Despite the fact that our nation is more than $20 trillion in debt, Congress continues to shower Communist Vietnam with millions of dollars, even though it brutally persecutes Christians and Buddhists, represses all political dissent, and is a longtime partner of the Soviet Union and Putin’s Russia. On the same day Congress approved (and President Trump signed) the handout, the Hanoi regime welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Vietnam.
In his denunciation of the budget-busting $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky pointed out that among the many shameful things being funded in the 2,232-page bill is a handout of millions of dollars to the brutal communist dictatorship of Vietnam. Known officially as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, it is one of only four remaining nations that are officially and openly Marxist-Leninist states run by a Communist Party (the others being China, Cuba, and Laos). In addition to regularly making it into the top tier of repressive regimes in the annual reports of human rights monitors, the tyrannical regime also is a faithful partner and ally of Russia, continuing client-state relationship it had with the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War.
Vietnam is frequently referred to in news reports and textbooks as a “one-party state” that has a “unitary government.” Those are diplomatic euphemisms (or, more accurately, convenient lies) that cloak the bitter truth that the Hanoi regime is a communist police state where freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion — even freedom of thought that deviates from that of the Communist Party — are unknown. Capricious arrest, torture, imprisonment without trial, trials before communist kangaroo courts, extra-judicial execution, Internet censorship, omnipresent surveillance and harassment of political dissidents, destruction of churches and temples — all of these tyrannical abuses, and more, are the norm in Vietnam today.
As in Communist China, where the mass-murdering founder of the regime, Mao Tse-tung, is still glorified, Vietnam has deified its own mass-murdering communist founder, Ho Chi Minh. Visiting foreign dignitaries and heads of state are ritually photographed beneath the giant, golden bust of Ho Chi Minh for propaganda purposes, to demonstrate foreign respect for, and endorsement of, the communist government. As with Chairman Mao in China, Chairman Ho’s visage is ever-present on propaganda billboards, along with Vietnam’s two flags: the national flag, which features a yellow star on a field of red; and the Communist Party flag, which features the communist hammer-and-sickle symbol, in yellow, on a field of red. Also, as in China, where “Mao Tse-tung Thought” is extolled as if it is holy scripture, in Vietnam, “Ho Chi Minh Thought” provides the official atheist dogma for the Marxist-Leninist state.
Millions Into Billions
As noted above, among the many shameful taxpayer-funded projects in the omnibus bill exposed by Senator Paul are $12 million in military funding for Hanoi’s communist dictatorship and $5 million for the “Vietnam Education Foundation Grants.” Now, $17 million may not seem like much in the whole scheme of things, particularly in the context of stratospheric profligacy beyond the trillion mark. However, aside from the immorality of providing even a single penny to Hanoi’s police state, the $17 million in the budget doesn’t begin to even scratch the surface of the billions in aid and trade that the United States provides (and has provided for decades) to build communist Vietnam into a modern military and industrial power.
Aside from official U.S. foreign aid, American taxpayers are footing the bill for billions of dollars in grants, loans, and guarantees provided by the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-IM), the Overseas Private Insurance Corporation (OPIC), and other U.S. agencies, as well as even larger amounts provided through the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, and many additional UN agencies and programs. In addition, thanks to the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, Vietnam has received extensive trade privileges that have encouraged American manufacturers to flee the increasingly socialist regulatory strangulation of the United States and set up shop in socialist Vietnam, where the regime conveniently provides slave labor and minimal regulation. Is the Trump administration following suit? It appears so. During his visit to Vietnam last November, President Trump declared: “Today the Vietnamese economy is one of the fastest-growing on earth…. We know it is in America’s interests to have partners throughout this region that are thriving, prosperous, and dependent on no one…. We want strong partners, not weak neighbors. And above all, we seek friendship.”
Same Day: U.S. Votes Aid and Russia Is Welcomed in Vietnam
In an ironic twist that must have been immensely pleasing to the governments of both Vietnam and Russia, the U.S. Congress approved (and President Trump signed) the omnibus bill with the aid for Vietnam on the same day that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was meeting in Hanoi with Vietnam’s “president,” Tran Dai Quang, to further cement their “strategic partnership.”
“First of all,” Lavrov told Quang, in his public statement, “I would like to thank you for giving this reception and for the opportunity to meet with you and convey Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warmest greetings and best wishes to you.”
“Vietnam is our strategic partner and we are building a comprehensive strategic partnership with it,” Lavrov continued. “Our relations have been tested by time and have passed the test of the joint fight for the triumph of justice in global affairs and for the right of nations to choose their destiny themselves.”
Putin’s emissary further stated:
Everything we are doing today is based on the brotherhood of our peoples, on the agreements that you reached with President Vladimir Putin, in particular those agreed upon during your official visit to Russia and on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Da Nang.
Our relations are being constantly enriched and filled with new content, in particular, the signing and entry into force of the Agreement on Free Trade Area between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union which last year resulted in a 30-per cent growth in our trade.
As noted by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister Lavrov also met with General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong, and Foreign Minister Pham Bình Minh. They discussed “implementation of top-level agreements to further expand all-round Russian-Vietnamese strategic partnership” and “reaffirmed their joint willingness to expand political dialogue and practical cooperation in numerous fields as well as to coordinate their actions on the international scene.”
“Following the talks,” said the ministry, “the sides signed a cooperation plan between the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation and the Foreign Ministry of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for 2019-2020.”
Interestingly, very few of the anti-Putin voices in the establishment media have anything negative to say about communist-ruled Vietnam, it’s relationship with Russia, or continued U.S. aid and trade benefits for the totalitarian regime.
A Reminder of the Grim Reality in Vietnam
Human rights monitors from around the world, including organizations that tend toward the leftward end of the ideological spectrum, have been documenting and reporting on Vietnam’s horrendous tyrannical abuses for decades. One of the most recent reports detailing Vietnam’s ongoing human rights atrocities is the 2017 Annual Report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan federal commission whose members are appointed by the president and the congressional leadership of both political parties. Vietnam features prominently in this 243-page USCIRF report on government violations of human rights throughout the world.
Another important report, focused exclusively on Vietnamese communist abuses is “Vietnam: Why Religious Freedom and Human Rights Are Critical to U.S. National Interests,” featuring testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, on May 25, 2017.
“From sex and labor trafficking to the censorship of the press and the Internet, from restrictions on independent labor unions to severe repression of faith communities, the Vietnamese Government and the Communist Party is one of the world’s worst abusers of human rights,” said Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Smith (R-N.J.), in his opening statement. “For too long Vietnam has gotten a free pass on human rights. Diplomats are so focused on the fact that Vietnam is not China that this oppressive police state is granted trade and security benefits without conditionality.”
“Human rights should be a top talking point when President Trump meets next week with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc,” Chairman Smith said. “Doing so will advance U.S. economic and security interests and it will be warmly welcomed by the Vietnamese people. The President has a real opportunity to bring about tangible reforms in Vietnam if he links better U.S.-Vietnam relations to tangible human rights improvements.”
So far, we have seen no evidence that President Trump will change the policies of his White House predecessors with regard to “trade and security benefits without conditionality” for Vietnam. The recent departure of globalists from top administration posts (particularly Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster) may provide grounds for hope that this will change. However, the corporate and financial trade lobby and globalist organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations are pushing to keep the U.S-Vietnam aid-and-trade pipeline flowing. We have the first real opportunity in many years to reverse this disastrous course, but it will take sustained, concerted pressure by the American people on Congress and President Trump to accomplish it.
Photo of President Trump in Vietnam: U.S. Department of State
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