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U.S. Department of State
95/08/06 Address: US-Vietnam Relations
Office of the Spokesman
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
(Hanoi, Vietnam)
_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release August 6, 1995
As Prepared for Delivery
ADDRESS BY SECRETARY OF STATE WARREN CHRISTOPHER
TO THE YOUTH OF VIETNAM:
"U.S.-VIETNAM RELATIONS: A NEW CHAPTER"
Institute for International Relations
Hanoi, Vietnam
August 6, 1995
Thank you, Director-General Ngoc, for that kind introduction. It
is a pleasure to be here with Vice Minister Le Mai and other
distinguished guests. I am grateful to the Institute for International
Relations for helping to organize this event. The staff and students of
the Institute are playing an important part in charting a broader role
for Vietnam as it continues to integrate itself into Asia and the world.
I have come to Vietnam on behalf of President Clinton and the
American people to begin a new chapter in the relationship between our
nations. And I have come here this afternoon to speak directly to the
people of Vietnam about the future that I hope we can share.
I am especially pleased to be able to address an audience that
includes so many students. One of the startling facts about Vietnam is
that three-fifths of your countrymen and women are under 25 years of
age. Vietnam is an old country, but a young nation. Its future, and
its evolving place in the community of nations, are yours to shape.
This is the first generation of Vietnamese students in many
decades to enter adulthood informed by the memory of war, but inspired
by the promise of peace. This is what I know you call the "peace
generation" -- the first that can devote all its energies to renovation
at home, and to cooperation with your neighbors and the world. Without
forgetting the past, or abandoning tradition, you have a chance to help
your country move forward with greater freedom and prosperity.
The ties between the United States and Vietnam reach back further
than you might think: In 1787, Thomas Jefferson, a champion of liberty,
as well as a man of science, tried to obtain rice seed from Vietnam for
his farm in Virginia. Fifteen years later, when Jefferson was
President, the first American merchant ship sailed into a Vietnamese
port. Almost 150 years later Jefferson's words that "all men are
created equal" were echoed in Vietnam's own declaration of independence.
Because of the war American troops fought on your soil, I have no
doubt that American history books will always include a chapter on
Vietnam -- just as Vietnamese history books will surely include a
chapter on America. Today our peoples are still scarred by the war.
But let us remember that history is a work in progress. That bitter
past has also planted the seeds for a better future.
More than three million Americans served in Vietnam. Even amidst
the death and destruction of war, many came to appreciate the culture of
your people and the beauty of this land.
We have other bonds as well. The one million people of Vietnamese
origin who now live in the United States can also be a bridge for
reconciliation and cooperation between our two countries. Just south of
my home city of Los Angeles, there is a place called "Little Saigon,"
where Buddhist temples and neighborhood groceries selling rau muong
coexist with the freeways and shopping malls of southern California.
And when I look out my window from the State Department in Washington, I
can see Arlington, Virginia -- a historic old American community and
also a vibrant new center of Vietnamese culture and commerce. Indeed,
the United States has been enriched by our Vietnamese-Americans, one of
the most successful immigrant groups in our recent history.
Yet apart from visits by returning veterans and family members,
there has been little direct contact between our two countries over the
last twenty years. I know these have been difficult years for Vietnam -
- years of economic hardship and until recently, years of conflict. But
we have now reached a time of promise and of change. We still have
history to make, a new chapter to write in the history we share.
A month ago, President Clinton decided the time had come to
normalize diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam.
He was supported in this decision by a majority of the American people,
and by an important group of American veterans who had served here
during the war and who now serve in the United States Congress. The
President believes, as do they, that closer ties are in the interest of
both our nations. The diplomatic relations we initiated yesterday will
help us to account fully for those who sacrificed in the past, and will
also allow our countries to work together on behalf of regional
prosperity and security.
Our most important priority in restoring ties with Vietnam is to
determine the fate of each American who did not return from the war.
Each soldier who was lost remains cherished, with a name, a family, and
a nation that cares. There should be the fullest possible accounting
for each one. That is a solemn pledge my government has made to the
American people. Fulfilling it remains the key to a closer relationship
between our two countries.
I want to thank the Vietnamese officials, veterans, and citizens
who have helped us find answers, by sharing their memories of the war
and by leading us to crash sites and burial grounds. They have come
forward time and again to help Americans ease our sense of loss. I know
that the people of Vietnam have endured great losses as well. That is
why the United States has released thousands of documents to help
Vietnamese authorities search for those of your countrymen who are still
missing in action. That is why we have funded humanitarian projects for
war victims.
Of course, we cannot heal every wound or settle every debate from
the past. We will leave that to students of history, and to future
generations. This moment belongs to the families looking for answers
about lost loved ones, and to the Vietnamese villagers who have given
them a helping hand. It belongs to the American veterans who have
returned to this country to provide prosthetics to victims of the war,
and to the Vietnamese veterans who welcome them as friends. It belongs
to the entrepreneurs who are rebuilding this country, now that it is
finally at peace. It belongs to the students who question old
assumptions and embrace new ways of thinking. As the great Vietnamese
poet and statesman Nguyen Trai put it five hundred years ago: "After so
many years of war, only life remains."
After so many years of war and turmoil, Vietnam is turning its
face to a changed world. Colonial empires have vanished and the age of
independence struggles is over. In the last two decades, 45 more
sovereign countries have emerged. But it is not only new nations that
have been born and maps that have been redrawn. A powerful revolution
of ideas has swept the world. Indeed, the main story of the late
twentieth century is the ascendancy of open societies and open markets
in country after country, lifting the lives of hundreds of millions of
people.
Today in the Western Hemisphere, for example, every nation but one
has a freely elected government and a market economy. After decades of
struggle, South Africa is now a multiracial democracy. The former
Soviet Union has been transformed. In Europe, the fastest growing
economies are those Eastern nations that moved most decisively toward
economic and political reform.
Communications technology is pushing the expansion of freedom for
the individual at the same time as it is shrinking the distances between
nations. My speech to you, for example, will be broadcast back to the
United States by satellite. Through the Internet, it will be available
to almost anyone in the world with a computer and a phone line.
Governments cannot control this movement of ideas in the Information
Age, even if they want to.
Consider how much Southeast Asia has changed as well. New
civilian governments have been freely elected in Thailand, Cambodia, and
the Philippines. Nations like Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia are ten
to twenty times wealthier today than they were in 1965. My visit this
past week to Kuala Lumpur underscored for me the enormous scale and
dynamism of the region's transformation.
Because of these remarkable changes, America's relationship with
the nations of Southeast Asia has been transformed as well. Twenty-five
years ago, the largest American communities in the region revolved
around military bases. The United States has vital military alliances
and a substantial military presence in the region that are widely
welcomed. Our security presence will continue to provide the stability
and reassurance necessary for sustained economic growth. But today,
American communities in the region also revolve around Chambers of
Commerce and universities. The most common interaction across the
Pacific takes place today among private citizens -- among business
people, scholars, and tourists. I believe that these currents of
culture and commerce are bringing us closer to a new Pacific community
stretching from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur.
Vietnam is now moving into the mainstream of Southeast Asia. Last
year, your country became a founding member of the ASEAN Regional Forum,
the region's first multinational dialogue on security issues. This
year, it has joined ASEAN itself. As its economy opens further, and its
laws governing trade and investment develop, Vietnam will be in a
position to join its Southeast Asian neighbors in the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum and the World Trade Organization. We want
Vietnam to enjoy the benefits, and to assume the obligations, that go
with belonging to these international institutions.
With the Cold War over, we view Vietnam as the product of its own
history and the master of its own destiny. As many of your countrymen
and ours have urged, we look on Vietnam "as a country, not a war." We
view it as a nation with immense potential as a partner in trade and
diplomacy.
The process of establishing normal economic ties with the United
States will take time. But we are prepared to move forward. We will do
so in consultation with Congress and consistent with our laws. The
first step in expanding our commercial relations is to negotiate a
bilateral trade agreement that will provide for Most Favored Nation
trading status. Our goal is to develop with Vietnam the same full range
of economic relationships that we enjoy with your Southeast Asian
neighbors.
I hope that many more Americans will join companies like Ford,
Coca-Cola and Baskin Robbins in betting on Vietnam's future. I also
hope that more private American organizations will join groups like the
Ford Foundation and World Vision in supporting Vietnam's development. I
hope that more Vietnamese students will come to study in the United
States, to join the 66 already participating in the Fulbright
scholarship program.
There is a great deal our governments can do together. Through
the ASEAN Regional Forum, for example, we can strive with others to
assure stability in Southeast Asia. One of the key issues is the South
China Sea, a vital sea lane through which one-quarter of the world's
ocean freight passes. The United States will continue to urge countries
with competing claims to resources there to resolve their disputes
through dialogue.
Together the United States, Vietnam and its neighbors have an
interest in cooperating to fight narcotics trafficking. Southeast Asia
is the biggest source of heroin arriving on American shores. This
deadly drug is ruining lives in the countries through which it passes,
including Vietnam.
We have also started and will continue having a dialogue with
Vietnam on human rights issues that are of great importance to the
American people. Progress in this dialogue will enable our two nations
to further deepen our ties.
This is a time of great possibility for our relations with
Vietnam, for your country's continued growth and its integration in the
region. But while further progress is possible, it is not guaranteed.
If Vietnam is to find an important place in the community of nations and
to attract investment, it should move beyond just opening its doors.
The key to success in this rapidly changing world is the freedom to own,
to buy and to sell; the freedom to participate in the decisions that
affect our lives.
As your nation and leaders have recognized, free market reform is
a necessary start. All over the world, courageous reformers have
understood that command economies cannot bring prosperity to their
people. Experience teaches it cannot be dismantled piecemeal. I would
ask you to look at economic reform as a passage over a ravine: you
cannot do it by taking several little steps; only one giant leap will
get you across.
There are many different models of market economies. But whether
you go to New York, or Tokyo, or Bangkok, you will find most of the
fundamentals are the same. All these places have private property
rights, protected by an independent judiciary, and with ownership
clearly defined by law. In each, one can borrow capital, buy insurance,
and freely exchange information. In each, efficiency, hard work, and
imagination are rewarded, not discouraged.
Vietnam has made great progress in creating these conditions, and
the result has been stunning economic growth and a range of new
opportunities. The policy of Doi Moi has been a tremendous success.
But there is still much to be done to create an institutional framework
in which a free market can flourish. Vietnamese entrepreneurs and
foreign investors alike need a stronger system of private banking, and
above all, less red tape and more transparency.
In Vietnam, as everywhere, a free market is the basic precondition
for a productive business environment. But I believe sustained economic
development is more likely where courts provide due process, where
newspapers are free to expose corruption, and where business people can
make decisions with free access to accurate information. The foundation
of market economies -- rights that protect contracts, property, and
patents -- can only be guaranteed by the rule of law. Indeed, the
reality of Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Thailand tells us that the
rule of law and accountable government are the bedrock of stability and
prosperity. The reality of Burma and North Korea tells us that
repression entrenches poverty.
Our conviction -- that freedom is both practical and just -- is
neither Western nor Eastern. Most would agree with the 16th Century
Vietnamese poet who said that "the people are the roots of the nation."
Each nation must find its own way consistent with its history and
culture. The people of Vietnam, especially its young people, will
choose their way. But that is just the point. For when you hear
Americans talk about freedom and human rights, this is what we mean:
Each of you ought to have the right to help shape your country's
destiny, as well as your own.
Today, the United States is embarking on a new relationship with
your country, and most important, a new relationship with your people.
There are issues on which we will disagree. But we have, I believe, a
common vision of Vietnam taking its rightful place in a community of
Southeast Asian nations that is more open, more prosperous and more
secure than ever before. For the first time in many years, we will have
a normal relationship, in which each of our nations can advance its
interests in a climate of cooperation and in an age of peace.
"Heaven has ushered in an era of renewal," says an inscription on
Hanoi's Temple of Literature. Let us do all that we can together to
seize this moment and to bring those immortal words to life.
Thank you very much.
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