On 5 May the Institute conducted an informal discussion of Vietnam as part of the groundwork for the Institute’s planned tour of Vietnam in October.

The president, Richard Broinowski (a former ambassador to Vietnam), outlined Vietnam’s turbulent history. It had suffered ten centuries of Chinese occupation and relations with China had been combative ever since, despite the West’s simplified view during the Cold War of Vietnam and China as part of a monolithic communist threat.

Vietnam had ended over a century of French colonisation with its 1954 victory over France at Dien Bien Phu. The United States had then taken a military role in supporting the non-communist government in the south against internal Vietcong opposition and the North Vietnamese under Ho Chi Minh.

Australia had identified with the US effort, contributing troops to the US alliance in support of the South Vietnamese. With the end of US involvement in 1973 Australia had also withdrawn militarily. It had maintained its Embassy in Saigon until 1975 while establishing a small mission in Hanoi in 1974. Following reunification in 1975 Australia had begun a more substantial relationship, including an aid program. This however had been suspended after the Vietnamese military occupation of Cambodia following its overthrow of Pol Pot.

Only after the mid-1980s, under the Hawke government, had the relationship been intensified, including an on-going dialogue about ways of settling the Cambodian problem. In 1985, Australia had been able to resolve its remaining MIA (missing in action) cases with the Vietnamese authorities.

There had since been major developments not only in the bilateral relationship but also in Vietnam’s involvement in the region: it was an active member of ASEAN and was playing a central role in resistance to China in the South China Sea.

Professor David Wilmoth of Learning Cities International (who led the start-up work for the establishment of RMIT University Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City) said that Vietnam today was more complex and interesting than its image might suggest. GDP had grown consistently at over six per cent a year since 2000. It was keen to put its wealth into education, including meeting gaps in work-related skills. Government, business and people-to-people relations with Australia were particularly strong. Australia was the top destination for Vietnamese students studying overseas.

Vietnam had developed world-scale exports in coffee, rice, seafood and electronics and attracted investment in higher value-added industries like electronics and pharmaceuticals. Its Ministry of Planning and Investment was professional and flexible. It had accessed the WTO, established a bilateral trade agreement with the US and joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

It participated in APEC and was moving to labour market integration in the ASEAN Economic Community – prepared to take the risk of an influx of cheaper labour.

Experience with standards of compliance was positive: examples included regulation of complementary medicines (and dealing with non-compliant imports from China) and improved road safety through higher-standard crash helmets.

Civil society was imperfect, but protests against land appropriation for urban development had resulted in a well-articulated set of rules and standards for compensation and resettlement.

Ian Lincoln, AIIA NSW councillor and a former ambassador to Vietnam, commented that the tour would include many sites with historical resonances such as Dien Bien Phu and the ancient city of Hoi An, where visitors would see monuments inscribed in Chinese characters which pre-dated the romanisation of the written Vietnamese language introduced by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries. The romanised script had facilitated Vietnam’s 94 per cent literacy rate, much higher than other Asian countries.

Language training in Australia for Vietnamese students had been one of the earliest elements in the cultural relations program from the mid-1980s. Another element had been assistance to the traditional water puppet theatre, conducted by puppeteers operating under water: Australia had contributed to their comfort by donating surfers’ wetsuits. The puppet theatre was now a major tourist attraction in Hanoi.

Vietnam was one of the world’s few remaining one-party communist states and the government remained superficially sclerotic – 71 year old Nguyen Phu Trong had been re-elected by the communist party congress in January this year as General Secretary, the country’s most powerful position. But he had since recommitted the government to continued economic reforms. His deputy, former foreign minister Pham Binh Minh, had been influential in joining the US-led TPP and in denouncing Chinese expansionism.

Australian relations included a dialogue on human rights which had begun in the mid 1980s, with annual consultations since 2002. There were regular defence force ship visits to Vietnam, and Vietnamese military officers undertook training in Australia.

Knowledge of Australia’s wartime role was limited and localised: our role loomed larger in our minds than theirs.

Report by Ian Lincoln