June 21, 2007
Vietnamese President's Visit Awash In History, Controversy
For the first time since the end of the Vietnam War, the president of Vietnam is visiting the United States this week. Nguyen Minh Triet arrived yesterday, is meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers today, and will visit President Bush at the White House tomorrow, where the two will sign a preliminary bilateral trade pact.
A newly minted WTO member, Vietnam is seeing rapid economic growth. Triet has been a member of the Communist Party since 1965, but as president has been an advocate for his country's integration into the world economy. A large delegation of Vietnamese businessmen is accompanying him on his visit.
But Vietnam is drawing criticism for alleged human rights abuses. Triet has jailed at least eight dissidents this year.
The group Reporters Without Borders issued an open letter to Bush today asking him to press Triet on human rights during their meeting tomorrow. The letter accuses Hanoi of "promising progress on human rights to ingratiate itself with the international community," then resuming its repression of free speech once it was admitted to the WTO.
One anti-Communist Vietnamese-American activist, Diem Do, met with Bush in May and with Pelosi yesterday. Several members of Congress, including Virginia Republicans Tom Davis and Frank Wolf, are taking part in a rally this afternoon protesting Triet's policies.
But while many here are scolding Triet, many Vietnamese are pointing fingers back at the U.S. over Agent Orange, the notorious defoliant unleashed on Vietnamese jungles during the war. One Vietnamese organization is suing several U.S. companies, including Dow Chemical and Monsanto, that manufactured the toxic substance plaintiffs say continues to cause cancer and other diseases in Vietnam more than thirty years after the war. The suit seeks damages for 4 million Vietnamese plaintiffs.
U.S. courts have not been receptive to the lawsuit so far, and the administration has been hesitant to admit any U.S. culpability to the Vietnamese. But the Ford Foundation yesterday announced the formation of a new joint U.S.-Vietnamese panel to recommend Agent Orange cleanup and treatment strategies. Former EPA Director Christine Todd Whitman will serve on the panel.
NPR, Voice of America, and the New York Sun have more on Triet's visit. The Los Angeles Times discusses rumors that Triet may drop in on Orange County's Little Saigon neighborhood.
