Fifteen years after a divisive decision to normalize relations with Vietnam, the US is finding to its surprise that the onetime foe has quickly emerged as one of its growing partners.
Even if the Vietnam War — which claimed 58,000 US and 3 million Vietnamese lives — remains a contentious topic, as does Vietnam’s human rights record, the two nations have steadily boosted cooperation on a range of issues.
“As I look at all the friends in Southeast Asia, I think we have the greatest prospects in the future with Vietnam,” said Kurt Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton this week visits Hanoi for a regional meeting as well as talks on building relations with Vietnam. US officials see scope for growing ties in defense, including military exchanges.
Hanoi triumphed over US-backed South Vietnam in 1975, but Vietnam also has historic tensions and territorial disputes with China, a factor US experts see as driving Vietnam’s friendliness toward Washington.
When former US president Bill Clinton championed normal relations with Vietnam, he faced stiff opposition from a number of lawmakers, mostly from the rival Republican Party, who said Hanoi had not fully accounted for missing US troops.
The former president praised Vietnam’s dedication to finding the remains of US servicemen and said he now barely heard criticism of the 1995 normalization.
“Sometimes I think the only single issue that all Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on is that it’s a good thing we’re getting along with Vietnam,” he said. “In a world where it is very easy to become cynical or despondent, the flowering of our relationship, that goes far beyond commerce, should remind us all that we must not forget our history, but we are not condemned to repeat it.”
Republican Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war but supported normalization, said he never imagined Vietnam would become “one of America’s most important and most promising partners in the Asia-Pacific region.”
“It just goes to show that if you live long enough, anything is possible,” McCain said.
However, McCain said he hoped Vietnam would also one day allow “peaceful dissent” and “rule by the consent of the governed.”
“Perhaps my greatest hope for the US-Vietnam relationship is this: that our current partnership of common interests will ultimately become a partnership of common values as well,” McCain said.
Nineteen members of the House of Representatives wrote to Hillary Rodham Clinton last week urging her to use Vietnam’s eagerness for relations as leverage to press for improvements in human rights.
Vietnamese-Americans, many of whom supported the South, have been among the most outspoken in urging the US to take a firm line on rights.
Duy Hoang, spokesman for Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group banned by Hanoi, said that even though Vietnam has moved from a centrally planned economy, the communist party “remains insistent on monopolizing political power.”
“It will be helpful if US policy toward Vietnam is mindful of what’s in the long-term interest of both countries — a free and modern Vietnam,” he said.
RSS