DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: ASIA
SUBSECTION: VIETNAM & CAMBODIA
Revised 8/20/99

 

VIETNAM & CAMBODIA

A US Army team trying to deactivate Chinese land mines in Cambodia discovered they were smart mines, with a computer chip made by a Motorola factory built in China.

7/10/98 Fox News: "The Senate Finance Committee voted 14-1 today to endorse President Clinton's efforts to create normal trade relations with Vietnam. The move stymied an attempt by Sens. Bob Smith, R-N.H., and Jesse Helms, R-N.C., to overturn Clinton's action. On June 3 he issued a waiver exempting Vietnam from the 1974 Jackson-Vanik law, which imposed trade restrictions on communist governments as a penalty for limiting emigration. The law allows a president to waive the restriction if he determines it would entice the other government to allow freer emigration. Clinton has granted a waiver under the same law to China to renew "most-favored-nation'' trade benefits. The China waiver is not due for congressional votes until later this month.

7/14/98 AP "The brother of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has met with Cambodian strongman Hun Sen and praised the Southeast Asian nation as a "tremendous" business opportunity.Hun Sen has been heavily criticized for ousting his co-prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, in a bloody coup last year. His campaign has been marred by allegations of violence against opposition campaign workers.The news conference was held at a Phnom Penh hotel owned by a local businessman barred from the United States because of suspected involvement in drug trafficking. Rodham said he was unaware of the connection.."

7/21/98 Laissez Faire City Times Richard Ehrlich "The US State Department and American Ambassador angrily denied allegations that they are blocking an FBI investigation into a deadly bombing in Cambodia which killed more than 20 people and injured 100, including one American. Former finance minister Sam Rainsy, who hopes to win Sunday's election to become the next prime minister, sparked the feud after claiming the State Department and American Ambassador to Cambodia, Kenneth Quinn, pressured the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) because the bombing case allegedly incriminates Prime Minister Hun Sen. Rainsy said he recently delivered to the FBI a fugitive who confessed to throwing the handgrenade, and the new confession was now being covered up."

Reuters 2/10/99 ".China's president Jiang Zemin.on Wednesday lauded reconciliation in Cambodia at a meeting with visiting Prime Minister Hun Sen, but there was no mention of a possible trial for leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge.. The two men avoided any public reference to growing international cries to put on trial leaders of the Khmer Rouge, fanatical Maoists whose 1970s rule killed an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians. The issue is prickly for Beijing because it backed the Khmer Rouge's bloody 1975-79 rule and continued to support them into the 1980s as they battled a Vietnamese-backed government in Phnom Penh. ."

 

VIETNAM - Operation Leatherneck

Freeper SIT-REP 4/15/99 "...The Communist Vietnamese government was seeking to smuggle $70 million worth of illegal weapons into the United States in violation of the Trading with the Enemy Act. The Customs sting, code-named Leatherneck, was set up to seize the contraband on the high seas. SIT-REP found that according to Downie's findings, the representatives of the Vietnamese government suggested that the weapons were going to criminal elements such as street gangs, drug dealers and other underworld figures in the U.S. and that some of the heavy weapons were even intended for sale to terrorist sponsor Muommar Khaddafy of Libya. The military ordinance included a staggering 400,000 fully automatic M-16's, 750,000 M-1 carbines and M-1 Grands, M-2 carbines and other rifles along with billions of rounds of ammunition; 40mm Mk 19 and M-79 grenade launchers, TOW missiles and LAAWS rockets, 60mm mortars, Red Eye shoulder-fire surface-to-air missiles and assorted heavy machine guns, all taken from the vast $5 billion arsenal abandoned in the U.S. military's hasty exit from Southeast Asia in 1975. Downie was even offered light tanks, howitzers with shells, Huey helicopters with rebuilt engines and F-4 jets destined for Third World killing fields...."

Freeper SIT-REP 4/15/99 "...Last month we described the apparent sabotage of the sting operation by corrupt elements at the highest levels of the Treasury Department. As we noted, Downie believed that after Operation Leatherneck was scuttled, "the arms shipments from Vietnam had already begun through other buyers." In May of 1994, federal authorities seized a ship, owned by the ubiquitous Cosco line, carrying comparatively modest quantities of Vietnam-era M-16's and AK-47's off the coast of northern California. Downie believes that the Vietnamese have since been bringing the huge arsenal into this country gradually in smaller shipments. …Well, the San Diego Union-Tribune broke the story of another massive shipment of arms consisting of grenade launchers and fully automatic M-2 carbines discovered by accident in a warehouse on the U.S.-Mexican border just south of San Diego. The arms were traced back to Vietnam. [Note: this is not to be confused with the 2,000 AK-47's seized in Oakland; May 1996]. Incredibly, not only were the arms found to have originated in Vietnam, but they arrived through the port of Long Beach [See the San Diego Union-Tribune, March 21st, 1997]. Customs officials described the seizure to the Associated Press: Thousands of unassembled grenade launchers and M-2 carbines were discovered by a warehouse worker...The arms were packed in two cargo containers measuring 20 feet long and 8 feet wide...a spokesman for the [Customs] said it could be the largest cache of arms ever found in the United States. ..."

Freeper SIT-REP 4/15/99 "...Louis Semon, a San Diego Customs spokesman described the seizure to reporters: "I can't recall anything that big". [Note: The previous record had been set by the 2,000 AK-47's in Oakland]. The two containers were listed as containing "strap hangers and hand tools" but warehouse workers suspicious of the shipment, which had apparently been held up at the border for problems with papers, decided to pry open the crates and reported the contents to law enforcement authorities. After initial speculation that the weapons may have arrived on a Cosco ship, it was determined that they were transported by a South Korean shipping line, with a major presence at the Port of Long Beach, named Hanjin, whose officials expressed the customary "shock" at the illegal shipment via one of their vessels. Valerie Alvord of the San Diego Union-Tribune, who broke the story, quoted a Customs source who said the seizure indicates "huge holes in the system." The customs agent added, "These arms were part of an in-bond shipment, which means, in the normal course of business, no one would have ever opened them. They were discovered by a fluke. In-bond is all on the honor system." An "in-bond" shipment means that the merchandise may be "just possing through" the U.S. on its way to another country. The Union-Tribune noted that this is part of an official Customs policy to "facilitate trade." However, it also offers a smuggling loophole big enough to sail a Cosco ship through: ...the people who do the inspections have long complained that not only are container shipments not examined but they are not carefully tracked to make sure they really leave the country.

Freeper SIT-REP 4/15/99 "...One customs agent provided the following revealing comment: "Theoretically, we can look at anything we want, but in fact, if it's in a container and its sealed, and it's transiting the United States, the bottom line is, we don't open it." A follow up article on March 21st by the Union-Tribune quoted one Customs source who stated that only 2% of the containers are inspected, "so, if you're a smuggler, you can figure you've got a 98% chance of getting your stuff through. Those aren't bad odds." The 20 x 8 foot containers described above are the "intermodal" shipping containers which were off-loaded from a ship at the Port of Long Beach and placed on semi-trucks. The trucks were bound for Mexico City by way of Tijuana. An AP story noted that "Customs agents believe six trucks of arms were expected, indicating that four might already have slipped through." The gun and grenade launcher parts were unassembled, with other parts and possible other weapons in the missing containers. The light, compact M-2 carbine is a fully automatic weapon which was provided by the United States for use by South Vietnamese troops, who were small in stature. The San Diego Union Tribune reported that, since the M-2 is illegal to sell, it wouldn't be readily available on the legitimate gun market. However, one local gun distributor stated, "some people, like gang members, would probably give their eye teeth for one of these things."

Freeper SIT-REP 4/15/99 "... A follow-up article in the March 21st San Diego Union-Tribune, revealed that shipping records showed: the third container did a U-turn out of Long Beach to Ho Chi Minh City. ...From there it went to Thailand, then was put aboard another vessel, the Hanjin Beijing, that carried it across the Pacific to Long Beach. On March 6th the container was loaded on a train which arrived in New York City on March 18th. There, the Hanjin tracking system lost its trail. ..."

Freeper SIT-REP 4/15/99 "...According to the veteran undercover operative, the violators in the original Vietnamese weapons deal repeatedly assured him that the sale was protected at the highest levels of the U.S. government, including "guaranteed Congressional protection". He maintains that there was even a sitting Congressman linked to the sale, but asked that his identity remain off the record...."

EWTN 6/28/99 (Population Research Institute) The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has a soft spot for totalitarian governments and Draconian population policies, to judge from this year's population award recipient. The National Committee for Population and Family Planning of Vietnam (NCPFP), the official Vietnamese governmental organization implementing a population policy made in China, has just been awarded the UNFPA's highest award. Billed as a mandatory one- or two-child policy, the Vietnamese family planning program dictates maximum number of children; minimum age of child-bearing; minimum years between children; mandatory contraceptive usage (preferably IUDs or sterilization), and prescribes punitive measures for compliance failures on any of these points....Policy implementation is various and creative. Newlyweds often receive two tickets at their wedding, one specifying the window in which their child-bearing may take place, the second outlining punitive measures leveled against transgressors. Incentive payments (bribes) encourage sterilization and vasectomy. The policy, however, generally focuses on disincentives: denial of housing and education benefits; fines of up to 800 kg of rice per unallowed child; dismissal from jobs, and forced IUD insertion...."


WORLD Magazine 7/16/99 Mindy Belz "… The general secretary of the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party, Le Kha Phieu, made his first trip to Cuba this month, a sign of strengthening ties between the two communist holdouts….. The discovery of a classified Vietnamese government document, which goes into great detail about how to suppress Christianity, surprised even stalwart church experts on persecution. The government is increasing pressure to eradicate Christianity, according to a report from World Evangelical Fellowship, in the face of large numbers of Christian conversions, especially among the tribal Hmong people. Church workers say that as many as 300,000 Hmong are now Christians. Fearing that evangelistic upheaval will undermine communist rule as it did in Eastern Europe 10 years ago, Vietnamese authorities have increased pressure to wipe out Christianity among Hmong…."

LA Times 7/21/99 Dave Lamb "...Twenty-four years after the end of the Vietnam War, an agreement establishing fully normalized trade relations between the United States and Vietnam is within reach and could be signed within days, officials on both sides say. The accord, known as the Bilateral Trade Agreement, has been the subject of three years of negotiations in Washington and Hanoi. It appeared doomed to failure as recently as 10 months ago. But concessions on both sides led to a breakthrough last month, and negotiators meeting in Hanoi say major differences have been resolved. Only "small, knotty" issues remain, said one....."

Reuters 7/25/99 "… Former enemies Vietnam and the United States struck a landmark trade pact Sunday, moving closer to full commercial ties and signaling Hanoi's intent to integrate with the world economy. U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Richard Fisher and Vietnam's Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen reached "agreement in principle'' on the deal after several days of marathon talks, including a 17-hour session Saturday. Fisher told a joint news conference in Hanoi he hoped the agreement could become effective by the end of the year after some technical issues had been finalized and the U.S. Congress and Vietnam's National Assembly had approved the pact…."

UPI 7/26/99 "...If the United States and Vietnam successfully hammer out an agreement to establish normal trade relations, President Clinton may celebrate the breakthrough with a trip to Vietnam within the next year, a White House official told United Press International (Monday).... "

Reuters 7/30/99 Mary Binks ".... Scientists have wiped out mosquitoes that carry the potentially fatal dengue fever in a village in northern Vietnam, a feat believed to be a world first. Pivotal to their success is a microscopic, one-eyed crustacean, which is eating its way into medical history with a voracious appetite for the larvae of dengue-carrying mosquitoes. The experiment was pioneered by Australian and Vietnamese scientists, who say the results could have global implications for combating a disease for which there is still no vaccine nor specific cure...."

House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...After receiving $1.1 million from Indonesia, Mr. Huang began aggressively arguing for U.S. trade policy toward Vietnam only 1 day after joining the Commerce Department, and again with no security clearances whatsoever or background check, in July 1994, and pushed the idea for the next 17 months when Lippo Group sought to expand its investment empire into Vietnam itself. He also attended interagency meetings of an Indonesian working group. The next month, a United States trade mission to China resulted in a $1 billion power plant that Lippo would finance and benefit from. This is at the same time when the President agreed to give Communist China $50 million for a Chinese coal-burning plant...."

Associated Press 8/9/99 "...Pope John Paul II has sent well-wishes to the people of Vietnam, but the greetings made no mention of a hoped-for visit to the communist-led country. The Vatican on Monday released the text of the pope's message for this week's celebration of the 200th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in La Vang, Vietnam...."

The Guardian 8/17/99 John Gittings "…US diplomats have returned to their mission's original home in Ho Chi Minh City - formerly Saigon - nearly a quarter of a century after their predecessors scrambled to safety from a besieged rooftop at the end of the Vietnam war. The US yesterday officially opened its consulate-general in leafy Le Duan Boulevard, built on the plot of land which once housed the Saigon embassy. The speeches by an assistant secretary of state, Mary Ryan, and Pete Peterson, the ambassador to Hanoi, focused on the prospect of profitable business flowing from a new trade pact concluded last month. No one wished to dwell on the humiliating events of April 29-30 1975, when 2,000 evacuees were lifted by helicopter from the roof of the embassy as North Vietnamese tanks prepared to enter the city….."