United States Trade Vietnam

In building a community in a new country, Vietnamese Americans also had to rebuild a cultural life from scratch, one that evolved and flourished in virtual isolation from the land that is its source. So says Co Pham, president of the Westminster-based Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and a longtime (and often embattled) proponent of lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam, an action President Clinton took Thursday.

For the last two months, an anti-Communist demonstrator has been videotaping patients as they enter the offices of a prominent Little Saigon doctor whom he considers a communist for supporting normalized trade with Vietnam. The protest has sparked a legal battle over where to draw the line between free speech and privacy rights at a time when anti-Communist protesters are increasingly turning to these tactics.

Orange County trade experts and business people, including many in the Vietnamese community, on Wednesday applauded news that the Clinton Administration apparently will lift the 19-year embargo on commerce with Vietnam. "I'm interested in exploring the opportunities," said Lloyd Tran, a Vietnamese immigrant who is president of Biomed Healthcare in Irvine.

The success stories of capitalism--the ones about people with vision turning opportunity into riches--usually boil down to two components: bold action and a bit of luck. Son Hung "Sonny" Luu had the boldness. But the luck part didn't quite hold up.

Early this week, Adm. Charles R. Larson, the commander-in-chief of American forces in the Pacific, sat back in his spacious headquarters office above Pearl Harbor and mused about the possibility of a renewed U.S. military relationship with Vietnam. "It's not inconceivable that our ships could once again visit Cam Ranh Bay," the commander told The Times, referring to the prized Vietnamese port that has been used during the last 15 years by the Soviet Union and Russia.

Shadowed by the ghosts of the past, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright formally dedicated a new $3.3-million U.S. Consulate building here Tuesday, just a few paces from the site of the embassy where U.S. diplomats scrambled into helicopters in a chaotic retreat 24 years ago. "The United States and Vietnam will forever be linked by history," Albright said at the consulate ceremony.

The trade mission from Orange County met with the Vietnamese vice president here Tuesday, and the delegation's leader urged the communist government to consider policy reform allowing overseas Vietnamese to claim or buy back properties lost when they fled the war-torn country years ago.

The editor of the Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest Vietnamese-language daily outside of Vietnam, has resigned his position after comments he made prompted some readers to call for a boycott of the publication. Yen Do, who helped found the Westminster-based paper in 1978, stepped down as editor in chief on Monday, but will remain the paper's publisher, a spokesman for the paper said Thursday.

Two years ago, Hung Phuong Nguyen spent countless hours organizing demonstrations in Little Saigon and writing angry letters to President Clinton opposing normalization with his homeland. Thursday, he met news that the U.S. is proposing to tear down all barriers to trade and investment with the Communist government of Vietnam with quiet acceptance. "Only economics can open the door to democracy," he said.

For nearly a decade, Dr. Co Pham has advocated reconciliation and free trade between the United States and Vietnam, engendering such fierce protests in Orange County's Little Saigon community that he hired armed guards to protect his medical clinic. Now, as the two nations edge closer to a sweeping trade accord nearly 25 years after the Vietnam War's end, the native of Hanoi has stepped up his controversial campaign.

A quarter of a century after their war came to an end, the United States and Vietnam on Thursday launched a new era of normal economic ties with a trade deal that would grant Americans sweeping rights to do business in a land where they once shed blood, while giving Vietnamese much easier access to the rich U.S. marketplace.

The United States and Vietnam have reached broad agreement on a sweeping economic deal meant to turn the former military foes into trading partners, sources said Wednesday. Even as trade negotiators continued to work on a few technical details, the Clinton administration was turning its attention to plans for a signing ceremony that could take place within the next several days.

For nearly a decade, Dr. Co Pham has advocated reconciliation and free trade between the United States and Vietnam, engendering such fierce protests in Orange County's Little Saigon community that he hired armed guards to protect his medical clinic. Now, as the two nations edge closer to a sweeping trade accord nearly 25 years after the Vietnam War's end, the native of Hanoi has stepped up his controversial campaign.

Enough with this talk of millennia. Let's go back to taking things one year at a time. That's especially wise for Asia and for the American role there. A year is time enough for six separatist rebellions in Indonesia, five North Korean extortions, four Japanese governments, three Hong Kong court rulings pledging subservience to China, two Chinese political crackdowns and one (short-lived) Chinese opening--not to mention half a dozen switches in Asia policy by the Clinton administration.

Three months after Hanoi and Washington struck a landmark deal to normalize economic ties, two deadlines for signing the formal agreement have passed, raising fears both sides could end up empty-handed after years of tough negotiations. To many political analysts, the delay is confirmation that the debate rages on between reformists and conservatives in the secretive Politburo over the fundamental question of whether Vietnam really wants to commit itself to a free-market economy.

Shadowed by the ghosts of the past, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright formally dedicated a new $3.3-million U.S. Consulate building here Tuesday, just a few paces from the site of the embassy where U.S. diplomats scrambled into helicopters in a chaotic retreat 24 years ago. "The United States and Vietnam will forever be linked by history," Albright said at the consulate ceremony.

A formal trade agreement between the United States and Vietnam won't necessarily lead to an immediate boom for Orange County's Vietnamese American entrepreneurs, because doing business with their homeland remains a controversial undertaking in this community of immigrants. Many of the county's 200,000-plus Vietnamese Americans served in the South Vietnamese military or were political prisoners. Some fled Vietnam in rickety boats to escape from Communist tyranny and oppression.

President Clinton granted Vietnam a waiver Wednesday of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which imposed trade restrictions on Communist governments as a penalty for limiting emigration. With the waiver, Vietnam becomes eligible to participate in U.S. export promotion and investment support programs, including those of the Export-Import Bank. This is expected to help American companies in Vietnam compete more effectively there.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, making a rare visit to Vietnam by a high-profile official of the United States, said Monday that a key trade agreement between the former adversaries has been put back on track after it appeared to have stalled because of opposition by old-line Communist leaders.