him for the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals , based in Ne

w York . Aides say Clinton hopes to put several more Latinos in the appeals cour

ts during the next couple of months in hopes that one will emerge as a likely hi

gh court nominee by the time the next vacancy occurs . Next in line is Antonia H

ernandez , head of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund based

 in Los Angeles , whose nomination to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is expect

ed to be announced soon .

 SANTIAGO , Chile Erich Honecker , the former East German Communist leader who b

uilt the Cold War 's most chilling monument , the infamous Berlin Wall , died of

 liver cancer Sunday here at his home in exile . He was 81 . Honecker , who rule

d for 18 years before the collapse of communism , had lived in Chile with his wi

fe and his daughter 's family since January 1993 , when Berlin judges ruled he w

as too ill to stand trial in connection with shootings at the Berlin Wall . He l

ived his final days in sickness and bitterness , according to Chilean friends , 

still a committed Communist who fretted about the `` social deterioration '' of 

reunified Germany . Although Honecker led the Communist East German state betwee

n 1971 and 1989 , he will be remembered most for what he did long before buildin

g the Wall . In many ways , the structure served as a metaphor for the uncomprom

ising , neo-Stalinist views Honecker held throughout his rule . His regime foste

red the most pervasive secret police organization in Communist Europe , penned i

n its people and shot those who tried to flee to the West . Honecker 's successo

r as head of the East German state , Egon Krenz , on Sunday pleaded for `` a fai

r judgment '' on Honecker 's life . `` He wanted to realize the dream of humanis

m . '' But a spokesman for German Chancellor Helmut Kohl stated that Honecker ha

d failed in his political goals . `` His policies brought harm to countless peop

le , '' said government spokesman Dieter Vogel . `` Erich Honecker failed . Perh

aps he didn't recognize it , but history gave proof of his failure . '' On Sunda

y , news of Honecker 's death drew shrugs of indifference in his homeland . `` A

t this point I couldn't care less about Honecker , and I 'm sure the same goes f

or most East Germans , '' said Klaus Sternberg , a teacher in Schwerin . `` He '

s in heaven now , and he can sit down with Marx , Engels and Lenin and think ove

r what went wrong , '' said Lutz Wagner , a salesman in eastern Berlin . In the 

early part of his 18 years in power , Honecker enjoyed success . But later , poo

r health , advanced age and political isolation left him increasingly vulnerable

 to the winds of change sweeping the region . An unbending hard-liner , he disli

ked the Soviet Union 's reform-minded leader , Mikhail S. Gorbachev , and was de

eply suspicious of the liberalization under way in other parts of Moscow 's empi

re . In the end , Honecker was toppled by the massive anti-government street dem

onstrations that marked the decisive phase of the 1989 East German revolution . 

His control over the East German state had been so complete , and his fall so su

dden , that Politburo colleagues who witnessed his political demise said Honecke

r was incapable of grasping what had happened . Krenz has said that when he info

rmed the ousted leader of his expulsion from the Communist Party , Honecker `` h

ad not understood at all '' the contents of the message . In his 1980 memoirs , 

`` About My Life , '' Honecker described proudly how , as the Politburo member r

esponsible for state security , he organized the operation that in a matter of a

 few pre-dawn hours on Aug. 13 , 1961 , cut one of Europe 's largest cities in t

wo , closed the last remaining hole in the Iron Curtain and stunned the West . `

` At midnight the alarm was sounded and the action began , '' he wrote . `` With

 it began an operation that .. . would make the world take notice . Later we det

ermined with satisfaction that we had forgotten nothing essential ( in the prepa

rations ) . '' The 100-mile-long , heavily fortified wall through and around Wes

t Berlin endured for 28 years as the most compelling symbol of an ideologically 

divided world . It was almost 10 years after supervising the Wall 's constructio

n that Honecker succeeded Walter Ulbricht as Communist Party boss and de facto E

ast German leader . Honecker was driven from power three weeks before the Wall '

s collapse in November 1989 in a series of events that heralded the fall of Sovi

et bloc communism itself . The concrete barrier that he and other members of the

 East German hierarchy called the `` anti-fascist protection wall '' had effecti

vely halted the westward flight of skilled manpower that threatened to bleed the

 Communist state to economic death . For all its horror , Western economic and p

olitical analysts subsequently admitted that the Wall enabled East Germany to su

rvive as a poorer neighbor of a highly successful West German state . ( Optional

 add end ) Born Aug. 25 , 1912 , in the western town of Neunkirchen as the third

 of six children of a coal miner , Honecker began his political career at the ag

e of 10 by joining a Communist youth group . At 18 , he became a full party memb

er , quickly taking on responsibility in the Saarland region for stirring the pa

rty 's youth into street actions during the tumultuous final days of Germany 's 

Weimar Republic . Spotted by the party 's leadership as a future talent , Honeck

er was sent to Moscow 's Communist Youth International School for a year and ret

urned to become youth propaganda chief for his home region at age 19 . After Ado

lf Hitler 's Nazis seized power in 1933 , Honecker worked surreptitiously to sti

r resistance among factory workers in several parts of Germany , including the i

ndustrial Ruhr Valley . He was finally arrested in Berlin by the Nazi secret pol

ice , the Gestapo , convicted in 1936 of treason and sentenced to 10 years in pr

ison . He remained there until advancing Allied forces reached his prison , 30 m

iles west of Berlin , and freed him in the fading days of World War II . His com

paratively light sentence and preferential treatment during his imprisonment led

 to persistent rumors that he had cooperated in some way with his Nazi captors .

 Those rumors continued virtually to the end , with reports that at the crucial 

1989 Politburo meeting where Honecker was toppled , East German secret police ch

ief Erich Mielke finally forced a reluctant Honecker to give up power by threate

ning to publicize apparently damning evidence relating to his actions in prison 

. After his release from prison in the Soviet-controlled occupation zone , Honec

ker , then 33 , joined the newly formed Communist hierarchy that would eventuall

y lead the East German state . Initially responsible for the reconstituted Commu

nist youth organization , the Free German Youth , he joined the Politburo as sec

urity chief in 1958 , later planning the Berlin Wall operation and emerging as U

lbricht 's heir apparent . Friends of Honecker hailed him as a lifelong anti-fas

cist . Luis Corvalan , former secretary general of the Chilean Communist Party ,

 said Honecker had been `` a great comrade , a great Communist who showed solida

rity with the Chilean people . '' After the Chilean armed forces overthrew Socia

list President Salvador Allende in 1973 , thousands of leftists fled into exile 

and an estimated 5,000 of them took up residence in the former East Germany . Al

lende 's widow , Hortensia Bussi de Allende , was among the Chilean leftists who

 paid their respects to Honecker 's widow , Margot , and their daughter , Sonja 

, Sunday at their home in a closed condominium complex in Santiago . Honecker ha

d another daughter , Erika , by an earlier marriage . Sunday afternoon , a hears

e took Honecker 's body to Santiago 's general cemetery for a wake . A police sp

okesman said a funeral service would be held there Monday and the body would be 

cremated . He did not know whether the remains would be taken to Germany .

 WASHINGTON After a breakdown in talks between a U.N. team and North Korea , U.S

. lawmakers issued new warnings Sunday about the consequences if the Pyongyang r

egime does not agree to international monitoring to prevent development of a nuc

lear weapons program . Calling the defense of South Korea a `` sacred obligation

 , '' Sen. Sam Nunn , D-Ga. , said the North Korean government 's brinkmanship c

ould ultimately endanger its survival . Pyongyang `` should make no mistake abou

t our dedication , our intention and our absolute firmness in continuing the cou

rse of making sure they do not become a nuclear weapons state , '' Nunn said on 

NBC 's `` Meet the Press . '' Tensions heightened this weekend when North Korea 

announced it would continue unloading spent fuel at its main Yongbyon nuclear re

actor , but would `` never allow '' the International Atomic Energy Agency , or 

IAEA , to inspect the facility to determine whether fuel has been secretly diver

ted from energy to weapons use . North Korea has repeatedly denied it has any fo

rm of nuclear weapons program , but U.S. intelligence agencies believe that enou

gh enriched plutonium has been siphoned off to make one or two crude bombs . Aft

er talks broke down Saturday , part of the IAEA team left North Korea , abruptly

 ending the latest effort in the 16-month crisis that has swung erratically betw

een near-calamity and tentative cooperation . The collapse could open the way fo

r punitive U.N. economic sanctions , which North Korea has said it would treat a

s an act of war . `` We don't want a war , '' added Nunn , who is chairman of th

e Senate Armed Services Committee . But `` if North Korea brings a war in reacti

on to any kind of sanctions , then they will bring about the destruction of thei

r own country . '' For months , the Clinton administration has tried a carrot-an

d-stick strategy to engage the outlaw state , offering diplomatic and economic i

ncentives in exchange for cooperation on its nuclear program . Pyongyang 's late

st actions indicate that tactic may have failed . Nunn said Pyongyang faces thre

e alternatives and three different responses : First , cooperation , which would

 be rewarded with membership in the family of nations through `` trade and inter

course . '' Second , resisting nuclear weapons monitoring , which would cause ``

 a very serious financial situation , which could lead to their own disintegrati

on . '' And third , aggression , which would bring decisive military defeat . ``

 The North Koreans are playing brinkmanship this is their historical pattern but

 playing this game has very dangerous consequences , '' he added . Saying there 

are still methods of avoiding military confrontation , Sen . Bill Bradley , D-N.

J. , suggested that the Clinton administration exert pressure through Japan 's e

conomic ties and China 's energy links . `` So you have two vises right there th

at can begin to squeeze , that might indeed take place if there were ever econom

ic sanctions voted at the U.N. against North Korea , '' he said , also on `` Mee

t the Press . '' U.N. . Security Council members met Friday to discuss the stand

off , and more talks are scheduled at the United Nations on Tuesday . ( Optional

 add end ) On Friday , the crisis appeared to take on new urgency when the IAEA 

, the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency , notified the Security Council that North 

Korea was removing the reactor 's fuel rods so quickly that evidence of divertin

g fuel to a weapons program could be erased `` within days . '' International co

ncern has mounted further over the weekend with reports out of Japan that North 

Korea may soon test an advanced version of the Rodong 1 missile , which could re

ach most of western Japan . Military analysts believe the missile would be capab

le of carrying a nuclear warhead if it were refitted for that purpose .

 NAIROBI , Kenya Officials of Rwanda 's self-declared government fled their head

quarters Sunday for a border town in western Rwanda , according to diplomats in 

Kigali , the capital . The rump government , composed of militant ethnic Hutus ,

 abandoned the town of Gitarama as rebel troops of the Rwandan Patriotic Front a

dvanced on it , said the diplomats , who were quoted by the Reuter news agency .

 The rebel group is dominated by the minority Tutsi tribe . The diplomats said t

he Hutu leaders fled a civil servants ' college outside Gitarama where they had 

made their headquarters , heading west by road or helicopter toward Kibuya , on 

Lake Kivu , which borders Zaire . The fall of Gitarama , 25 miles south of Kigal

i , would bring the rebels closer to their goal of an outright victory in the vi

cious , seven-week-old civil war , and would mark a major psychological defeat f

or the Hutu militants . `` Most of the government has gone to Kibuya and others 

are already abroad , '' Reuter quoted one diplomat as saying . The Hutu militant

s , who control the state 's army , helped organize a pogrom against Tutsis last

 month after the Hutu president , Juvenal Habyarimana , died in a suspicious pla

ne crash . In an offensive on Kigali , the smaller but better organized Rwandan 

Patriotic Front forced the Hutu leadership to withdraw to Gitarama . Now , the H

utu militant forces including army units and militias are concentrated in the we

st and the southwest around Butare . The Tutsi-led front controls large chunks o

f Kigali , including the airport , and most of the north , east and south of Rwa

nda . Its leaders refer to the Hutu-proclaimed government as a `` clique of kill

ers '' and have refused direct negotiations with it . The U.S.-based human right

s group Human Rights Watch/Africa has said at least four officials of the rump g

overnment were key instigators and organizers of Rwanda 's ethnic slaughter incl

uding its president , Theodore Sindikubwabo , prime minister , Jean Kambanda , a

nd defense minister , Augustin Bizimana . From the time of the government 's cre

ation , however , it was unclear how much real control they exercised over the R

wandan armed forces and the roving bands of machete-wielding militiamen who bega

n the slaughter that has left an estimated quarter-million Rwandans dead . Human

 Rights Watch/Africa , in a report this month on Rwanda 's violence , said , `` 

Although much of the violence is still controlled by authorities of the hardline

 ( Hutu ) parties , the rump government , or the Rwandan army , random killing ,

 especially in the course of banditry and pillage , is growing as well . '' With

 the international community horrified by Rwanda 's widespread killing , but par

alyzed by confusion and fear about how to respond , many diplomats and human rig

hts advocates have quietly expressed hope for a quick rebel victory as the most 

likely way to end the bloodshed . The front also has been accused of random kill

ing and other abuses , but human rights groups say violations by the rebels do n

ot appear systematic or centrally directed . The offensive on Kigali also contin

ued Sunday , with heavy artillery pounding the city overnight and small arms fir

e forcing the United Nations to suspend convoys in which it has been evacuating 

civilians trapped by the fighting . With tens of thousands of civilians reported

ly fleeing Kigali along the main highway south , the rebels faced the prospect o

f taking over the capital and finding it largely deserted . The roads south were

 said to be clogged with refugees and some government soldiers , fleeing the reb

el advance . Two relief flights landed Sunday with food at Kigali 's airport , b

ut intense small arms and mortar fire prevented food from being distributed in t

he city , according to new agency reports . A mortar shell apparently struck the

 Gitiga orphanage in the capital , wounding six children .

 WASHINGTON As President Clinton prepares to depart for Europe this week to comm

emorate the 50th anniversary of D-day , he faces the challenge of asserting Amer

ica 's and his own leadership in the world . Speaking across a generational chas

m and addressing himself to veterans of a military whose later mission in Vietna

m he and others vehemently opposed , Clinton confronts an important test of his 

presidency . Can the 47-year-old Clinton persuade a skeptical world that he and 

his fellow postwar baby boomers are ready to assume the mantle of leadership ? C

an he summon a nation and its allies to deal with a world whose threats are far 

more diffuse and ambivalent than the unvarnished evils of Nazism and fascism ? A

nd can he present a coherent view of American engagement in the world despite a 

foreign policy record marked by vacillation on Bosnia , retreat in Somalia and H

aiti and reversal on human rights in China ? The way the world and the American 

public come to answer those questions will have a lasting effect on how much Cli

nton will accomplish in his presidency . Clinton hopes that by proving himself a

 strong spokesman for America 's ideals abroad , he can boost his credibility at

 home despite questions about his character and competence . Aides say the key t

hemes of the European trip will be homage to the heroes of the `` Great Crusade 

'' of World War II and a vision of the future based on the triumph of democracy 

. As Clinton speaks against the backdrop of American military cemeteries in Ital

y , Britain and France , he and millions of television viewers will be reminded 

of the painful legacy of the bloodiest century in human history . Clinton , who 

was born after the war ended , will be shadowed not only by his own draft-avoidi

ng past but also by the specter of former President Reagan . Reagan , who spent 

World War II in Hollywood making training and propaganda films for the Army , st

aged what many consider the most effective piece of political theater of his pre

sidency on the cliffs above the Normandy beaches during the 1984 ceremonies cele

brating the 40th anniversary of the D-day landings . White House aides say they 

know that comparisons with Reagan 's stirring performance are inevitable , but t

hey contend they are irrelevant . In 1984 , they say , the United States was sti

ll engaged in a great moral struggle against communism and Reagan 's words about