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December 15, 2001

Adm. Ulysses Sharp; faulted US strategy in Vietnam War

SAN DIEGO (Associated Press) - Retired Admiral Ulysses Grant Sharp Jr., a former commander of US Pacific forces who became an outspoken critic of American strategy during the Vietnam War, died Wednesday. He was 95.

As commander in chief of the Pacific Command in 1964, Admiral Sharp directed the movement of 450 Navy ships from the West Coast throughout the Pacific and Far East.

He coordinated the military response to a reported North Vietnamese attack in August 1964 on Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. That incident led Congress to give President Johnson authorization to escalate the war.

Admiral Sharp later became frustrated with the US effort in the war, particularly the refusal of the Johnson administration to authorize an expansion of bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.

Admiral Sharp, who retired in 1968, made his criticism public in May 1969, when he published an article in Reader's Digest titled, ''We Could Have Won in Vietnam Long Ago.''

Admiral Sharp also voiced his frustrations in the 1978 book ''Strategy for Defeat: Vietnam in Retrospect.''

Born in Chinook, Mont., he was named for his father's aunt's husband, President Ulysses S. Grant.

A 1927 graduate of the US Naval Academy, he earned two Silver Stars in World War II and commanded a squadron of destroyers in the Korean War.

In retirement, Admiral Sharp lectured on military issues and served on the board of San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
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New U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Highlights Trade

HANOI (Reuters) - The second post-war U.S. ambassador to Vietnam arrived in Hanoi Saturday and said he would work hard to implement a historic bilateral trade agreement put into effect by the former enemies this month.

Raymond Burghardt, a veteran foreign service officer who worked in the U.S. embassy in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, was formerly director of the American Institute in Taipei, which made him the unofficial U.S. ambassador in Taiwan.

Burghardt is the second U.S. ambassador appointed to Hanoi since Vietnam and the United States normalized diplomatic ties in 1995, 20 years after the end of the Vietnam War.

He said he was "very happy" to be back in Hanoi for the first time since 1982.

"We've just put into effect the bilateral trade agreement," he told reporters. "We'll be working hard to make that benefit both countries."

During his confirmation hearings, Burghardt said human rights would "continue to be a fundamental issue" in the U.S. relationship with Vietnam.

He said he would continue to press the government on rights and urge the release of detained religious leaders.

During his time with the embassy in the former South Vietnam, Burghardt worked as a liaison officer with religious groups, including the Catholics and the Hoa Hao, elements of which are at odds with the communist government today.

Burghardt succeeds Vietnam War veteran Pete Peterson, who came to Hanoi as ambassador in 1997 and ended his term in July.
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Vietnam expects U.S. trade to double

By Andrew Quinn

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Vietnam expects total trade with the United States to double next year following the implementation of a historic pact regularizing trade links between the two former enemies, Vietnam's Trade Minister Vu Khoan said on Friday.

"This is the final stage of the process of normalization, and the beginning of the next stage," Khoan told Reuters in an interview while visiting San Francisco for a trade promotion event.

Washington and Hanoi this week formally implemented a trade pact the two sides signed in July 2000 after years of negotiations -- a move that allows Vietnamese exporters to compete on level terms in the world's largest market.

The World Bank says the pact would boost Vietnam's exports to the United States by $1 billion in four years.

Khoan was even more hopeful, saying that total trade between the two sides -- which reached about $1.12 billion last year according to U.S. figures -- could double or even triple next year as tariffs come down. "Now the United States ranks very low in overall Vietnam trade," Khoan said. "It is my hope and aspiration to increase that by two or three times over the next year."

Khoan said the reduction in U.S. tariffs on Vietnamese imports to around 4 percent from 40 percent would be a major boost for the economy, while Vietnamese efforts to streamline laws and policies should smooth the way for a big increase in U.S. trade and investment in the country.

In particular, the agreement is expected to boost Vietnamese export industries ranging from footwear to textiles and furniture while providing opportunities for U.S. service providers in areas such as telecoms and banking.

Vietnam's exports to the United States reached $821 million last year, while its U.S. imports were $368 million.

Khoan's visit to San Francisco, for an event sponsored by the California-Asia Business Council and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is part of a push to widen economic links following implementation of the trade pact this week.

Hanoi and Washington were bitter enemies in the Vietnam War, which ended with a communist victory in 1975. Until 1994, Washington imposed a punishing trade embargo that seriously restricted Vietnam's economic development and did not restore diplomatic ties until a year later.

One major U.S. deal -- a $680 million agreement between Boeing Co. and Vietnam's government for the purchase of four 777-200ER airliners -- has already illustrated the promise of increased bilateral economic cooperation, Khoan said, while suggesting that more big deals were in the works.

"We are talking to American companies about power stations and refineries, and we are suggesting that they invest in petrochemicals," Khoan said. "I believe we can get some results from this soon."

MAJOR EFFORTS ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Khoan said Vietnam, which is communist-ruled but increasingly market-driven, was making "major efforts" to bring its economic rules and regulations in line with broader world practice, both to help bring in more U.S. investment and to smooth the way for eventual accession to the World Trade Organization. Hoping to attract more high-tech investment, the country plans to make a major push to boost its protection of intellectual property rights, he said. Along with agreeing a separate chapter in the U.S. pact on copyright protections, Vietnam plans to join a number of international conventions on intellectual property rights as it seeks to crack down on counterfeiting, he said.

"Frankly speaking, this area is very difficult for Vietnam as it is for many developing countries," Khoan said. "It will require common effort ... but we realize the need."

Khoan said Vietnam was making strides in its plans for WTO membership, and would definitely make good on a promise to submit by the end of the month the initial paperwork which will form the basis of substantive negotiations with member states.

But while WTO Director General Mike Moore said last month that he hoped to see Vietnam as a WTO member in two years, Khoan said Hanoi was prepared for negotiations on joining the trade body to take time. "I don't think we can say exactly when Vietnam will be able to enter the WTO ... that depends on the process of negotiations. We do not know what will be asked of us," he said.

He added, however, that China's WTO accession this year had boosted pressure on Vietnam to follow suit or risk being sidelined in the global economy.

"We have got to make significant efforts in this direction," he said.
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Vietnam officials woo trade partners

DELEGATION SAYS CALIFORNIA TO BENEFIT MORE THAN OTHERS FROM U.S. ACCORD; PROTESTERS AIM TO DELAY DEAL, BOOST RIGHTS

BY JESSIE MANGALIMAN
Mercury News

With its existing economic and cultural links to Vietnam, California stands to benefit perhaps more than any other state in the country from the recently ratified U.S.-Vietnam trade agreement, a visiting delegation of Vietnamese officials said Friday.

Seeking to drum up trade with U.S. businesses, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told 200 entrepreneurs in San Francisco that Vietnam would open its markets to draw in foreign investors and businesses.

Dung made his remarks to business executives from Vietnam and California during the final leg of a three-city visit to the United States.

``Vietnam wants to be a partner that can be trusted, a friend to all nations,'' Dung said. ``Your success is our success.''

Dung met with federal commerce officials in Washington and New York earlier this week, accompanied by other government officials and more than 50 business executives from Vietnam.

About 200 anti-Communist demonstrators from the Bay Area and Southern California opposed to the trade agreement had promised to disrupt Dung's address at the Argent Hotel on Third Street, but they were nowhere to be seen during the first few hours of the official meeting.

The demonstrators were a block away, outside the Marriott Hotel on Fourth Street, where some members of Dung's delegation are staying.

``They told us it was going to be at a different location,'' said a disappointed Hung Quoc Pham, president of the Vietnamese American Community of Northern California, a non-profit social service and cultural education group that sponsored the protest.

After learning that the site had changed, the demonstrators quickly picked up their signs and moved across the street from the Argent.