Why we shouldn’t be selling arms to Vietnam.
BY JOHN SIFTON
OCTOBER 3, 2014
The Obama administration announced on Oct. 2 that it was relaxing a decades-old ban on sales of lethal military equipment to Vietnam. The United States will now allow the Pentagon and U.S. companies to provide Vietnam with “maritime security-related defense articles.” The move coincided with a visit to Washington by Deputy Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh — where he met with Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel — and came without much warning. This may have been intentional given the controversy surrounding it.
Looming over the decision is Vietnam’s exceedingly poor human rights record and Hanoi’s unwillingness to undertake basic reforms. Like China, its neighbor to the north, Vietnam has changed a great deal since the end of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam in the mid-1970s, when the arms embargo was first put in place: It is far wealthier, more integrated in the world economy, and it has relaxed state control over business. But as with China, the basic reality of its governance remains the same: It is a one-party, non-democratic state that imposes harsh limitations on basic rights and freedoms.
The U.S. government defends the policy change by claiming that maritime equipment cannot be used to stifle dissent. This argument misses the point. Of course, Hanoi won’t fire U.S.-made torpedoes at protesting crowds. Vietnam’s security forces don’t need complicated military equipment to quiet critics. When they arrest dissidents and bloggers, they just drive to protest sites, or people’s homes, and arrest them. Vietnam does not need to purchase firearms, batons, and tear gas from the United States at all — its security forces can purchase these inexpensive items in existing markets.
But the decision to start lethal arms sales undercuts the brave work of Vietnamese activists who expect the United States and other democracies to pressure the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam to end its systematic repression and engage in serious reform.
It sends a signal to Vietnam’s ruling party that they can choose to reform or not, and be treated the same either way.
That is not the kind of message Hanoi needs to hear.
For full article:
http://www.hrw.org/node/129672
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/03/torpedoes_dont_kill_people_hanoi_kills_people_vietnam_arms_sales
