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UNITED NATIONS — President Bill Clinton finally made it to Vietnam! The recent state visit to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) had the usual trappings of the Clinton road show although needless to say, more emotional baggage for both sides. Clinton gingerly used the adage used by PR types and businessmen that "Vietnam is not a War, but a Country."
While this is certainly true, its the shadows of the sanguinary conflict as well as the gut wrenching domestic divisions inside America that still sadly define this Indo- chinese land. The US troop commitment and casualties between 1961 and 1973, the North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam, and the still unresolved issue of 1,500 American servicemen Missing in Action from a conflict a quarter century ago, are naturally the emotional sign posts which most Americans identify with.
Bill Clinton acted the role more of salesman rather than statesman during his three day tour of duty in Vietnam. While spreading his mantra of free markets and ideas, all wrapped in reconciliation, the President spilled forth matchless energy reciprocated by a seemingly genuine bonhomie from most Vietnamese. Clinton, the first American President to visit Vietnam since the forcible communist reunification in 1975, was greeted as part celebrity, part hero, part curiosity. Happily most of Vietnam's population of 78 million were born after the war.
Still, the defining image of the trip was the setting for his address at Hanoi with a huge golden bust of the late dictator Ho Chi Minh behind him. Ho Chi Minh, or Uncle Ho as many in the President's generation affectionately referred to him as, was a brutal nationalist thug who brought communism to North Vietnam. Still a communist icon, Ho is not the sort of man an American politician would want a PR photo with.
While I'm quick to agree that in 2000 "Vietnam is not a war but a Country," so many of that country's current problems rest with the militant Marxism, the aggression against neighbors, and the genuinely stupid socialist planning which wasted Vietnam's scant resources. While rationalized as being the fault of foreigners, many of Vietnam's problems are self-inflicted.
In recent years Hanoi's rulers allowed a selective economic opening especially for foreign investment. Following the end of the US embargo and subsequent diplomatic recognition, euphoria reigned. Now however US investment stands at $1.5 billion, lagging behind other countries most notably Japan and Taiwan.
In 1996 foreign firms invested $8.6 billion but the 1997 Asian financial crisis caused a severe setback. By 1999 the amount slumped to $1.6 billion. Vietnam's per capita income languishes at just over $350 a year. Still this year the economy is slated to grow 6.7 percent.
As the Financial Times stated editorially "It is tempting but wrong to think that President Bill Clinton's visit to Hanoi means that Vietnam will, like its huge communist neighbor China, fling open the window to market forces...but this is not China-style boldness. Vietnam's communists are just as intrusive and corrupt but more cautious than their neighbors. The party controls government, judiciary and media and argues that it should retain that grip for the sake of stability, rather than, as in China release it slightly, for survival's sake."
Le Monde of Paris advised editorially, "Clinton's visit which the old communist guard showed great discretion, could encourage young cadres to demand acceleration of reforms which had been timidly put into place by a regime which jealously guards a monopoly of power, continues to repress dissidents, censures the press and measures stingily religious liberties given to Buddhists and Catholics."
Enthusiasm shown by Saigon residents toward both the Clinton entourage and
the U.S. in general remains a positive reminder of the power of the American dream; and often probably lingering ties from the past that the communists would rather not recall. But beyond business ties, as importantly, Hanoi sees the U.S. as a political counterweight to China's expanding influence.
For most Americans Vietnam has become a country again. For most Vietnamese hopefully America has become a country again too. Sadly whether the two once hostile nations can move closer in the future has less to do with Washington than with the old men in the Hanoi Politburo. Then more Americans will truly say Good Morning Vietnam!
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
