[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 87 (Friday, June 20, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6046-S6047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                    AMERICA'S RELATIONS WITH VIETNAM

 Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, it was my pleasure last week to 
welcome back to Washington, His Excellency, Desaix Anderson, who has 
returned from Vietnam where he served for almost 2 years as our 
Government's Charge d'affaires in Hanoi.
  He worked very effectively to help establish a new relationship 
between our two countries and in the process created a bond of 
friendship and mutual trust that will serve us well as we build on that 
well-laid foundation.
  He is now writing a book on the United States-Vietnam relationship 
and because of his experience and intelligence, I'm sure it will be an 
important contribution to our understanding of this unique subject.
  Before he left he discussed his impressions of the current situation 
and recent events at a meeting of the United States-Vietnam Trade 
Council on April 7. It gives such an encouraging assessment of the 
possibilities for the future in that country Senators should take note 
of it.
  I ask that a copy of Mr. Anderson's remarks be printed in the Record.
  The remarks follow:

  America's Relations With Vietnam--Accomplishments, Challenges, and 
                               Potential

                      (Remarks of Desaix Anderson)

       In the year and half since normalization, Vietnamese and 
     Americans, working together, have laid the foundations for a 
     totally different relationship between our two countries. 
     While cognizant of our tortuous history of the past fifty 
     years, our leaders agreed in 1995 to look to the future, to 
     build on common goals seeking peace, stability, and 
     prosperity in our nations and in the East Asia Pacific 
     region. We realized that building trust and mutual confidence 
     was the most important requirement to construct this new 
     relationship.
       On that basis we began to pick up the links of personal and 
     non-governmental contacts which emerged and survived over the 
     years, despite the estrangement between our governments, and 
     to call on the goodwill which we have found to be widely 
     flourishing in both countries, and to begin to construct the 
     foundation for a friendly, contemporary relationship. To 
     enjoy a normal relationship, that foundation has to be 
     composed of hundreds of thousands of expanding networks not 
     just between governments but between our peoples, as well.
       So, I salute the US-Vietnam Trade Council, Virginia Foote, 
     the NGO's, the Vietnam vets, the Vietnam Veterans 
     Association, hundreds of American businessmen and women, the 
     media, itinerant English teachers, universities, tour groups, 
     the Vietnam-America Friendship Association, individual 
     Americans, as well as the Government officials and leaders 
     who have played their roles in initiating this new 
     relationship.


                            accomplishments

       All we have sought to do and accomplished fits nicely under 
     the rubric former National Security Advisor Anthony Lake 
     brought to Vietnam last July, in saying, ``America's vision 
     of Vietnam is of a strong and prosperous country, well 
     integrated into regional and global institutions.''
       Hear the breadth of what has been going on.
       We are cooperating diligently with the Vietnamese to 
     account for missing Americans--our top priority--even as we 
     work to find ways to strengthen further bilateral and 
     unilateral efforts to reach successful conclusions.
       We adopted for cooperation two important Vietnamese goals--
     strengthening health and education. The Centers for Disease 
     Control, the National Institutes of Health, with strong 
     support from HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, are spearheading 
     efforts contributing to Vietnam's health system. A CDC doctor 
     will soon join the embassy staff to work full time on public 
     and private health cooperation between our countries. The 
     embassy, through some 30 Fulbright scholarships and 25 
     international visitor grants annually and the contribution of 
     an American studies collection to Hanoi University, is 
     strengthening bilateral educational ties. In addition, thirty 
     or so American universities are working with Vietnamese 
     counterparts to upgrade Vietnam's education system.
       Our Agriculture ministries are cooperating closely to 
     exchange information, develop policy alternatives, and 
     promote exchanges such as the 18 upcoming Cochran fellowships 
     for young Vietnamese to study in professional fields in the 
     US.
       FAA is working with the CAAV to upgrade security and safety 
     at Vietnam's airports, looking to the day, soon we hope, to 
     have daily flights between American and Vietnamese cities. A 
     creative Vietnamese approach can facilitate this important 
     goal.
       Representatives from the Departments of State and Commerce, 
     the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Trade

[[Page S6047]]

     Representative have initiated exchanges with DGPT/VVPT on the 
     Telecom regulatory environment.
       DEA, Customs, and State are all at work with Vietnamese 
     counterparts in common purpose to stem illicit narcotics use 
     and flow. The Secret Service is cooperating with Vietnamese 
     authorities to stem crimes such as counterfeiting and credit 
     card fraud.
       USAID is helping to supply prosthetic devices and assist 
     displaced children.
       We have burgeoning cooperation in science, technology, 
     energy, and the environment, involving some nine US 
     Government agencies.
       Military-to-military relations now consist of discussions 
     of regional security perceptions and the exchange of visits.
       Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese have resettled in the 
     US under the Orderly Departure Program or ``ODP'', and in 
     January, we reached agreement on an arrangement called ROVR, 
     under which certain Vietnamese returnees from SE Asian camps 
     can be interviewed under ODP for possible resettlement in the 
     US.
       We are working at common purposes in multilateral fora--
     such as in the ASEAN regional forum to build confidence and 
     promote peaceful resolution of disputes in the region. We 
     also manage to discuss candidly and quietly some of the most 
     sensitive issues of concern on each side.
       Over 400 American companies last year promoted over one 
     billion dollars in US-Vietnam trade in goods and services. US 
     investment topped US 1.2 billion. By their association and 
     employment by US companies, thousands of eager young 
     Vietnamese are learning the way we think and do business in a 
     market economy.
       Finally, a Secretary Rubin and Finance Minister Hung this 
     morning signed a significant debt agreement, overcoming this 
     major obstacle to advancing our economic relations.


                             the challenges

       These developments should not be seen as fragile, but 
     challenges to developing the kind of friendly, constructive 
     relationship we envisage between Vietnam and the United 
     States remain clear and formidable. We must overcome residual 
     wariness, animosities and distrust in both countries. 
     Vietnamese must trust that we have come with good will, have 
     no ulterior motives or conspiracies to subvert or overthrow 
     their system, and recognize that American economic activities 
     support their own ``DOI MOI'' or renovation policy. Americans 
     must recognize the extraordinary efforts Vietnam is making to 
     help us in accounting for the missing from the war; 
     continuing suspicion is misplaced. We must all put the past 
     to rest and concentrate on the challenges and opportunities 
     of the present and future.
       I have noticed and welcomed the greater openness and 
     diversity of Vietnam's society today than when I arrived. 
     There is a commitment to developing the rule of law. The 
     National Assembly and locally elected Peoples' Councils 
     gradually are gaining stature as deliberative, representative 
     bodies. I have observed more candid public and private debate 
     on the burning issues of the day, and expansion of the amount 
     and kinds of information available domestically and from 
     abroad. There is a vibrant artistic scene, and the government 
     has arrived at a formula for access to internet, albeit 
     controlled. Private citizens are allowed to worship in their 
     faith, have more latitude to make their own choices, and are 
     travelling abroad for business and pleasure in increasing 
     numbers. The result is a society taking on increasing 
     complexity and verve.
       Continuing and expanding these trends will help Vietnam's 
     long term stability, economic health and growth, and its 
     ability to take full advantage of the genius of its people.
       We can contribute positively to that process. Vietnam's 
     dramatic change from a centrally controlled economy to rule 
     of law and a market economy is still a work in progress. 
     Vietnam's society will ultimately be shaped by economic 
     growth, education, access to information including through a 
     free press, extended interaction with the rest of the world, 
     and, most importantly, its own culture and history.
       To this end, we must get to know each other and be candid 
     about our perceptions one of the other, always in a spirit of 
     mutual respect and tolerance. Honest words may not always be 
     so welcome, but it is important for each to understand what 
     the other is about, what its values are, what its principles 
     are, what it stands for; while tolerating valid differences 
     in approach.
       Finally, we are challenged to work in partnership to 
     conclude economic normalization (a comprehensive trade 
     agreement; MFN, EXIM, OPIC, and TDA) and a civil aviation 
     agreement so that our societies can enjoy the kind of 
     extensive links of which two such culturally rich societies 
     are capable.
       For us to realize the full potential of our relationship, 
     Vietnam is challenged to move briskly to fulfill its self-
     announced policy goal of establishing a market economy; to 
     this end, I would suggest the following:
       (1) Rapid reform of the State-owned enterprise system, 
     which currently sustains inefficient, uncompetitive 
     enterprises, often oriented to import-substitution, and which 
     diverts both domestic and foreign investment from potentially 
     more productive uses. Effective equitization of State-owned 
     enterprises would create the basis for a stock market, the 
     necessary mechanism for realizing Vietnam's potential to 
     mobilize its own domestic savings and absorb the considerable 
     amount of portfolio investment available from abroad.
       (2) Create a genuinely level domestic playing field for 
     Vietnam's multisector economy, including equal encouragement 
     of the private sector in which most new employment and growth 
     has occurred.
       (3) Open the trading and investment systems to require 
     Vietnam's economy to learn competitiveness, perhaps the hard 
     way, but looking to the long term, to avoid falling further 
     behind its neighbors and putting at risk continued foreign 
     investment.
       (4) Accelerate opening of the agricultural sector to 
     foreign investment, and liberalize the rice export market. 
     Eliminating the state sector middlemen and their rents would 
     raise income to the farmers from rice perhaps by 20 percent, 
     and help curb the huge 30 percent losses to pests, rodents, 
     spoilage and poor transportation which occur now because of 
     the current export system. In one stroke such changes would 
     raise rural incomes for the eighty percent of all Vietnamese 
     who live in rural areas, reduce the rural-urban gap, and curb 
     the dislocations resulting from urban migration.
       (5) Accelerate reform of the financial system--including 
     making available equity credit and credit for export 
     financing.
       (6) Finally, make the environment for foreign business more 
     hospitable, transparent, and objective with clear avenues for 
     dispute resolution.


                             THE POTENTIAL

       Marking clearly Vietnam's intentions in these directions 
     would accelerate conclusion of the US-Vietnam Trade Agreement 
     and, through, MFN, provide Vietnam access to the huge US 
     market for Vietnamese goods and trade--a prerequisite for 
     getting on the fast track to ``tiger status''--and pave the 
     way for another of Vietnam's avowed policy goals, accelerated 
     entry into WTO. The complementarity of the US and Vietnamese 
     Economies would ensure rapid growth of bilateral trade and 
     investment, benefitting both sides; the US would certainly 
     become one of the major investors in Vietnam's economic and 
     human resource development.
       We can anticipate increasing consonnance in our strategic 
     views of Vietnam integrates into ASEAN. There are generally 
     no major disagreements in our respective national interests. 
     The basis for cooperative efforts to seek peaceful solutions 
     to transnational and other problems in the region already 
     exists.
       1.5 million Vietnamese-Americans ensure growing human 
     contacts between our two countries. The opportunities for 
     rich cultural, educational, scientific and technological 
     exchange between our dynamic societies will inexorably be 
     enhanced.
       Finally, the spirits of our two countries can overcome the 
     anguish of the past and we can enjoy the friendly, 
     constructive relationship which our two peoples deserve.
       I invite you all to share in such a vision. With the good 
     will and commitment by people such as yourselves, a strong 
     partnership between Vietnam and the United States is not just 
     possible. It becomes probable.
       Thank you.

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