Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took some shots at Vietnam while on her Asian sortie that mostly dealt with the enigmatic loose cannon that is North Korea. She took time out from saber-rattling and DMZ-visiting to remind Vietnam that the world continues to look askance at its increasing incidence of governmental intolerance and disrespect for dissidents. It was a pretty good dressing down that ranged from Vietnam’s sorry track record of attacking religious groups to its penchant for censoring the Internet.
How ironic. We fought, however ill advisedly, a war over that country and lost 58,000 Americans in battle and brought home thousands more scarred for life. Post-war Vietnam has undergone economic reform and courts outside investment, including from the U.S. But they’re hardly paragons of freedom and liberty. They so love their periodic crackdowns on those who dissent.
But we have normal relations with Vietnam. Have had them, in fact, since Secretary Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, formalized them in 1995.
But yet we’re only now engaging in a serious approach to start dismantling this Cold War relic of abnormal relations with Cuba. Ironic, indeed. Incongruously, frustratingly, stupidly ironic.