Webinars on Normalization of US-Viet Nam Relations

Normalization of Viet Nam - US Relations

Reflections from the Ground Up

The Contribution of NGOs and Peoples Organizations from 1975 to 1995

Monday, July 6, 11 a.m. ET U.S.

Tuesday, July 7, 10 p.m. ET Viet Nam

July 11th is the 25th anniversary of normalization of relations between the US and Viet Nam in 1995. Although after the war ended there was never a Cuba style strategy for regime change, the US maintained a punishing unilateral embargo until 1994 and took twenty years to diplomatically recognize the unified country.

In the first months after the war ended, polls showed majority public support for humanitarian aid to heal the wounds of war, in effect accomplishing a provision of the Paris Peace Agreement.  The Carter Administration appeared ready to normalize relations without conditions, but the Vietnamese linked it to assistance for rebuilding. The flow of boat people refugees and internment of South Vietnamese military and government officials changed the atmosphere in the US. 

After Viet Nam responded to Khmer Rouge attacks across its border by forcing them out of power in Phnom Penh, the US provided military supplies and diplomatic support to their military campaign against Vietnamese troops. Washington also did nothing to oppose China's destructive invasion across Viet Nam's northern border.  Scholars describe this as the Third Indochina War, a proxy battle between superpowers with China and the US on one side and the Soviet Union on the other.

The unique aspect of this history is that although Viet Nam won the war, the US was not defeated in a larger sense, being still the pre-eminent world power. Normally the victor is more powerful than the vanquished and sets the terms for post-war normalization. In this case each side had to find its own reasons to overcome bitter memories of loss of friends and family. 

Faced with these challenges non-governmental organizations in the US and mass organizations in Viet Nam found ways to work together, begin to address humanitarian problems and create a better climate for their governments to change policy. This started with traditional peace oriented religious NGOs and evolved through people to people dialog and exchanges to larger scale government supported university and aid programs. The foundation and business sectors assumed greater roles as the bilateral atmosphere improved.

Vietnam needed to rebuild from massive numbers of deaths and widespread destruction of its economy and infrastructure as well as find ways to neutralize and integrate people who had fought and governed for the other side. The US faced the problem of massive refugee resettlement and the trauma of veterans. Rational policy-making was hampered by resentment fueled myths of living POWs and renewed suffering and anger caused by land-mines, unexploded ordnance and Agent Orange.

Our webinars will enable practitioners from both countries to speak personally about a unique twenty year process in which two countries that suffered a long destructive war overcame painful political and emotional conflict. They will identify from their own experience how non-governmental and people-to-people organizations on both sides helped to establish the human and institutional groundwork for official relations.

There is so much to cover that we will hold two consecutive sessions in the US (with an intermission) and one or two sessions in Viet Nam. The time zone difference requires that the US program begins at 11 a.m. ET on Monday, July 6. The Viet Nam program starts at 10 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 7. Both will be recorded and broadcast together beginning at noon Saturday ET, July 11, the anniversary of normalization, and be available later on youtube. Participants in the live programs and viewers of the recorded programs are invited to participate in an open two country zoom discussion on Monday, July 13 at 9 p.m. ET

Our first program -- the American perspective

When: Jul 6, 2020  11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 
Topic: Viet Nam - US Normalization 

See (and share) it on line here    https://youtu.be/KLPGtx3oJ84  
 

Our second program -- the Vietnamese perspective

When: Jul 8, 2020  9:30 AM Viet Nam Time
Topic: Viet Nam - US Normalization 

See (and share) it on line here  https://youtu.be/H1DgEy91A_c

Our third program -- open zoom discussion

When:  July 13, 2020  

Topic:  Open discussion from both countries

See (and share) it on line here 

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/681bc5LirnpLYp3j-VHyRv8TQIeieaa81XNN8qJcnfveGb5LD6hcIV6zvT5T6P8 Password: 0I%?4+#A 

US Program  July 6

Moderator:  John McAuliff (with Amb. Nguyen Tam Chien)

Overview of the history of normalization:  Murray Hiebert, Far Eastern Economic Review

NGOs (humanitarian aid):  David Elder, American Friends Service Committee

NGOs (normalization movement):  Susan Hammond, U.S.-Indochina Reconciliation Project

Washington dialog:  Bill Nell, Aspen Institute

Veterans:  John Terzano, Vietnam Veterans of America / Foundation
Minh Kauffman, Center for Educational Exchange with Viet Nam, Mennonite Central Comm

intermission  (music videos)

Foundations:  Mark Sidel, Ford Foundation

Business:  Virginia Foote, US-Vietnam Trade Council

Universities:  Allan Goodman, Institute of International Education

Culture:  David Thomas, Indochina Arts Partnership

Vietnamese Americans:  Hong-phong Pho

State Department:   Kenneth Quinn

Comments (brief because we will do an open both country zoom discussion one week later, 9 p.m. July 13)

Viet Nam Program on July 8 in Viet Nam (09:30 hours), July 7 in US (10:30 p.m. ET)

Moderator:  Amb. Nguyen Tam Chien (with John McAuliff)

Overview of the history of normalization: Amb. Nguyen Tam Chien

MOFA + MIA issue: Amb. Le Van Bang

VUS/VUFO: Vu Xuan Hong

Peace Making Activities: Amb. Nguyen Van Huynh

Bussiness: Pham Chi Lan, the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)

Normalization Movement of the SRV National Assembly: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong

Veterans: Nguyen Ngoc Hung

University: Nguyen Xuan Vang, Ha Noi University

                   Vu Ngoc Tu, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi

Speakers in the US Webinar on Normalization of Viet Nam – US Relations (in order of appearance)

John McAuliff organized SNCC support at Carleton College, including a large group that participated in the Mississippi Summer Project.  He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru and as President of the Committee of Returned Volunteers.  Member of Executive Committee, New Mobilization Committee. Edited Indianapolis Free Press and organized for Peoples Peace Treaty and May Day.  Director, Indochina Program, Peace Education Division, American Friends Service Committee for ten years, including arrival in Hanoi on day the war ended. Directed Philadelphia office of Americans for Democratic Action. Associate editor, Irish Edition, Philadelphia. Founded Fund for Reconciliation and Development in 1985 to work for full normal relations with Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Since 1997 his primary focus is on full normalization with Cuba.  Coordinator, Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee.

Murray Hiebert is a senior associate in the Southeast Asia Program at Center for Stategic and International Studies. In the early 1990s, he worked as a journalist in Vietnam for the Far Eastern Economic Review. Murray and his wife Linda headed up the Washington-based Indochina Project, a joint venture between AFSC, the Center for International Policy and MCC, from 1979-1986. Murray and Linda had worked for MCC in Nhatrang, Vietnam, in the closing days of the war.

David Elder worked for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Overseas positions were in Japan and Hong Kong. He provided administrative support from the national office in Philadelphia for one year of wartime work in Viet Nam and in support of programs in postwar Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia until he retired in 2005.

Susan Hammond, the daughter of a US Vietnam Veteran, became interested in post-war Southeast Asia after traveling to Vietnam and Cambodia in 1991. In 1996, after earning her MA in International Education from NYU, Susan returned to Vietnam to study Vietnamese. She became involved in fostering mutual understanding between the people of the US and Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and addressing the long-term impacts of war while working as the Deputy Director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development (FRD) from 1996 – 2007. During this time she lived in New York, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos coordinating programs for FRD.  In 2007, Susan returned to her home state of Vermont and founded the War Legacies Project to focus on the long-term impacts of Agent Orange, Unexploded ordnance and other legacies of the war in SE Asia.

Bill Nell is deputy director of the Aspen Institute Congressional Program.  In the late 80s he was responsible for organizing the Indochina Policy Forum, a monthly gathering in Washington, DC of a wide range of representatives of constituencies interested in Indochina policy. From 1990-1993 he was responsible for organizing the American-Vietnamese Dialogue, an annual conference between Members of the U.S. Congress and high-level delegations from Vietnam, and an annual conference with congressional staff focused on Indochina policy. He was formerly chief researcher for journalist Hedrick Smith of The New York Times for the book The Power Game: How Washington Works. A Montana native, he was a reporter for The Billings Gazette, and is a graduate of Montana State University

John Terzano was a co-founder and Vice President of Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF) an international advocacy and humanitarian organization that addressed the causes, conduct and consequences of war. VVAF opened its first clinic in Vietnam in 1995. VVAF’s service in Vietnam continues under the auspices of The International Center.  In 1991, VVAF began an advocacy campaign to ban landmines as a weapon of war. VVAF’s work on the International Campaign to Ban Landmines was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. Terzano helped lead the first delegation of American veterans to return to Vietnam after the war ended.   jfterzano@gmail.com

Minh Kauffman has been directing exchange programs for Vietnam and enabling its linkages with the international academic community since 1988. She and her husband, Fred, established the Educational Exchange center in Bangkok in 1990 under the aegis of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) a North American relief and development NGO.  They relocated the Center to Hanoi in February 1994. The Center was renamed Center for Educational Exchange with Vietnam (CEEVN) and became a unit of the American Council of Learned Societies with offices in Philadelphia and Hanoi.  The Center has been active in Vietnam since 1994 and will transfer its work to a local NGO in July 2020 when Minh Kauffman retires. Prior to her involvement with international education in Vietnam, Minh spent nine years with MCC in Guatemala; South India, and Cambodia.  

Mark Sidel directed the Ford Foundation programs in Vietnam in the early and mid-1990s. He also served with Ford in China and in India. He currently serves as Doyle-Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and consultant for Asia at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) and writes about civil society and philanthropy in Asia and the United States.

Virginia Foote  In 1989, Ms. Foote co-founded with former Ambassador William H. Sullivan, the non-profit U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council (USVTC) under the International Center, in Washington DC and remains IC President today.  USVTC and Ms. Foote played a leading role in U.S.-Vietnam normalization, the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, Vietnam's accession to the WTO, and TPP negotiations.  Ms. Foote served as Chair for the U.S. Business Coalition for APEC 2006 and Chair of the U.S.-Vietnam WTO Coalition. She received the U.S. Ambassador's Award for Citizen Diplomacy in 1999 and in June 2016 the Vietnam President's Friendship Order Medal for active contribution to the normalization and development of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and the U.S.   

Allan Goodman

C. David Thomas, DFA,  Vietnam Veteran (U.S. Army Engineers in Pleiku, South Vietnam 1969-70. Professor of Studio Art at Emmanuel College in Boston 1976-2011. Awarded Doctor of Fine Art by the Maine College of Art in 2017, Founder and director of the Indochina Arts Partnership 1988-2018.  Awarded the Vietnam Art Medal in 1998,  Fulbright Senior Scholar to Vietnam 2005-06, designer of artist's book "An Artist's Portrait of HO CHI MINH", 1998.   David Thomas <cdtartist@yahoo.com>

Hong-Phong B. Pho is a proud first-generation Vietnamese-American who just celebrated his 46th Fourth of July by watching Hamilton on Disney Plus. Together with his life partner, Nhu-Trang, they are doing their best to raise four Virginia-born children to be good Americans with a deep understanding of the American Experiment who will work toward a more perfect Union.

Hong-Phong is a public servant at the International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce whose mission is to create American jobs and prosperity by helping American companies export goods and services to the rest of the World and to attract foreign direct investment into the United States.  He still believes in the benefits of globalization.

Ken Quinn spent the vast majority of his 32 year State Department career working in or on Indochina. From his almost six years assigned in Vietnam during the war to stints at the National Security Council, the State Department, and as US ambassador to Cambodia, he was involved in almost every facet of US policy leading up to the establishment of diplomatic relations. In 2020 he returned to Vietnam as a senior advisor to Heidi Kuhn the founder of Roots of Peace, that carries out de-mining in Quang Tri. One of his highlights came when Ambassador Le Van Bang, Vietnam's first envoy to the Washington, told him that he was the only diplomat to ever serve as head of delegation and negotiate with them in their language.

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Short Biographies of Vietnamese Speakers in the Webinar on July 8, 2020   (in order of appearance)

Ambassador Nguyen Tam Chien, former Vice Minister of MOFA, Ambassador of Viet Nam to the United States (2001 -2007), President of the Vietnam – USA Society.

Ambassador Le Van Bang worked in American Division, MOFA (1986-1990), was Director General of American Division, MOFA (1990 – 1992), Ambassador, Acting Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN (1/1993 – 1/1995), Director of Liasion Office of Viet Nam to the United Nations (2/1995 – 8/1995), Charge d’affairs A.I of Viet Nam to the US (8/1995 – 2/1997), Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador E.P of Viet Nam to the US (2/1997 – 6/2001), Vice Minister of Vietnamese Foreign Ministry (2002-2007).

Mr. Vu Xuan Hong was Deputy Secretary General of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO), Director General of the North America Department, Vice President of the Vietnam-USA Society (1992-1995), Member of the 10^th, 11^th , 12^th  SRV National Assembly; Chair of the Congressional Vietnam-US Friendship Caucus in the SRV National Assembly (2008-2016), VUFO President, Vice-Chairman, the Committee for NGO Affairs of Vietnam (COMINGO) (2006-2018).

Ambassador Nguyen Van Huynh has worked in the Viet My Society and Vietnam Peace Committee since 1987 as Secretary and Executive member. In 1988, he took part in activities related to MIA issue, worked with the US Veteran for Peace to carry out the Van Canh Friendship Village Project; participated in the Peace Dialogue with peace activists from the US in the Soviet Union. He carried out the Viet Nam USA Peace Walk on the 15^th anniversary of April 30 in 1990. In 1994, he had 2 visits to USA: the first visit to Oregon University (3/2/1994) and the second for international meeting on the Project of Van Canh friendship village in Santa Cruz.

Ms. Pham Chi Lan was Head of the International Relations Department and Secretary General of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) during 1975-1995. She worked a lot for the development of private sector in Vietnam and the business relations between Vietnam and the outside world.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong was Director of Tu Du Obstetric Hospital (1990 – 2006), Member of the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th SRV National Assembly (1982 – 1997), Vice-Speaker (1987 - 1992), Vice-Chair of the Committee for Foreign Relation Affairs (1992 - 1997) and participated in activities in normalization movement. 

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hung Served in NVA from 1969 to 1975 (Laos, DMZ areas, Ho Chi Minh Campaign 1975), Director of Vietnamese Language Centre, Hanoi University of Foreign Studies: 1986-2009, Appeared in a CBS 60 Minutes: 1989, participated in First of many Peace Making and Reconciliation trips to the U.S: 1990.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Vang studied English at Hanoi University of Foreign Studies (now Ha Noi University) from 1975 to 1979. He set up the ESP Resource Center in 1991. He became Vice President in 1997 and then President in 2000 of Hanoi University. In 2008, He was appointed Director General of the International Education Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Ngoc Tu Senior Lecturer has worked for the former University of Hanoi, then Vietnam National University, Hanoi since 1976. He participated in some international projects such as US – Indochina Reconciliation Project (1987 – 1992), University of Oregon – Vietnam University Sister Project (1992 – 2008), Project on setting up political science training programs in Vietnam supported by Asia Foundation, Project on supporting political science and economics training funded by US State Department, BESETOHA (Four major universities in East Asia: Peking University, Seoul National University, Tokyo University and Vietnam National University, Hanoi), Connecticut College’s SATA progam...He also helped set up cooperative links with a number of  American universities including student exchange programs.