Lifting of Trade Embargo Hailed by Many Vietnamese Americans

* (Your) Page 1 story last Sunday (Feb. 6) reporting about what was called “the exile community’s first collective show of opposition to the end of the trade embargo,” regrettably focused exclusively on the protest leaders and the participants to the demonstration--where “a parade of speakers assailed (President) Clinton as a traitor”--without getting the views of others in the community, or at least of the bystanders, and there were many on that busy Tet shopping weekend.

The fact is, in lifting the trade embargo against Vietnam, Clinton also announced the establishment of an office in Hanoi to pursue a dialogue with the Vietnamese government on the issue of human rights in Vietnam, a decision which is hailed by many Vietnamese Americans as a decisive step forward in the struggle for human rights and democracy in Vietnam. We Vietnamese Americans who joined in the campaign for Clinton in 1992, inspired by his promise to strongly support aspirations for democracy, freedom and human rights of the Vietnamese people--and to rebuild a strong economy for my country--have cause to celebrate.

This is definitely a great victory for the United States and for all Vietnamese Americans who are concerned about human rights in Vietnam.

DINH KIM LE

President, Vietnamese American

Democratic League

* The second part of Clinton’s announcement to lift the trade embargo against Vietnam last week was his decision to establish a permanent liaison office to open a human rights dialogue with the Communist authorities in Vietnam.

That was barely mentioned in recent press reports, and virtually ignored in the Vietnamese-language press, and I believe that has contributed to the surprising expressions of anger as reported in your stories about last Saturday’s demonstration in Little Saigon organized by Mr. Diem Do, a leader of the National Liberation Front, among others.

As a political refugee myself, I can easily empathize with many of my fellow compatriots who must have felt as if they were abandoned a second time by the United States.

However, my thinking, and the thinking of many of my friends, is that the embargo doesn’t seem to have any more leverage left anyway after repeated relaxations during the past few years, and that the imminent opening of a dialogue with the Vietnamese government on the issue of human rights is clearly an important concession by Hanoi and a great victory for all of us.

ANGLE THAO

Anaheim