Vietnam, for Americans, is a series of images. The change in the relationship between the two erstwhile battlefield enemies is closely linked to the change in these images – a fascinating, yet laborious process of adapting mentally to the discovery that what one once believed about the other is no longer true.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) described his mental voyage at an Asia Society event last month. He described three images of Vietnam, all surrounding a girl in an ao dai, the tight-fitting, national dress. First, she bikes to school on a rusty bicycle, with a cheap ballpoint pen and schoolbook, wearing a cheap polyester dress. In the next picture, she rides a motorbike, heading for English classes, which, she knows, will give her a heads-up in the emerging market economy that begins to engulf Vietnam. In the last mental picture, he sees a young woman, her ao dai expensive silk, with a laptop computer under her arm, getting out of a Ford Focus in front of an office building.
There are, of course, other images that Americans have also carried with them as a heavy load: a naked girl escaping a napalm attack, downed U.S. aircraft whose pilots were never heard of again, images of death in the jungle of a far-away country.
Today, Vietnam is on its way to join the World Trade Organization. Legislation is pending to grant the former enemy Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status. President Clinton has visited Hanoi, and President Bush is scheduled to take the same trip in November. A turn-around of gigantic proportions. Almost four million foreign tourists will visit Vietnam this year, many of them Americans. For those born after the war, the images are decidedly different from their parents’.
Not just economics
The new relationship appears all business. Large corporations see in Vietnam with its 83 million industrious people and almost double-digit annual growth rates an emerging market. A Ford Focus is a status symbol, and saving money with a U.S. life insurer a desirable nest egg. And due to the shortages of the pre-reform days, U.S. consumer goods that were sent home by overseas Vietnamese now have a huge advantage in name recognition.
The new relationship appears all business. Large corporations see in Vietnam with its 83 million industrious people and almost double-digit annual growth rates an emerging market. A Ford Focus is a status symbol, and saving money with a U.S. life insurer a desirable nest egg. And due to the shortages of the pre-reform days, U.S. consumer goods that were sent home by overseas Vietnamese now have a huge advantage in name recognition.
Yet interestingly, normalization did not begin with trade. It began when Hanoi and Washington agreed to cooperate on humanitarian issues. The United States wanted to account for its missing in action (MIA) and prisoners of war, and Vietnam agreed to help.
This cooperation changed images more than any factory could. Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.), a veteran of the war, saw Vietnam in a new light after visiting on a congressional MIA mission. In an earlier interview, he said that he was impressed with the level of support in finding and identifying American MIAs, especially in a country that still has 300,000 of its own soldiers missing. Just under 1,400 U.S. service members are still unaccounted for.
Simmons had supported human rights legislation that held up normalization, but after his visit, he changed his mind.
Irreversible trend
Along with normalization of its international relations, Vietnam changed its economic system. In 1986, a renovation policy called doi moi recognized the importance of trade and markets for development – not just economic, but also social. Vietnam has an excellent record in poverty alleviation.
Along with normalization of its international relations, Vietnam changed its economic system. In 1986, a renovation policy called doi moi recognized the importance of trade and markets for development – not just economic, but also social. Vietnam has an excellent record in poverty alleviation.
The process of reform and openness has long become irreversible, and the image of Vietnam as a centrally planned economy living in poverty has become outdated. This year’s Party Congress elected the youngest post-war leader since the end of the war. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is a known reformer from the South of Vietnam, said to be more business and less politics. Another first: he will serve a President who is also a Southerner. Since the end of the war, the two top leadership positions were always divided between a Northerner and a Southerner. But Vietnam seems to have matured to the point where these distinctions no longer matter.
11 years of engagement
July 12 marks the eleventh anniversary of official normalization. Since that time, what Vietnam calls "constructive engagement" has been beneficial to both sides. The United States is Vietnam’s biggest market. Nike is one of Vietnam’s biggest employers. Travelers on Vietnam Airlines enjoy Boeing’s planes. Cargill does brisk animal feed business in Vietnam. U.S. insurance companies vie for shares in a booming life insurance market. And on June 13, more than 100 U.S. corporations came together to support PNTR for Vietnam.
July 12 marks the eleventh anniversary of official normalization. Since that time, what Vietnam calls "constructive engagement" has been beneficial to both sides. The United States is Vietnam’s biggest market. Nike is one of Vietnam’s biggest employers. Travelers on Vietnam Airlines enjoy Boeing’s planes. Cargill does brisk animal feed business in Vietnam. U.S. insurance companies vie for shares in a booming life insurance market. And on June 13, more than 100 U.S. corporations came together to support PNTR for Vietnam.
The economic image of Vietnam today is well captured by Sen. Baucus’s young woman with the IBM laptop in the Ford Focus. Vietnam is going somewhere fast, and Americans want to be part of trip. In the process of this economic engagement, Vietnamese have also become friends of America. In a country where 60 per cent of the people were born after the end of the war, America is seen as a friend and Americans are genuinely liked. Vietnamese dream of an American education and English is widely spoken. In business, a translator is hardly ever necessary.
Constructive, lasting partnership
With full legal recognition of normalcy potentially only a couple of months away, the two governments are already working on a broader strategic relationship. Both House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld visited Vietnam in June, talking about a further deepening of already progressing relations.
With full legal recognition of normalcy potentially only a couple of months away, the two governments are already working on a broader strategic relationship. Both House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld visited Vietnam in June, talking about a further deepening of already progressing relations.
During the first-ever visit by a Vietnamese post-war prime minister to Washington in June 2005, Phan Van Khai and President Bush issued a joint statement between the United States and Vietnam. It called for "greater contact between our countries’ respective executive and legislative branches, commercial and scientific communities, militaries and citizens… ."
One year later, both sides appear satisfied that the relationship has followed the joint statement’s direction. Hastert was received like an old friend by his counterpart in Vietnam, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Van An. And Rumsfeld’s visit brought progress on the military side. Two Vietnamese officers are training in Texas today, and a broadening of the exchange is expected.
On the Fourth of July, the U.S. Navy provided the image for the new friendship: two warships docked in Saigon port, an honor reserved for close friends and partners.
Thomas Jandl
Vietnamese
