Road map to Vietnam democracy
The Vietnam War may have ended in 1975, but some old warriors are still
at
it. On April 11, a group of Vietnamese exiles and a well-connected
former
United States official met at the American Enterprise Institute, a
conservative think-tank in Washington, to discuss a proposed "road map
for
U.S. policy toward Vietnam." In an elaborate four-step plan for bringing
democracy to Vietnam, the participants called on the ruling Communist
Party
to give private firms the same access to bank credit as state-owned
enterprises. Other proposals included letting religious organizations
select
their own leaders in exchange for U.S. development aid and training for
Vietnamese economic officials.
The participants were brought together by
Stephen Young, a Vietnamese-speaking aide to former U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency chief William Colby during the war. Young was
expelled
from Vietnam in late 1993 for trying to organize a pro-democracy meeting
in
Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnamese participants included Bui Tin, a
disgruntled
former colonel in Hanoi's army who now lives in exile in France, and Bui
Diem, last ambassador to Washington of the former South Vietnam. Young
says
he plans to circulate the road map to U.S. officials and congressional
offices in Washington. He might not drum up much support. "It's a
quixotic
dream," says one senior U.S. official.
The Far Eastern Economic Review - April 18, 2002.
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