Mr. Khai Goes to Washington
August 26, 2005
It has been 48 years since the last time a leader of Vietnam was received at the White House, 30 years since the guns fell silent in the Vietnam War and barely 10 years since establishment of normal relations between the two nations.
In global political relations, half a century is but a blink of an eye. To us humans, it is more than half a lifetime. It is no wonder that sometimes we feel frustrated and impatient with the slow pace of change.
And two months later, on the surface, that is one of the many reactions from Vietnamese Americans to the visit of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. One end of the community spectrum organized vocal protests at every one of his North American stops, and even in places he conspicuously avoided, like California, home to the largest Viet diaspora.
The other end of the spectrum welcomed Khai with open arms. At a couple of events in Silicon Valley with high ranking Vietnamese Government officials (events that were, by necessity and for practical purposes, “by invitation only”), mostly professional Vietnamese Americans spoke freely of their ongoing projects in Vietnam, of their hope for continuing changes in the home country, and of their increased sense of belonging in the U.S. As icing on the cake, when Khai rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, it was reassuring and promising to millions of Viet entrepreneurs, on both sides of the Pacific.
The majority of VietAms, it seems, were matter of fact about this trip. It was one more step in improving relations, one more sign that Vietnam and the U.S. are at peace, and one more confirmation that fundamental changes, initiated under doi moi (renovation) in 1986, are now irreversible. The hundreds of thousands of V-As, young and old, who travel to Vietnam each year and see change with their own eyes, understand that current and future Vietnam governments will have to live up to a steadily rising standard of fairness, legal protection and transparency.
To those under 30 years old (roughly 60 percent of the Viet community –– in Vietnam or in the U.S.), Khai’s visit and Bush’s reciprocal trip next year, are routine business. These young Viet have moved on with their lives, with their careers. and with their new environment.
Thus, Mr. Khai’s trip was both remarkable and pedestrian. Normal because every other country does it. But remarkable, because after some 3 million Vietnamese casualties and nearly 60,000 American deaths in a war that merely delayed the unification and independence of Vietnam by three decades, the two main combatants trade goods and ambassadors, exchange students and artists, and visit each other as good neighbors.
Will someone please tell that to the Cuban Americans in Miami?
Vu-Duc Vuong is a teacher and writer in the Bay Area. His email: vuduc.vuong@gmail.com.
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