FRIEND OR FOE?
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The Vietnam Communist Party's courses of action in its foreign policy is unpredictable, but it looks as if its leaders would rather conduct guerrilla tactics in their anti-American propaganda warfare, which had been effectively executed in the war that ended 28 years ago.
On one hand, the VCP leaders are doing everything possible to appear friendly to their once archenemy, striving to get the American economic support and general aids, as well as favorable conditions in bilateral imports and exports. The Bilateral Trade Agreement is a great help to Hanoi. But it is not easy for its leaders to honestly implement many parts of the agreement. So Hanoi leaders must rely on the generosity of the American government to solve key problems resulting from the BTA and chaotic disorder from the side effects of reluctant market economy reforms.
However on the other hand, the VCP leaders are always looking for ways to harass Washington, particularly by supporting the anti-American side in most conflicts that America involves in one side. Hanoi VCP-controlled media would find every chance to criticize Washington, often with grudging anti-American rhetoric. Among the cases, the conflict between Baghdad and Washington is the best event for Hanoi to mount such offensive.
In the 1991 Gulf War, Hanoi fiercely supported Saddam Hussein on the front of propaganda and the mass media. During the years after the Gulf War, Hanoi has taken a friendly position beside Baghdad, giving Iraq some assistance of food and other deals regarding food and oil and earning considerable profits in exports to Iraq. A force of labor of thousands of workers was working in Iraq since 1992 until they were repatriated shortly before the Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched last month.
Since Washington began preparation for war after U.N. Resolution 1441 threatening Saddam Hussein with military sanction, Hanoi has increased word attacks against the U.S. policy on the Iraq crisis. Hanoi's party-controlled media is publishing news reports and editorials aimed against the American government's Iraq policy and at anything unfavorable to the American side.
After the war broke out on March 20, 2003, the VCP administration has staged many anti-war rallies in dozen major cities in Vietnam protesting the American government's military actions in Iraq. But as usual, the strong anti-American language does not go along with the humble manner and nice words Hanoi shows in trade negotiations with Washington.
Actually, Hanoi's anti-American criticism had grown to the highest intensity soon after Fidel Castro's visit to Hanoi on February 21 to 23, 2003, a month before President Bush ordered U.S. combat troops to invade Iraq.
The Communist parties in Hanoi and in Cuba are two of the four still existing Communist parties on the Earth. Hanoi is not very friendly with Pyongyang for decades although in the Vietnam War, North Korean pilots were flying Soviet-made Migs intercepting American warplanes over North Vietnam skies, not including millions of combat dresses and miscellaneous items of military supplies sent to North Vietnam as symbol of Communist comradeship.
As to Beijing, Hanoi has long been under political and economic pressures that compel VCP leaders into an involuntary rope walking between China and the U.S.. Beijing is still a major threat to its once comrade and brother although both parties are saying they have reinstated good relations in the last decade after a short but bloody war in 1979.
But Beijing leaders now are dealing fearful blows to raise economic pressure against Hanoi. In a powerful economic assail, Beijing is behind a campaign of delivering enormous flows of smuggled goods into Vietnam at half prices and lower. The blow causes Vietnam severe losses in billions of dollar in taxes and domestic production, especially in agriculture and light industries.
So Hanoi's only comrade at this critical time is the Cuba Communist Party. Not long after the Castro's visit, both Hanoi and Havana have shown their iron fists towards their antagonists in their countries. In a few weeks, Hanoi and Havana have arrested many dissidents despite stern accusations from international human rights and religious freedom organizations.
Their common strategy is once again employed: When the Americans and their Western allies are stuck to difficulties on the other fronts, Hanoi and Havana used to exploit the situation to annoy the American side as a counter-pressure measure. Now Hanoi and Havana seem to be conducting a coordinated harassing fire on Washington when the Americans are busy concentrating their efforts to confront Iraq's Saddam Hussein, and North Korea' Kim Jung Il as well.
While Hanoi continues its harsh assail on the American
government, the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Raymond F. Burghardt publicly plays down Hanoi's criticism. He proves himself
a diplomat who knows how to deal with the Viet Communist guerrilla tactics on
the so-called "psychological warfare." He must have known that the anti-American statements
from Hanoi are just for the Vietnamese people as primary targets, not for the
Americans.
In another aspect of the Iraq crisis, sources from Vietnamese exiles after their recent visits to Vietnam say that Hanoi are sending their specialists, particularly the Communist veterans of the Vietnam War to assist Saddam's military operations against the invading coalition forces. They may be former sappers, pilots, anti-aircraft experts and even guerrilla warfare advisers. The information has not been confirmed by independent reports, but it is not completely valueless.
In the late 1970s and early 1980's, Hanoi elite officers were training Communist soldiers in some Latin American countries. Fidel Castro sponsored the training program.
According to news reports on March 28, 2003, the Castro government imprisoned 78 Cubans dissidents known as "prisoners of conscience" in a move skillfully planned to escape harsh criticism by the U.N. and human rights organizations while the world's attention is focusing on the war in Iraq. The world media has long experienced such strategy of oppression applied by Communist dictators in times of world crisis. Taking advantages of the current conflicts, Fidel Castro might feel comfortable with his rough hands without fear of strong reactions the American used to exert.
Meanwhile, in an allegedly coordinated plot with Fidel Castro to act with the least damaging consequences from adversary world opinion, the VCP government is carrying out similar strategy with some modification. Vietnam Communist authorities continue their crackdown on a celebrated dissident, Dr. Nguyen Dan Que.
Many times in the last few months, the Communist authorities have searched the home of Dr. Que, a renowned human rights activist who had spent about two decades in prison camps because of his non-violent activities for human rights and democracy. He refused to immigrate to the U.S. after his release from the camps in 2000 to stay in Vietnam so that he could go on struggling as a democracy activist.
At the same time, the Communist People's Court in Hanoi upheld the appealed sentence of 12 years in prison on dissident Nguyen Khac Toan. In a quick trial on December 20, 2002, he was convicted of betraying state secrets when he sent news reports concerning peaceful demonstrations in Hanoi of groups of farmers on emails to his friends overseas.
The crackdown on Dr. Que and other human rights violations resulted in angry protests from many directions, human rights groups and various organizations for religious and press freedoms. The strongest protests are from the European Union Parliament, the Reporters Without Borders, and the Human Rights reports of the U.S. State Department. Hanoi brazenly denies all accusations, asserting that its regime abides by all human rights standards and there is no political prisoners or prisoners of conscience in its prisons.
Probably to alleviate international anger against such brazen violations, Hanoi had to take on a "cloak of the monk." In a surprising move, the VCP government leader welcomed the head monk of the independent Buddhist Church in an official visit at the Communist prime minister's office. This is a meeting the official contact between a top Communist official and a non-state-controlled Buddhist high-ranking leader for the first time since 1975.
On April 2, 2003, the Communist Prime Minister Phan Van Khai met with the Most Ven. Thich Huyen Quang, who heads the non-state-controlled Buddhist Church. The meeting lasted 45 minutes. The party-controlled media in Hanoi reported the meeting with a sketchy account. No significant statements of the two leaders were quoted as saying. But reliable sources do not confirm any promising sign from the Communist Party side as freedom of religion is concerned.
Some Vietnamese religious activists hope that the meeting could lead to more tolerant policies on Buddhist religion and the independent church. But the others are not so optimist. They said people should wait and see, and realities will soon prove whether or not the Communist Party would be acting with the true spirit of "national solidarity" as its leaders are saying they would.
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