Eye on China, Obama lifts arms embargo on Vietnam
WASHINGTON: Not born when the Vietnam War began and a high-schooler in Honolulu when it ended, President Obama on Monday announced the lifting of a decades-old ban on sale of lethal American military equipment to the country Washington once swore to destroy in an effort to stop the spread of communism.
Although the growing US wariness of China- Vietnam’s domineering northern neighbor with which it fought a long border war – is widely seen as the reason for Washington’s outreach, Obama maintained it is not so. ”The decision to lift the ban was not based on China or any other considerations,” he said, with Vietnamese president, Tran Dai Quang, by his side. ”It was based on our desire to complete what has been a lengthy process of moving toward normalization with Vietnam.”
But the joint statement issued by the two countries belied the breezy repudiation of the China threat, as it implicitly referred to Beijing’s aggressive moves in the region.
”In this regard, both countries expressed serious concerns over recent developments in the South China Sea that have caused tensions, eroded trust and threatened peace, security, and stability. Both countries recognized the imperative of upholding the freedom of navigation and overflight and unimpeded lawful commerce in the South China Sea, called for non-militarization and self-restraint in addressing disputes,” it said.
On its part, Vietnam welcomed US maritime security assistance- including through the Maritime Security Initiative (MSI), the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, and Foreign Military Financing- and saying it ”looked forward to working with the United States to enhance Vietnam’s maritime capabilities.”
The US embrace of Vietnam came more than 20 years after it re-established ties with the Communist country in 1995, following a 20-year diplomatic hiatus that began when it was routed in the Vietnam War and left what was then Saigon in 1975. That humiliating exit following a 20-year war that began in 1955, and claimed the lives of nearly 60,000 US soldiers and more than a million Vietnamese.
Among those who fought in that war and who is now a central figure in US policy-making is the patrician US Secretary of State John Kerry, who President Obama recognized as among those ”who had the courage not only to fight, but, more importantly, had the courage to make peace.”
‘When you eat the fruit, think about the one who planted the tree,” Obama said during his meeting with the Vietnamese leadership, and well could that have applied also to India, which not only opposed the Vietnam War, but was also among the first countries to engage with Vietnam with an eye on their shared difficulties with China.
In fact, Monday- with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tehran- could well be a red-letter day in Indian diplomatic history; New Delhi has been way ahead of the curve in engaging countries (Iran, Vietnam, and Cuba, among others), that Washington has long regarded as adversaries.”I know that here in Vietnam, you draw inspiration from the lotus flower — hoa sen. It takes root in the mud and thus is a symbol of hope amid hardship. It survives where other flowers cannot, and thus is a symbol of strength and endurance. It radiates color, and is thus a symbol of beauty,” Obama said in Hanoi.
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