Studio guests: Part 1 (Watch)
Studio guests: Part 2 (Watch)
Following the full text of the meeting.
VOVNews: Over the past years, the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation (VVAF) has made significant contributions to normalising relations between Vietnam and the US. What can you say about the trip to Vietnam after 25 years?
Bobby Muller: We had the privilege of leading the first group of American soldiers to come back to Vietnam after the war ended. That was 25 years ago this month. As a result of that visit, we pledged to work for the normalisation of the relations between the two countries and the reconciliation between the two people. We planned this visit simply as the 25th anniversary of our trip. It has turned out to be a celebration, a party with many of our friends here because we have actually achieved in every legal and political sense … the full normalisation of the relations between the two countries with a recent enactment of PNTR. So we have worked consistently in 25 years to achieve this. The anniversary trip has been a wonderful reward and we share that moment of recognition and celebration with our friends.
VOVNews: During this trip, you screened the documentary Going Back featuring your first visit to Vietnam 25 years ago. Could you tell us more about that?
Bobby Muller: What impressed me most is the distance that we have travelled. When we visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum 25 years ago, it was a big controversy in the United States. We just had former US President Bill Clinton visit Ho Chi Minh’s Museum and spend 45 minutes at his home, and there was absolutely no controversy about it at all, it was considered normal. When we had President Bush here, just a few weeks ago, it turned out that he spent more time in Vietnam than he has spent in any country throughout the entire six years of his presidency, and he announced that the US will provide support to Vietnam for issues, including the chemical war aspects of dioxin exposure. So, to have had our two presidents, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld come to Vietnam to have the political progress we have realized, including the war legacy issues specifically of dioxin acknowledged by the president is a remarkable advancement from where we started, and what that film portrayed 25 years ago. It took too long, much too long. But, at least, we have lived long enough to see this moment.
Chuck Searcy:
At that time, which was not 25 years ago, but 10 or 12 years ago, Vietnam still had very great needs. When Bobby and the VVAF invited me to come to Vietnam to begin a project at that time– a humanitarian programme focusing on children and adult with disabilities. The project that began then and which now still continues has helped thousands of disabled children and adults to walk or improve their mobility. It was a small but important contribution and one example of the many efforts of cooperation undertaken by American veterans and other organisations and international organisations. And the progress that Vietnam has made, just in the past decade, has been tremendous. It is unbelievable. 12 years ago, the telephone service in Hanoi was unreliable, but now everybody has mobile phones. There were no computers, now people use the Internet. The conditions, incomes, economic level of people all around the country, even the poorest people in the country, all have improved so much. And Vietnam has a great record, the best in the world, of reducing poverty and improving the lives of its people. The changes have been dramatic, and it is a tribute to the people of Vietnam, what you have accomplished. For us, as war veterans, it is very gratifying and rewarding that we have been permitted to play a small part in that.
VOVNews: We know that several American veterans fear to return to Vietnam just because of unpleasant memories of the past war. Why do you come back to Vietnam so often?
Bobby Muller: It was a very painful war. Most veterans don’t even want to talk about the war in Vietnam. Many war veterans fear coming back because of the memories that would be rekindled. Because I was president of the National Organization for US Veterans who fought in Vietnam, I felt it was necessary that the war veterans take the first step in the process of reconciliation. And as a result of that sense of obligation, and having the privilege to come back to Vietnam, I came to see the Vietnamese people in a very different way than when I was here during the war. Everybody who accepted this opportunity to come to Vietnam has been touched by the grace and warmth of the Vietnamese people, and it has transformed every veteran I know that has had the chance to come back.
Chuck Searcy: That’s very true. The US has now reached full normalization of relations with Vietnam at the diplomatic level, economic level, and by every standard measure, we are fully normalized in our relationship. Still, the one remaining factor that is painful for so many us is that some US veterans are not reconciled to the wonderful reality of Vietnam today. That’s something that we will continue to try to work on, along with the Vietnamese, who have been very gracious in that regard. Particularly, the Vietnam-USA Society which has done so much to try to bring American veterans and Vietnamese veterans together. Those efforts are continuing, there is still some pain remaining can be removed and it can be healed. And now I wish more war veterans will have more opportunities to come to Vietnam because that was the most healing experience we have been through. In the meantime, I and Bobby, and others try to convince American war veterans of the wonderful beauty of Vietnam today and the lessons we can learn from Vietnam’s people.
VOVNews: VVAF has been awarded the Nobel Prize for its active contribution to clearing landmine and UXO left behind during global conflicts and wars. How have these activities been carried out in Vietnam so far?
Bobby Muller: We have operated for several years now in Vietnam with funding from the US Government, working in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence of Vietnam, to try access where UXO, landmines and ordnance are continuing to affect Vietnam to help develop a strategy to use limited resources to best advantage to reclaim the land for safe purposes of the people in Vietnam. We dropped more bombs here in Vietnam than all of the bombs that were dropped in the Second World War. So, the challenge to clean up, even this many years after the war, is a daunting challenge, and we expect our work, with the cooperation with the Ministry of Defence, to continue for a long time.
VOVNews: Well, Relations between Vietnam and the US have been fully normalised after PNTR was approved by the US Congress. What is your perspective on the relations between the two countries?
Mr Muller: We clearly are beginning a new chapter. The legal and political requirements of the normalisation process have been achieved. There is extraordinary economic development opportunity between our countries. There is still the need, beyond the normalisation of political relations, to have the reconciliation between the people. Chuck, myself, and many of us (US Veterans) in the US recognise a continuing moral obligation, not simply a legal requirement, to continue to work between our people, and to continue to address the war legacy issues (dioxin exposure, UXO etc.) While it is an achievement to come to where we are at this moment - it really signals greater opportunity and a new chapter in our continuing work with the people of Vietnam.
VOVNews: Thank you very much.
