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Editorials
Saturday, April 29, 2000No reason to celebrate
the Communist victoryTHE Vietnam War was a painful chapter in American history. Twenty-five years after the Communist victory, the wounds haven't fully healed. It's time for Americans to move on and deal with the Vietnamese government, abandoning the fantasy that there are still U.S. prisoners being held by Hanoi who could be rescued if enough pressure was applied.The issue: The government of Vietnam is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its victory against U.S. and allied forces.
However, there is no reason for Americans to join in the celebration by the Vietnamese Communists of the 25th anniversary of their triumph. As Sen. John McCain insists, the wrong side won.
Certainly the U.S. war effort was flawed -- fatally, as it turned out -- and the toll in lives and property was devastating. But it was part of the campaign that ultimately succeeded in halting Communist aggression and contributing to the collapse of the center of the Communist movement -- the Soviet Union. Today there is no question which system -- communism or democracy -- has prevailed.
Although the South Vietnamese anti-Communist government was weak and corrupt and failed to win the allegiance of the Vietnamese people, the Communist victors soon proved themselves to be oppressive and incompetent rulers.
The flight of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese in small, frail boats to escape Vietnamese communism introduced the term "boat people" to our vocabulary and constituted the most vehement conceivable repudiation of the new regime. Some of those people died at sea, but many reached safety and today enjoy freedom in the United States -- including Hawaii -- and other democracies.
In neighboring Cambodia, the Communist Khmer Rouge -- supported by the Vietnamese Communists -- went on a genocidal orgy after their victory, slaughtering a million or more of their people.
Today Vietnam is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia. Its government is belatedly trying to attract foreign investors after decades of disastrous implementation of orthodox Communist economic doctrines. It also abandoned its previous stonewalling on the MIA/POW issue and began cooperating with U.S. search efforts.
Starting in the Bush administration and culminating in the Clinton administration, the United States has gradually established normal diplomatic relations with Hanoi. This was clearly necessary. It would have been pointless and counterproductive to continue shunning the new regime because it won the war.
A key figure in the normalization process was Senator McCain. Because of his status as a former prisoner of war for six years, during which he was repeatedly tortured, McCain gave the diplomatic effort considerable credibility. The Vietnamese Communists' denials that McCain and other POWs were tortured are of course nonsense.
McCain, who is currently visiting Vietnam, doesn't mince words. He has no regrets about fighting the Communists. He also criticized corruption in the Hanoi government and charged that some Vietnamese officials are unwilling to improve U.S.-Hanoi relations. In fact, foreign investors' enthusiasm for doing business in Vietnam has cooled in the face of the Communist bureaucracy's refusal to reform its anti-business policies.
The United States fought in Vietnam on the basis of the so-called domino theory, which held that a Communist victory there would lead to the fall of neighboring countries. That didn't happen, although some analysts argue that the war upset the Communist timetable and bought time for other countries to strengthen their defenses.
The errors of the war in Vietnam and the price that was paid in lives have been seared into the American political consciousness. Today no president would order forces into a conflict that seemed to hold the potential for another Vietnam.
But if U.S. leaders made mistakes, and they did, that does not mean that the cause of the North Vietnamese Communists was just or that the outcome of the war was beneficial for the Vietnamese people. Ask the refugees who risked their lives to escape to freedom and have since established themselves in this country.
The Miami raid
THE picture of federal government agents seizing Elian Gonzalez at gunpoint after forcing their way before dawn into the Miami house where he was living with relatives has spawned much criticism. But there was ample justification for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to use such tactics.
The government has disclosed that as many as 25 persons, many of them with criminal records but holding permits to carry concealed weapons, were outside the home. These persons, the INS said, were involved in a security system designed to prevent Elian's removal. One person had been seen inside the house carrying a gun.
The decision to use armed agents in the operation was a necessary precaution. As for employing the element of surprise, without it there would surely have been a confrontation with the potential for violence and a prospect of failure for the operation. There was virtually no possibility that the relatives would have handed Elian over voluntarily.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
