U.S. Relations With Vietnam

* John McAlister in his introduction to “Vo Nguyen Giap” (Opinion, Jan. 9) and his interview created many false perceptions, among them that lifting the U.S. embargo against Vietnam would be a “cure-all” solution for all Vietnamese economic ills and that Vietnamese communists have always wanted to be on our side.

First, the sorry state of the Vietnam economy was a direct result of Vietnamese economic and political policies, not from the U.S. embargo, as he asserted. After the war ended in 1975, victorious communist Northern Vietnamese imposed a Soviet-style economy on the South, centralizing all decisions, collectivizing all agricultural and industrial productions, and destroying all forms of private ownership.

To solve Vietnam’s “poverty and economic backwardness” requires much more than U.S. money. First and foremost, a change in Vietnam’s leadership. Vietnamese people do not have any confidence in the current government that has become so inept and corrupted. The only reason why they are still in power is that they rule by raw force, by guns and threats.

The much-praised economic reforms in Vietnam have benefited mostly ranking Communist Party officials. They have used their power to steal from the people and to get kickbacks from greedy foreigners. The privatization of the state-owned enterprises will legalize their ill-gotten wealth since they are the only ones who have money to buy.

Secondly, communist Vietnam never wanted to be on America’s side. Rather, they wanted to create a perception that we are on their side.

The current Vietnamese government wants the U.S. to lift the embargo and normalize diplomatic relations because such actions will help it to remain in power, so it can go on imprisoning Buddhist monks and Catholic priests or anyone who dares to challenge its ruthless rules.

True reconciliation between the two peoples of Vietnam and America can come only when the Vietnamese people can enjoy the basic freedoms that the American people are taking for granted daily and more than 50,000 Americans died for in Vietnam almost 20 years ago.

TRAN QUOC BAO, Chairman

Vietnam Restoration Party, Torrance

* I felt I had been cheated when I read the interview of Vo Nguyen Giap. I escaped from Vietnam in 1982 after living seven years under the communist regime. My family and I were punished and discriminated against because of our background. Vo Nguyen Giap was right when he said that “The spirit of our people is strong . . . Vietnam will prevail in the future as in the past because of the spirit of our people.” The spirit of the Vietnamese people is the spirit of independence, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. Ironically, the Communist Party that governs the country has not given that spirit a chance to survive.

If Vietnam really wants to establish diplomatic relationship with the U.S., its government and the monopolistic ruling party should abandon communism, step down, and organize a democratic election.

Giap said that “it is ultimately the people who will decide” the policies of a nation. Unfortunately and ironically, Vietnamese people do not have the right to decide for themselves as the Communist Party is the one and only authority to make decisions.

Giap seems to be proud to suggest the lessons he learned from the past relations between Vietnam and America. Unfortunately, the most important lesson that he has failed to learn is that the spirit of the Vietnamese can only prevail when their freedom and civil rights are guaranteed by the government of their own choice.

THANH N. NGUYEN

Inglewood