FOCUS : Is It Time to End Sanctions Against Vietnam?
Last week, Vietnam signaled to the world its eagerness to join the international business community by holding its largest foreign investment conference. And the world signaled its interest by sending more than 1,000 participants from 26 countries. The event, sponsored by the United Nations, marked the socialist nation’s latest step in a four-year effort to move toward a market economy and open itself to foreign investment.
Americans, however, are being shut out by a 16-year trade embargo against Vietnam. The U.S. government argues that the embargo is necessary until a comprehensive peace settlement is reached in Cambodia. But as foreign competitors snap up Vietnam’s best deals in oil, construction and telecommunications, a growing number of U.S. business executives are clamoring for an end to the sanctions.
Staff writer Teresa Watanabe interviewed a Vietnamese-American businessman and a U.S. attorney on the issue.
Do Pham, president, Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce of Orange County: In my heart, I want the embargo to be lifted. But my mind tells me we should be more cautious.
Most Vietnamese here cannot stand to see the people in Vietnam suffering from poverty. A lot of Vietnamese business people want to go back there for business. We sometimes feel frustrated because the Japanese, the Taiwanese, the Europeans are exploiting the situation.
But if we invest in Vietnam, we’ll lose everything because we will make the regime stronger. If we give them money, they’ll be richer. They haven’t been showing any signs of giving freedom to the people, so should we make them stronger? No way. We should demand more freedom for the Vietnamese people, the right to vote, more free enterprise, freedom of travel. At least we should have these basic things before we lift the embargo.
The more I think about the Vietnamese communists, you can’t trust them. If you trust them, they use you. They behave like they’re reforming, but a lot of Vietnamese-Americans doing business in Vietnam have lost a lot of money. Sometimes they lose $100,000, sometimes half a million. All of them come back and complain. Corruption is so bad.
You are dealing with a very smart enemy, and a very meticulous and capricious and manipulative enemy. The U.S. is winning the Vietnam War. They are suffering from poverty; they lack materials, technology. Now is the time to negotiate with an upper hand. If you lift the embargo, they will stay the same.
Bruce Burns, San Jose attorney and Vietnam specialist:
The embargo is really a joke, believed by about 10 people in Washington and some people in the Vietnamese community. Every country in the world is doing business with Vietnam. I prefer to think that perhaps with us being in Vietnam, with our people going there dealing with the Vietnamese, starting up companies and working with the Vietnamese, this will tend to push the decision makers in Vietnam and influence the Vietnamese people to alternative ways of living.
We have tried for more than 30 years--probably close to 45 years--to use the stick against the Vietnamese. We had the French fight the Communist Vietnamese for 15 years, then we were in Vietnam for 15 years. Then the embargo for 15 years. In 45 years, they have not changed their way of doing things.
I think one of the mistakes we made in the Vietnam War was in believing we could bomb the Vietnamese into submitting to our way. That didn’t work. So perhaps we should try the same approach--not to give up our ideals to having better human rights in Vietnam or improving the lives of the Vietnamese--but with the carrot. I think our greatest strength is our economic system. Maybe we can get to them with the pocketbook where we couldn’t with bombs.
What mystifies me is: What’s the big deal about Vietnam? Vietnam is just a country. We fought a war there and we came to peace with Vietnam and we left. We trade with every country in the world except perhaps Cuba and North Korea. To continue the embargo, we make Vietnam more important than it actually is.
The Cambodian issue and the MIA issue are red herrings being used as an excuse not to have close relations with them. The war is behind us. This is a new era. Let’s forget about what happened in the past.
