Arming the Undeserving
On May 23, 2016, President Barack Obama announced at a news conference that after a meeting in Hanoi, the United States will be lifting the ban on the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam. Obama has told us that lifting this embargo has nothing to do with controlling China, but normalizing our paralyzed relationship with Vietnam. With the war having ended 40 years ago and a currently peaceful relationship between our countries, lifting the embargo seems like a reasonable policy as our goal is to be more diplomatic and move on from the past. Yet President Obama has entered muddy waters; lifting the ban gives Vietnam benefits when they don’t deserve them. Vietnam’s Communist Party maintains a stronghold on the nation, restricting basic rights such as freedom of speech and religion. The government has yet to release political prisoners and has not agreed to make an effort to stop police riots. Human rights violations run rampant in Vietnam and President Obama’s lift of the embargo sends a message to the Vietnamese government that they can be rewarded without making significant reforms.
The government in Vietnam not only outlaws freedom of expression in any form, but they also harass activists who organize physical events and online rebellion. The persecution of peaceful environmental protesters is something that is happening just recently. Although our government does not support the lack of democracy and freedom in the country that used to be our enemy, the actions taken by President Obama displays the image that we condone the country’s flaws. It is true that Vietnam is adapting to the world around it, taking in mass amounts of tourists and becoming less hostile as a communist country to places like the USA. Yet with all of the improvements Vietnam has made, human rights violence still holds the spotlight, and rightfully so. The situation would be completely different if Vietnam were a major world power like Russia, China, the UK or the USA. The reality, though, is that Vietnam is a third world country receiving an advantage from a democratic nation for enslaving freedom activists and denying its population a say in how their state is run. This deal just does not make any sense.
Although I do not agree with this deal on the basis of a lack of representation of human rights in Vietnam, there is a possibility that the agreement could help both parties. The USA took up the opportunity to look diplomatic and repair a damaged relationship. Vietnam now has access to lethal weapons, which may be useful to them if China continues to claim waters off of Vietnam. President Obama also may have viewed this deal as an opportunity to get closer to the communist country’s government with the final goal of implementing human rights. To the average joe like myself, however, this does not seem like a plausible explanation for making a deal with a country that hasn’t fixed what is regarded as a worldwide issue, whether it involves a rich first world country or an impoverished third world country.
Overall, I do not think it was a good move to lift the ban on the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam. When their government actually acts on the issue of human rights in their country, then the sale of lethal weapons would be appropriate. In essence, we should not reward them with something they do not deserve to have. Obama needs to remember his fundamentals.