*** OVERCOMING THE LEGACY OF THE VIETNAM WAR ***
By Andrew Wells-Dang, Asia-Pacific Center for Justice and Peace
(Editor's Note: A few weeks ago a bilateral trade accord was signed by
the U.S. and Vietnam, opening the way for Congress to grant normal
trading status (NTR) to Vietnam. The absence of normal trading relations
between the two countries is largely attributable to lingering U.S.
resentment at Vietnam for having chased U.S. forces out of Indochina. In
this new FPIF policy brief, Andrew Wells-Dang looks at the legacy of the
U.S. war and recommends a package of new policies, including
unconditional congressional authorization of NTR status for Vietnam. The
entire text is posted at:
http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/briefs/vol5/v5n26vietnam.html)
Twenty-five years ago, on April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese troops
marched into Saigon, ending what Vietnamese call the "American War" and
leading to the reunification of the country. The war cost the lives of
three million Vietnamese on both sides, and at least a million Laotians
and Cambodians. Although most Vietnamese have put the bitter memories of
the war years behind them, U.S. policy has still not fully accepted the
loss of the war--as if the U.S. had grievances against Vietnam rather
than the other way around. Any mention of Vietnam in the United States
still evokes the war, first and foremost. Despite five years of
diplomatic ties between the former enemies, the legacy of war remains
hidden below the surface--sometimes quite literally, in the form of land
mines, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and Agent Orange (dioxin). Over
100,000 Vietnamese have been killed or maimed by mines and UXO since
1975, and an estimated one million people suffer from toxic
contamination. Additional consequences of unresolved conflicts include
the economic and political isolation that still plagues the Vietnamese
government, which won the war but has arguably lost the peace.
Early postwar hopes for normalization of relations between the former
enemies were dashed when Washington refused to provide the
reconstruction aid originally promised to Hanoi. When open conflict
arose between Vietnam and Pol Pot's Cambodia in 1978-79, the U.S.
tacitly supported the Khmer Rouge and their Chinese patrons,
establishing full diplomatic ties with China and agreeing to look the
other way from Deng Xiaoping's punitive invasion of northern Vietnam. In
the geopolitical mindset of the Carter, Reagan, and Bush
administrations, China formed a counterweight to the Soviet Union, while
Vietnam was dismissed as a Soviet satellite. China received temporary
normal trade relations (NTR) status, full diplomatic recognition, and,
until 1989, military assistance. Vietnam got a twenty-year trade and aid
embargo, which compounded the effects of a vast refugee exodus and other
postwar difficulties.
The U.S. political establishment reacted to its defeat in Vietnam by
adjusting its military strategy to minimize casualties to Americans. But
the basic foreign policy errors that led to the Vietnam debacle lie
embedded in persistent cold war thinking and in the assumption that the
American way is always best. Instead of admitting that it might have
supported the wrong side in the Vietnamese revolution, the U.S. has
continued to fight the war by other means.
The U.S. isolation of Vietnam continued until well after the end of the
cold war. President Clinton finally lifted the unilateral trade embargo
in 1994 and reestablished diplomatic relations the following year. U.S.
investors currently constitute 3.5% of Vietnam's total foreign
investment, ranking ninth among Vietnam's trading partners. A bilateral
trade agreement, considered by Washington to be the stepping stone to
NTR, was negotiated in 1999 and signed in July 2000. But the accord will
not enter into force until ratified by the U.S. Congress. With a few
exceptions, U.S. assistance to Vietnam's development has been shamefully
inadequate. On the most overt war-related issues, landmines/UXO and
Agent Orange, it has taken the U.S. a generation to accept the scope of
the problems and to consider addressing them in a comprehensive way. In
at least one aspect, normalization has had a negative impact on Vietnam:
as a condition of new relations, Hanoi has been forced to begin
repayment of $146 million in former South Vietnamese bilateral debt.
The widespread coverage of the April 30 anniversary in mainstream
publications such as Time and People has shown Americans the new face of
Vietnam. More than half of all Vietnamese were born after the war. Both
they and the older generation desire peace, continued reform, and
economic opportunity, ending their isolation while maintaining a
distinct national identity. It behooves Washington--considering both
economic interest and moral responsibility--to support the Vietnamese in
these developments. Doing so, however, requires dismantling the barriers
to good relations that remain as legacies of the war.
(Andrew Wells-Dang <andrew@apcjp.org> is the program director at the
Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace.)
Sources for More Information:
Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace
Email: apcjp@igc.org
Website: http://www.apcjp.org/
Fund for Reconciliation & Development
(formerly U.S.-Indochina Reconciliation Project)
Email: usindo@igc.org
Website: http://www.usirp.org/
Human Rights Watch/Asia
Email: jendrzm@hrw.org
Website: http://www.hrw.org/
PeaceTrees Vietnam
Email: jerilynbru@aol.com
Website: http://www.peacetreesvietnam.org/
Quaker Service Vietnam
Email: afscvn@netnam.org.vn
U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council
Email: vbfoote@aol.com
Website: http://www.viam.com/ads/usvn.html
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation
Email: chuck@netnam.org.vn
Website: http://www.vvaf.org/
Congressional Hearing on U.S.-Vietnam Trade
http://www.house.gov/ways_means/trade/106cong/tr-12wit.htm
Hatfield Consultants
(Agent Orange study material)
http://www.hatfieldgroup.com/
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
http://www.icbl.org/
U.S. Trade Representative
http://www.ustr.gov/
U.S.-Vietnam Agreement
http://www.ustr.gov/new/text.html
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