[Vacets-local-dc] [Does Bush deliver Vietnam to tyranny?]

[Hai Tran]

Bush's Shame: State Department Gets President to Abandon Democracy 
Pledge for Vietnam 

by Jeffrey T. Kuhner 
Posted Jun 16, 2005 

"It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth 
of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, 
with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." These 
powerful words, uttered by President George W. Bush in his second 
inaugural speech, have inspired millions of pro-democracy activists in 
places such as Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon. However, there is one 
country where the President is abandoning his pledge: Vietnam. 
Next week, President Bush will be meeting Vietnam's Communist Prime 
Minister Phan Van Khai for talks at the White House. The event is being 
hailed by Hanoi as another crucial step in the normalization of 
relations between the two countries. However, the meeting represents a 
betrayal by President Bush not only of his foreign policy aims, but of 
American veterans who fought and died in Vietnam. 

The current regime in Hanoi is one of the world's last communist 
autocracies, along with North Korea, Cuba and China. Vietnam continues 
to be a one-party Leninist state, which tramples on human rights and 
the religious freedoms of it citizens. Numerous political dissidents 
have been imprisoned. Catholic priests, Protestant pastors and Buddhist 
monks are routinely tortured and prohibited from practicing their 
faith. 
Human Rights Watch reports that Vietnamese security forces have 
launched a vicious crackdown against Christian Montagnards, an 
indigenous hill people from Vietnam's Central Highlands. Montagnard 
men have gone into hiding for fear of being jailed or killed, while 
women and children have been beaten during government-backed raids. HRW 
says that Vietnamese officials are waging a campaign to compel the 
Montagnards to renounce their faith. In particular, those that are 
targeted tend to be followers of "Dega Christianity," an 
unsanctioned form of evangelical Christianity that rejects state 
control of organized religion. 

Yet the State Department insists that Mr. Khai still be given an 
official audience with President Bush-even though other notorious 
thugs, such as former Palestinian strongman Yasser Arafat, have not 
been given this kind of recognition. A major reason is trade. The 
United States is now Vietnam's largest export market, totaling over 
$5 billion. Hanoi is imitating China's model of "Market 
Leninism," fusing capitalist reforms with authoritarian rule. U.S. 
businesses are now clamoring for greater access to Vietnam's growing 
private sector. Therefore, the administration is hoping to forge closer 
ties with Hanoi. It is even considering backing Vietnam's entry into 
the World Trade Organization. 
The famous British statesman, William Gladstone, perceptively once said 
that "what is morally wrong can never be politically right." This 
is the case with Washington's approach to Vietnam. The communist 
authorities are not interested in genuine reform; they simply want to 
use America's good will and more importantly, American money to help 
maintain their grip on power. 

This is the same communist regime that fought a war against the United 
States, in which nearly 60,000 Americans lost their lives to save 
Vietnam from totalitarianism. This is the same regime that, since 
America left Vietnam in 1975, has slaughtered millions of Vietnamese, 
Cambodians and Laotians; expelled countless ethnic Chinese and Hmong 
from their ancestral lands; sent hundreds of thousands into slave labor 
camps; waged wars of aggression against Cambodia and Laos; and 
subjected an entire generation to the miseries of Marxist rule. 
It has been over 30 years since the communist takeover of Vietnam. Yet 
it is remarkable how little the country has changed since U.S. forces 
pulled out. Vietnam remains mired in poverty, corruption and government 
repression. The country's per capita income is little more than 
one-tenth that of nearby Thailand. 

By agreeing to meet with Mr. Khai, President Bush is providing 
legitimacy to a scandal-ridden and brutal government. It is another 
betrayal of the oppressed people of Vietnam. 
For decades, the Vietnamese communists have succeeded in duping U.S. 
diplomats-from supposed "peace" talks during the war to the 
status of American POWs to Hanoi's current claims of liberalization. 
Mr. Khai's communists are not seeking real reconciliation with 
Washington or real political and religious pluralism at home. Rather, 
they remain what they have always been: radical, anti-American leftists 
who are using the United States to further their ideological agenda. 

President Bush should not be meeting with Mr. Khai or any Vietnamese 
government leader until Vietnam embraces democracy and human rights. 
Such a policy honors America, struggling Vietnamese democrats and 
especially, those Americans who gave their lives for a better, freer 
and more prosperous Vietnam. 

www.humaneventsonline.com 








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