Vietnam Refugees Want U.S. to Go Slow on Resuming Ties

Despite signs that relations between the United States and Vietnam might be thawing, leaders of the National Congress of Vietnamese in America said Saturday that the United States should not rush into lifting the 15-year-old trade embargo against Vietnam and normalizing relations.

“Currently, the Communists in Vietnam need the U.S. more than the U.S. needs the Communists in Vietnam,” Bui Diem, former South Vietnam ambassador to the United States, said in an interview.

“Consequently, there is no need to rush normalization unless the U.S. can promote democracy in Vietnam,” he said.

In New York last week, Washington and Hanoi held unprecedented direct talks about the future of Cambodia. Though the meeting was inconclusive, both sides welcomed the talks as a first step and agreed to meet again. The United States has made a settlement of the Cambodian conflict a precondition of improved relations with Vietnam.

About 110 refugees, including key officials of the former South Vietnamese government, gathered Saturday to discuss the prospects of democracy in Vietnam. The meeting was the opening of the fifth annual conference of the National Congress of Vietnamese in America, which represents among the most conservative elements of the fiercely anti-Communist Vietnamese exile community. The congress is an umbrella organization for about 170 Vietnamese-American organizations in the United States. The conference ends today.

In the past, the group has called for armed struggle to overthrow the Communist government of Vietnam.

However, in the wake of the sweeping changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, a small but growing number of Vietnamese-Americans have called for a softening of the U.S. stance toward their homeland.

In the past, those who advocated lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam have been threatened, had their businesses burned, and have even been assassinated.

However, many Vietnamese-Americans now believe that improved relations are inevitable, but they want the United States to use the lifting of economic sanctions against Vietnam as a lever to extract democratic reforms and human rights improvements.

Easing relations with Vietnam would be “a wrongheaded approach” until the government withdraws its troops from Cambodia and releases political prisoners,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach). “We are not interested in good relations with a dictator.”

Rohrabacher told the group he will continue to push legislation to establish a “Radio Free Asia” to bring uncensored news of democracy to the region.

“As a political realist,” Bui said, “the U.S. could do a lot to help promote freedom and democracy in Vietnam.” But until Vietnamese troops leave Cambodia, he said, the United States should keep its present hard-line policy.

One Vietnamese-American liberal, who asked not to be identified, said a softer statement from the National Congress would be interpreted by the community at large as a signal that frank discussion of the political question would now be tolerated.

“If they are no longer too hard-nosed about their position--their statements damning the Vietnamese government--it’s a good sign that the whole issue of the trade embargo could be discussed among all the members of the Vietnamese community in California,” he said.

“Until now, it has not been discussed openly,” he said. “In the larger American community, yes, but not in the Vietnamese community, because of the threats, the violence and the fear.”

But another community leader, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the group’s members are attempting to find a safe middle ground.

“In their thinking, they are more and more liberal,” he said. “But in their speaking, they are more moderate. They will go between the two lines.”

Times correspondents Thanhthuy Nguyen and Tom McQueeney contributed to this report.