[Vnbiz] Building the American-Vietnamese friendship and understanding

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear CACC,

I have been thinking about this issue for a while, but I am reluctant about
writing this down, because every time I come up with an idea for action, I
am afraid that I will have to run the project (I have tons of projects
already on my hands).  Anyway, I have always felt that the US-VN
understanding should be increased, especially from the US side.  The
Vietnamese in general know the US well, but the American don't know Vietnam
well.  Most of them, including the politicos in Washington, still think of
Vietnam more as a war than as a beautiful country with a wonderful people.

So how do we help improve the mutual understand between the two countries?
In this family alone, we have Vietnamese American, we have Vietnamese
students in the US, we have many Vietnamese with superb English.  Over the
years, Vietnam has many US alumni, i.e. graduates of US universities. So can
we come up with simple mechanism to do that?

I know that there is government-run US-Vietnam Society (Hoi Viet My)  in
Hanoi and its leaders (anh Vu Xuan Hong, anh Hoang Cong Thuy, anh Pham Khac
Lam ,etc..) are actually my personal friends.  But I am talking about a
people-based mechanism (i.e., non-government).  And I don't like the idea of
a typical 503(c) organization with all kinds of fund raising activities and
reports, because you spend most of your daily life doing fundraising and
writing reports!!!  (But if you like the idea of 503(c), fine with me!).  I
am thinking about a network of friends focusing on things that make
the American and the Vietnamese love each other more.

Any idea?

Hoanh

-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
Washington DC
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