Speaking to Vietnam’s Future : In establishing diplomatic relations, Christopher aims his words at the young

In Hanoi this week, where he opened formal diplomatic relations with America’s onetime bitter enemy, Secretary of State Warren Christopher spoke words appropriate to the moment and to the place. Addressing young Vietnamese, Christopher reminded them that “history is a work in progress,” that from the American perspective the time has come to look on Vietnam “as a country, not a war,” as a nation “with immense potential as a partner in trade and diplomacy.” But while signaling the U.S. readiness to open a productive new chapter in bilateral relations, Christopher also made clear what Washington’s expectations would be.

If Vietnam hopes to grow and prosper as so many of its neighbors in East Asia have done, it must move swiftly and boldly away from the ideological orthodoxies and the concomitant repressiveness that have largely defined its political and economic life ever since France’s colonial rule was overthrown in 1954. It must be ready, Christopher suggested, to join “the revolution of ideas” that has swept the world, producing more open societies and open markets in scores of countries.

The health of the new U.S.-Vietnam relationship, Christopher indicated, will be measured in many ways: in progress in tracing the fate of Americans who did not return from the war; in improvements in human rights in Vietnam; in cooperation in fighting the narcotics traffic in Southeast Asia. But beyond these immediate areas of concern lies the broader issue of expanding the reforms that will allow Vietnam to fully enter the international economic community. That means guaranteeing the right to own, to buy and to sell; to freely exchange information; to have private property rights protected by an independent judiciary.

Christopher’s gentle exhortations are unlikely to prompt Hanoi’s leaders to move any more rapidly than they had planned in liberalizing the economy or easing political restraints. But while the American official certainly was trying to point the leadership in the direction where Vietnam’s own best interests lie, he significantly chose as his audience college students. From this generation, unburdened by harsh experience with colonial rule and two enormously costly wars, will come the country’s leaders. How soon Vietnam prospers depends very much on how rapidly it acts to change its political culture.