Relations of United States and Vietnam

United States' relationship with Vietnam starts out and continues on between 1945 and 1954. The Vietnamese conducts an anti-colonial war against France and receives two billion dollars in financial support from the United States. However, the French defeats Dien Bien Phu which follows by a peace conference in Geneva, in which Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam receive their independence (Cottrell, 45). But Vietnam is temporarily divided between an anti-Communist South and a Communist North. In 1956, South Vietnam refuses to hold the unification elections with American backing up the decision of the south (Cottrell, 51). Therefore, by 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, known as the Viet Cong, begin to battle the South Vietnamese government. To support the South's government, the United States send in 2,000 military advisors, a number that grew to 16,300 in 1963 (Cottrell, 65). Unfortunately, the military condition deteriorates, and South Vietnam has lost the fertile Mekong Delta to the Vietcong. Johnson escalates the war, commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and committing ground forces, which numbered 536,000 (Cottrell, 71). The 1968 Tet Offensive by the North Vietnamese turns many Americans against the war. The next president, Richard Nixon, advocates Vietnamization, withdrawing American troops and giving South Vietnam greater responsibility for fighting the war. His attempt to slow the flow of North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies into South Vietnam by sending American forces to destroy Communist supply bases in Cambodia in violation of Cambodian neutrality provokes antiwar protests on the nation's college campuses (Cottrell, 75). From 1968 to 1973 efforts are made to end the conflict through diplomacy. In January 1973, an agreement is reached and U.S. forces are withdrawn from Vietnam and U.S. prisoners of war are released. For the Vietnams, South Vietnam surrenders to the North and Vietnam reunites (Cottrell, 78). The help that United States provides for a part of Vietnam throughout history encourages the idea that United States is neutral with Vietnam.

Vietnam desperately wants to rejoin the world community and play a larger role, especially economically. The new leaders in Vietnam are seeking entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and hope that their economic reforms, less restrictive Communist government, and financial incentives will lure new investors into their economy. But Vietnam's Communists don't seem to understand that a thirty year record of human rights abuses is not going to help them win over the west (Background Note: Vietnam). Since the Communist take-over of Vietnam in 1975, that government has a 30-year record of repression, imprisonment, harassment and torture carried out upon those remaining Vietnamese who value free speech, religion, press or tolerance and openness of any kind. The crimes of the Communist government continue today. We don't hear much about Vietnam. It has no missiles and poses no apparent threat to regional neighbors. But Vietnam's leaders terrorize their own people and this places them into a special category that should interest us all. The U.S. Department of State reported recently that Vietnam's Communists repress virtually every organized religion. The most recent World Report from Human Rights Watch on Vietnam begins: "Human-rights conditions in Vietnam, already dismal, worsened .... The government tolerates little public criticism of the Communist Party or statements calling for pluralism, democracy, or a free press. Dissidents are harassed, isolated, placed under house arrest and in many cases, charged with crimes and imprisoned. Among those singled out are prominent intellectuals, writers and former Communist Party stalwarts. The United Nations and a host of other international groups have condemned Vietnam's record on human rights. Human rights issues, undoubtedly, will become an issue between the U.S. and Vietnam. The U.S. Department of State lists just about every kind of human rights violation as part of Communist Vietnam's troubling record: including child prostitution, trafficking internationally in human beings, torture, attempts to eliminate undesirable indigenous people (the Hmong) and harassment and beating of religious leaders.

A series of bilateral summits have helped drive the improvement of ties, including President George W. Bush's visit to Hanoi in November 2006, President Triet's visit to Washington in June 2007, and Prime Minister Dung's visits to Washington in June 2008 and April 2010. The two countries hold an annual dialogue on human rights, which resumed in 2006 after a 2-year hiatus. Vietnam and the United States signed a Bilateral Trade Agreement in July 2000, which went into force in December 2001. In 2003, the two countries signed a Counternarcotics Letter of Agreement (amended in 2006), a Civil Aviation Agreement, and a textile agreement. In January 2007, Congress approved Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for Vietnam. In October 2008, the U.S. and Vietnam inaugurated annual political-military talks and policy planning talks to consult on regional security and strategic issues. In August 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense and Vietnam's Ministry of Defense held the first round of annual high-level defense talks, known as the Defense Policy