Presidential
1994
Clinton
ends trade embargo of Vietnam
On this day in 1994,
President Bill Clinton lifts a 19-year-old trade embargo of the Republic of
Vietnam. The embargo had been in place since 1975, when North Vietnamese forces
captured the city of Saigon in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
President Clinton lifted
the embargo primarily to encourage cooperative efforts between the U.S. and
Vietnam to discover the fate of American prisoners of war (POWs) and missing in
action (MIA) who had remained unaccounted for after the war. He also believed
that improved business relations between the U.S. and Vietnam would benefit the
economies of both nations. American businesses interested in expanding in Asian
nations like Vietnam applauded his move, while veterans’ organizations and
families of servicemen killed during the Vietnam War erupted in outrage over
the lifting of the embargo. They believed that the lifting of the embargo, as
well as Clinton’s status as a draft dodger and his active participation in war
protests during the 1970s, was an insult to the memories of those who fought
and died during Vietnam in service to their country. They also believed that
the Vietnamese could not be trusted, citing examples of the Vietnamese
government’s habit of providing false information to U.S. officials regarding
the whereabouts of American POWs.
In 2000, six years after
lifting the embargo, Clinton became the first American head of state to visit
Vietnam since before the war. During the visit he attempted to soothe ongoing
U.S. internal conflict over the Vietnam War and his actions by stating, “The
history we leave behind is painful and hard. We must not forget it, but we must
not be controlled by it.”
According to the
Department of Defense, 325 American servicemen were accounted for in the first
12 years after the lifting of the embargo. The status of more than a thousand
missing servicemen remains unknown.
COURTESY: HISTORY.com
COURTESY.COM
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