Full text of US President Bill Clinton's speech in Vietnam
HANOI - The following is the full text of US President Bill
Clinton's speech on Friday at Hanoi National University:
"Thank you very
much and good afternoon. I can think of no more fitting place to begin my visit
at this hopeful moment in our common history than here at Hanoi National
University. I was given a Vietnamese phrase; I am going to try to say it. If I
mess it up, feel free to laugh at me. Xin chao cac ban. (Hello, everybody) So
much of the promise of this youthful nation is embodied with you. I learned that
you have exchanges here with students from nearly 100 universities, from Canada
to France to Korea -- and that you are now hosting more than a dozen full-time
students from your partner school in the United States, the University of
California. I salute your vigorous efforts to engage the world. Of course, like
students everywhere, I know you have things to think about other than your
studies. For example, in September, you had to study for your classes and watch
the Olympic accomplishments of Tran Hieu Ngan in Sydney. And this week you have
to study and cheer Le Huynh Duc and Nguyen Hong Son in Bangkok at the football
matches.
I am honored to be the first American President to see Hanoi,
and to visit this university. But I do so conscious that the histories of our
two nations are deeply intertwined in ways that are both a source of pain for
generations that came before, and a source of promise for generations yet to
come. Two centuries ago, during the early days of the United States, we reached
across the seas for partners in trade and one of the first nations we
encountered was Vietnam. In fact, one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson,
tried to obtain rice seed from Vietnam to grow on his farm in Virginia 200 years
ago, By the time World War II arrived, the United States had become a
significant consumer of export from Vietnam. In 1945, at the moment of your
country's birth, the words of Thomas Jefferson were chosen to be echoed in your
own Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal. The creator has
given us certain inviolable rights, -- the right to life, the right to be free,
the right to achieve happiness." Of course, all of this common history, 200
years of it, has been obscured in the last few decades by the conflict we call
the Vietnam War and you call the American War. You may know that in Washington,
D.C. on our National Mall, there is a stark black granite wall engraved with the
name of every single American who died in Vietnam. At this solemn memorial, some
American veterans also refer to the "other side of the wall," the staggering
sacrifice of the Vietnamese people on both sides of that conflict -- more than
three million brave soldiers and civilians. This shared suffering has given our
countries a relationship unlike any other. Because of the conflict, America is
now home to one million Americans of Vietnamese ancestry. Because of the
conflict, three million American veterans served in Vietnam, as did many
journalists, embassy personnel, aid workers and others who are forever connected
to your country.
Almost 20 years ago now, a group of American servicemen
took the first step to reestablish contacts between the United States and
Vietnam. They traveled back to Vietnam for the first time since the war, and as
they walked through the streets of Hanoi, they were approached by Vietnamese
citizens who had heard of their visit. Are you the American soldiers, they
asked? Not sure what to expect our veterans answered, yes we are. And to their
immense relief, their hosts simply said, welcome to Vietnam. More veterans
followed, including distinguished American veterans and heroes who serve now in
the United States Congress: Senator John McCain, Senator Bob Kerrey, Senator
Chuck Robb and Senator John Kerry from Massachusettes, who is here with me today
along with a number of representatives from our Congress, some of whom are
veterans of the Vietnam conflict. When they came here, they were determined to
honor those who fought without refighting the battle; to remember our history,
but not to perpetuate it; to give young people like you in both our countries
the chance to live in your tomorrows, not in our yesterdays. As Ambassador Pete
Peterson has said so eloquently, "We cannot change the past. What we can change
is the future."
Our new relationship gained strength as American
veterans launched non profit organisations to work on behalf of the Vietnamese
people, such as providing devices to people with war injuries to help them lead
more normal lives. Vietnam's willingness to help us return the remains of our
fallen servicemen to their families has been the biggest boost to improve ties.
And there are many Americans here who have worked in that endeavor for many
years now, including our Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Hershel Gobar. The
desire to be reunited with a lost family member is something we all understand.
It touches the hearts of Americans to know that every Sunday in Vietnam one of
your most-wanted television shows features families seeking viewers help in
finding loved ones they lost in the war so long ago now. And we are grateful for
the Vietnamese villagers who have helped us to find our missing and, therefore,
to give their families the peace of mind that comes with knowing what actually
happened to their loved ones. No two nations have ever before done the things we
are doing together to find the missing from the Vietnam conflict. Teams of
Americans and Vietnamese work together, sometimes in tight and dangerous places.
The Vietnamese government has offered us access to files and government
information to assist our search. And, in turn, we have been able to give
Vietnam almost 400,000 pages of documents that could asist in your search. On
this trip, I have brought with me another 350,000 pages of documents that I hope
will help Vietnamese familes find out what happened to their missing loved ones.
Today, I was honoured to present these to your President, Tran Duc
Luong. And I told him before the year is over, America will provide another
million pages of documents. We will continue to offer our help and to ask for
your help as we both honor our commitment to do whatever we can for as long as
it takes to achieve the fullest possible accounting of our loved ones. Your
cooperation in that mission over these last eight years has made it possible for
America to support international lending to Vietnam, to resume trade between our
countries, to establish formal diplomatic relations and, this year, to sign a
pivotal trade agreement. Finally, America is coming to see Vietnam as your
people have asked for years -- as a country, not a war. A country with the
highest literacy rate in Southeast Asia; a country whose young people just won
three Gold Medals at the International Math Olympiad in Seoul; a country of
gifted hardworking entrepreneurs emerging from years of conflict and uncertainty
to shape a bright future.
Today, the United States and Vietnam open a
new champter in our relationship, at a time when people all across the world
trade more, travel more, know more about and talk more with each other than ever
before. Even as people take pride in their national independence, we know we are
becoming more and more interdependent. The movement of people, money and ideas
across borders, frankly breeds suspicion among many good people in every
country. They are worried about globalization because of its unsettling and
unpredictable consequences. Yet globalization is not something we can hold off
or turn off. It is the economic equivalent of a force of nature -- like wind or
water. We can harness wind to fill a sail. We can use water to generate energy.
We can work hard to protect people and property from storms and floods. But
there is no point in denying the existence of wind or water, or trying to make
them go away. The same is true for globalization. We can work to maximize its
benefits and minimize its risks, but we cannot ignore it -- and it is not going
away. In the last decade, as the volume of world trade has doubled, investment
flows from wealthy nations to developing ones have increased by six times, from
25 billion dollars in 1990 to more than 150 billion dollars in 1998. Nations
that have opened their econoimis to the international trading system have grown
at least twice as fast as nations with closed econonmies. Your next job may well
depend on foreign trade and investment. Come to think of it, since I have to
leave office in about eight weeks, my next job may depend on foreign trade and
investment.
Over the last 15 years, Vietnam launched its policy of Doi
Moi, joined APEC and ASEAN, normalized relations with the European Union and the
United States, and disbanded collective farming, freeing farmers to grow what
they want and earn the fruits of their own labor. The results were impressive
proof of the power of your markets and the abilities of your people. You not
only conquered malnutrition, you became the world's second largest exprorter of
rice and achieved stronger overall economic growth. Of course, in recent years
the rate of growth has slowed and foreign investment has declined here, showing
that any attempt to remain isolated from the risks of a global economy also
guarantees isolation from its rewards, as well. General Secretary Le Kha Phieu
said this summer, and I quote, "We have yet to achive the level of development
commensurate with the possibilities of our country. And there is only one way to
further open up the economy." So this summer, in what I believe will be seen as
a pivotal step toward your future prosperity, Vietnam joined the United States
in signing an historic bilateral trade agreement, building a foundation for
Vietnam's entry eventually into the World Trade Orgaization.
Under the
agreement, Vietnam will grant to its citizens, and over time to citizens of
other countries, rights to import, export and distribute goods, giving the
Vietnmese people expanding rights to determine their own economic destiny.
Vietnam has agreed it will subject important decisions to the rule of law and
the international trading system, increase the flow of information to its
people, and accelerate the rise of a free economy and the private sector. Of
course, this will be good for Vietnam's foreign partners, like the United
States. But it will be even better for Vietnam's own entrepreneurs, who are
working hard to build businesses of their own. Under this agreement, Vietnam
could be earning, according to the World Bank, another 1.5 billion dollars each
and every year from exports alone.
Both our nations were born with a
Declaration of Independence. This trade agreement is a form of declaration of
interdependence, a clear, unequivocal statement that prosperity in the 21st
century depends upon a nation's economic engagement in the rest of the world.
This new openness is a great opportunity for you. But it does not guarantee
success. What else should be done? Vietnam is such a young country, with 60
percent of your population under the age of 30, and 1.4 million new people
entering your work force every year. Your leaders realize that government and
state-owned businesses cannot generate 1.4 million new jobs every year. Thy know
that the industries driving the global economy today -- computers,
telecommunications, biotechnology -- these are all based on knowledge. That is
why economies all over the world grow faster when young people stay in school
longer, when women have the same educational opportunities that men have, when
young people like you have every opportunity to explore new ideas and then to
turn those ideas into your own business opportunities.
You can be --
indeed, those of you in this hall today must be -- the engine of Vietnam's
future prosperity. As President Tran Duc Luong has said, the internal strength
of the country is the intellect and capacity of its people. The United States
has great respect for your intellect and capacity. One of our government's
largest educational exchange programs is with Vietnam. And we want to do more.
Senator Kerry is right there, and I mentioned him earlier -- is leading an
effort in our United States Congress, along with Senator John McCain and other
veterans of the conflict here, to establish a new Vietnam Education Foundation.
Once enacted, the foundation would support 100 fellowships every year, either
here or in the United States, for people to study or teach science, math,
technology and medicine.
We're ready to put more funding in our exchange
programs now so this effort can get underway immediately. I hope some of you in
this room will have a chance to take part. And I want to thank Senator Kerry for
this great idea. Thank you, sir, for what you have done. Let me say, as
important as knowledge is, the benefits of knowledge are necessarily limited by
undue restrictions on its use. We Americans believe the freedom to explore, to
travel. to think, to speak, to shape decisions that affect our lives enrich the
lives of individuals and nations in ways that go far beyond economics.
Now, America's record is not perfect in this area. After all, it took us
almost a century to banish slavery. It took us even longer to give women the
right to vote. And we are still seeking to live up to the more perfect union of
our founders' dreams and the words of our Declaration of Independence and
Constitution. But along the way over these 226 years -- 224 years -- we've
learned some lessons. For example, we have seen that economics work better where
newspapers are free to expose corruption, and independent courts can ensure that
contracts are honored, that competition is robust and fair, that public
officials honor the rule of law.
In our experience, guaranteeing the
right to religious worship and the right to political dissent does not threaten
the stability of a society. Instead it builds people's confidence in the
fairness of our institutions, and it enables us to take it when a decision goes
in a way we don't agree with. All this makes our country stronger in good times
and bad. In our experience, young people are much more likely to have confidence
in their future if they have a say in shaping it, in choosing their governmental
leaders and having a government that is accountable to those it serves. Now, let
me say emphatically, we do not seek to impose these ideals, nor could we.
Vietnam is an ancient and enduring country. You have proved to the world that
you will make your own decisions. Only you can decide, for example, if you will
continue to share Vietnam's talents and ideas with the world; if you will
continue to open Vietnam so that you can enrich it with the insight of others.
Only you can decide if you will continue to open your markets, open your society
and strengthen the rule of law. Only you can decide how to weave individual
liberties and human rights into the rich and strong fabric of Vietnamese
national identity.
Your future should be in your hands, the hands of the
Vietnam people. But your future is important to the rest of us as well. For as
Vietnam succeeds, it will benefit this region and your trading partners and your
friends throughout the world. We are eager to increase our cooperation with you
across the board. We want to continue our work to clear land mines and
unexploded ordnance. We want to strengthen our common efforts to protect the
environment by phasing out leaded gasoline in Vietnam, maintaining a clean water
supply, saving coral reefs and tropical forests. We want to bolster our efforts
on disaster relief and prevention, including our efforts to help those suffering
from the floods in the Mekong delta. Yesterday we presented to your goverment
satellite imagery from our Global Disater Information Network -- images that
show in great detail the latest flood levels on the delta that can help Vietnam
to rebuild.
We want to acclerate our cooperation in science, cooperation
focused this month on our meeting in Singapore to study together the health and
ecological effects of dioxin on the people of Vietnam and the Americans who were
in Vietnam; and cooperation that we are advancing further with the Science and
Technology Agreement our two countries signed just today. We want to be your
ally in the fight against killer diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. I
am glad to announce that we will nearly double our support of Vietnam's efforts
to contain the AIDS crisis through education, prevention, care and treatment. We
want to work with you to make Vietnam a safer place by giving you help to reduce
preventable injuries -- on the streets, at home and in the workplace. We want to
work with you to make the most of this trade agreement, by providing technical
assistance to assure its full and smooth implementation, in finding ways to
encourage greater United States investment in your country.
We are, in
short, eager to build our partnership with Vietnam. We believe it's good for
both our nations. We believe the Vietnamese people have the talent to succeed in
this new global age as they have in the past. We know it because we've seen the
progress you have made in this last decade. We have seen the talent and
ingenuity of the Vietnamese who have come to settle in America.
Vietnamese-Americans have become elected officials, judges, leaders in science
and in our high-tech industry. Last year, a Vietnamese-American achieved a
mathematical breakthrough that will make it easier to conduct high-quality
video-conferencing. And all America toook notice when Hoang Nhu Tran graduated
number one in his class at the United States Air Force Academy.
Vietnamese-Americans have flourished not just because of their unique
abilities and their good values, but also because they have had the opportunity
to make the most of their abilities and their values. As your oppportunites grow
to live, to learn, to express your creativity, there willl be no stopping the
people of Vietnam. And you will find, I am certain, that the American people
will be by your side. For in this interdependent world, we truly do have a stake
in your success. Almost 200 years ago, at the beginning of the relations between
the United States and Vietnam, our two nations made many attempts to negotiate a
treaty of commerce, sort of like the trade agreement that we signed today. But
200 years ago, they all failed, and no treaty was concluded. Listen to what one
historian said about what happened 200 years ago, and think how many times it
could have been said in the two centuries since. He said, "These efforts failed
because two distant cultures were talking past each other, and the importance of
each to the other was insufficient to overcome these barriers."
Let the
days when we talk past each other be gone for good. Let us acknowledge our
importance to one another. Let us continue to help each other heal the wounds of
war, not by forgetting the bravery shown and the tragedy suffered by all sides,
but by embracing the spirit of reconciliation and the courage to build better
tomorrows for our children. May our children learn from us that good people,
through respectful dialogue, can discover and rediscover their common humanity,
and that a painful, painful past can be redeemed in a peaceful and prosperous
future.
Thank you for welcoming me and my family and our American
delegation to Vietnam. Thank you for your faith in the future. Chuc cac ban suc
khoe va thanh cong. (May you have health and success)
Agence France
Presse - November 17, 2000.
DIỄN VĂN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BILL CLINTON
DIỄN VĂN CỦA TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BILL CLINTON
TẠI CUỘC CHIÊU ĐÃI TRỌNG THỂ TỐI 17/11/2000
Kính thưa Chủ tịch nước Trần Ðức Lương,
Kính thưa các quý vị đại biểu của Chính phủ Việt Nam,
Kính thưa các quý ông, quý bà,
Xin cảm ơn sự đón tiếp mà các Ngài đã dành cho tôi, gia đình tôi và phái đoàn của chúng tôi.
Chúng tôi vinh dự được cùng các Ngài viết nên một chương mới trong quan hệ giữa hai nước Hoa Kỳ và Việt Nam, và chúng tôi biết ơn vì chương sử mới này đã có một khởi đầu tốt đẹp. Quả thực, lịch sử mà chúng ta để lại sau mình rất đau buồn và nặng nề. Chúng ta không được quên nó. Nhưng chúng ta cũng không được để nó chi phối chúng ta. Quá khứ chỉ là cái đến trước tương lai, quá khứ không phải là cái quyết định tương lai.
Hôm nay nước Mỹ và nước Việt Nam đang làm nên một trang sử mới. Thế hệ sau sẽ nhìn lại thời điểm hiện tại và thấy những cựu chiến binh Mỹ quay trở lại Việt Nam tìm kiếm câu trả lời về quá khứ, và những người Việt Nam chấp nhận họ để cùng xây dựng một tương lai chung; thấy những sinh viên trẻ của Việt Nam khát khao hấp thụ tất cả những gì thế giới dành cho họ, và cùng học với họ có các thanh niên đến từ nước Mỹ; thấy các doanh nhân, các nhà khoa học và các nhà bảo tồn cùng các nghệ sĩ đúc nên mối liên kết giữa Việt Nam và thế giới.
Nói ngắn gọn, người ta sẽ nhìn lại và đi đến một kết luận mà Nguyễn Trãi, nhà chính trị thiên tài của Việt Nam đã từng nói 500 năm trước, đại ý: Sau rất nhiều năm chiến tranh, chỉ còn cuộc sống là tồn tại.
Ngày nay, nhân dân hai nước chúng ta cùng đối mặt với một thế giới có nhiều thay đổi, với những khát vọng cơ bản giống nhau, và cả những băn khoăn giống nhau: Làm sao để có thể nắm lấy những cơ hội của nền kinh tế toàn cầu mà vẫn tránh được những xáo động của nó? Làm thế nào để trong khi mở cửa đón những ý tưởng mới, chúng ta vẫn bảo vệ được truyền thống của chúng ta, nền văn hoá của chúng ta, lối sống của chúng ta?
Nhưng nếu như toàn cầu hóa mang thế giới đến với Việt Nam, thì đồng thời nó cũng mang Việt Nam đến với thế giới. Các bộ phim về cuộc sống ở Việt Nam, từ phim "Mùi đu đủ xanh" đến phim "Ba mùa", đang giành được giải thưởng trên toàn thế giới. Các bức tranh của họa sĩ Việt Nam Ðỗ Quang Em có giá trị cao tại các cuộc triển lãm nghệ thuật quốc tế. Các bài thơ 200 năm tuổi của nữ sĩ Hồ Xuân Hương đang được xuất bản ở Mỹ – bằng tiếng Anh, tiếng Việt, và cả chữ "Nôm" nguyên bản, là lần đầu tiên mà một bản thảo cổ của Việt Nam được đưa lên in ấn. Các nhà thiết kế thời trang như Armani và Calvin Klein sáng tạo những bộ sưu tập mới dựa trên trang phục truyền thống của Việt Nam, chiếc áo dài. Tôi cũng xin nói thêm, người Mỹ đang thưởng thức lá sả, tỏi và thậm chí cả mướp đắng – tất cả được trồng tại một trang trại của người Việt Nam ở Virginia, chỉ cách Nhà Trắng 20 phút lái xe.
Toàn cầu hóa cũng có nghĩa là trên mạng internet, người Mỹ có thể đọc những tin tức tài chính mới nhất của Việt Nam, hoặc biết đến những khó khăn thách thức trong việc bảo tồn khu phố cổ Hà Nội, hay là ủng hộ các tổ chức đang xúc tiến bảo tồn các loài vật mới, đang được tìm thấy tại cao nguyên miền trung. Nó cũng có nghĩa là chúng tôi có thể cài đặt phông chữ tiếng Việt . Quả thật, chăng bao lâu nữa, những công nghệ dịch thuật tinh vi sẽ làm cho internet trở thành một lực lượng đa ngôn ngữ, chứ không phải là đồng hóa ngôn ngữ.
Khi chúng ta mở rộng các cánh cửa, chúng ta không chỉ tiếp nhận những tư tưởng mới. Chúng ta còn giới thiệu được với bên ngoài tài năng và tính sáng tạo cùng tiềm năng của dân tộc. Chỉ sau một ngày ở thăm đất nước của các bạn, tôi tin tưởng chắc chắn rằng sẽ không có gì có thể ngăn cản người dân Việt Nam giành lấy cơ hội nhận biết tiềm năng tràn đầy của mình. Nhân dân Hoa Kỳ vui mừng vì đã đến lúc chúng ta có thể trở thành đối tác.
Như Truyện Kiều đã nói: "Sen tàn cúc lại nở hoa, sầu dài ngày ngắn đông đà sang xuân". Nay những ký ức băng giá về quá khứ đã bắt đầu tan. Những phác thảo của một tương lai ấm áp chung đã bắt đầu hình thành. Cùng nhau, chúng ta hãy tận hưởng mùa xuân mới này.
Tôi muốn các bạn cùng tôi nâng cốc chức mừng ngài chủ tịch nước, phu nhân của ngài và nhân dân của đất nước vĩ đại này cũng như tình hữu nghị trong tương lai giữa hai nước chúng ta.
Nguồn: Blog Nguyễn Xuân Diện
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