-- Guest Lecture --
                                 John K. Swensson
                Meeting With U.S Ambassador Peterson

February 12, 2000
My privilege, thanks to Professor Chung and the San Francisco-Ho Chi Minh City Sister City Committee, to have breakfast yesterday morning with US Ambassador Douglas Peterson. Ambassador Peterson spent his first six years in Hanoi in the Hanoi Hilton as a POW; his last two as US Ambassador and he will be there for at least one more year.

Unofficial Summary of his remarks: VN is a country in transition. The 12th most populous country in the world with 78 Million people. Tremendous potential in energy and agriculture. Last year became the 2nd largest exporter of rice in the world. Schools are open from 6AM-midnight. There are now 86 embassies in Hanoi.

The Doi Moi (New Openness) has so far been with little pain to the GVN, but the SOE's (State Owned Enterprises) have not yet privatized. That would result in some meaningful power transfer. There remains a need for economic transparency, both to the outside world, to the other ministries, and most important, to the VN people. There is a need for a credible banking system if VN is to grow. An estimated $50 Billion "under the mattress." The economy is slow and they need to make the next step in reforms. The absence of a stock market and the incontrovertibility of currency somewhat helped them stave off the Asian Financial crisis, but seriously hurt their exports to other Asian nations. Investments and exports have dropped, but in Asia only China and VN have positive growth rates this year. There are 400 US companies in VN at present. The new US consulate in TPHCM will open first week in August and there will then be full visa service in Saigon and Hanoi. US Embassy staff increasing from 75 to 100.

The MIA issue is still prevalent, but in a different way. We now have a "partnership" between USG and GVN in locating the remains of US and VN soldiers. The GVN started with a list of 300,000 missing. Ambassador Peterson feels it is important to get out the real story of cooperation by the GVN and is having 10,000 audio tapes made with the details. They will be distributed to, among others, US Veteran's groups. [Note: this raises an interesting but unstated issue of ARVN missing. If any of you have information on this, I would appreciate your sharing-THX-JKS]

The Ambassador is committed to US-VN education programs involving student exchange. He cited, in particular the work that we and other colleges have done, that SFSU has done with Professor Chung, and Boise State which teaches an MBA program for the Swedish Government. He noted that VN is cooperating in counter-narcotics operations with >the US. Though VN is not a producer, some drugs are trafficked through VN. VN also cooperated in the capture of two of the US ten most wanted--though we have no formal extradition treaty with them.

VN is also being used as the premier laboratory in the study of infectious diseases--which benefits the US. Some considerable improvement in Human Rights this year. 7200 protestors released from prisons including 6 vn-Americans. Religious freedom is better.

The most significant event in VN last year was the introduction of the Internet. Estimated 100,000 subscribers at present . Ambassador Peterson pays about $16/mo for Internet access at his house--but this is a LOT of money for a Vietnamese family. [A VN teacher may make only $35-40/month]. But the good news is that costs have dropped significantly in the last month. [We saw as early as last summer how this has resulted in a really new openness in the country] Ambassador Peterson is very optimistic about US/VN relations, encouraging a long term view.