President Obama told more than 2,000 people at the National Convention Center in Hanoi Tuesday that the U.S. is committed to fully normalized relations with Vietnam, its one-time enemy in Southeast Asia.
“But now we can say something that was once unimaginable: today Vietnam and the United States are partners,” Obama said. “And I believe our experience holds lessons for the world. At a time when many conflicts seem intractable … we have shown that hearts can change and that a different future is possible when we refuse to be prisoners of the past.”
Obama credited veterans in both countries with leading the path to reconciliation.
“The very war that divided us became a source for healing,” Obama said. He singled out veterans like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, and Secretary of State John Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran, for doing the lion’s share to move the U.S. to normalize relations with Vietnam.
“Because our veterans showed us the way, because warriors had the courage to pursuit peace, our peoples are now closer than ever before,” Obama said.
Obama said decades after the war, the U.S. military is now partnering with Vietnam to train peacekeepers for deployment to conflict zones.
“What a truly remarkable thing that is,” Obama said. “Our two nations that once fought each other now standing together and helping others achieve peace as well.”
Obama said Vietnam and U.S. share a common colonial start that, under different circumstances, may have led the two countries to be allies sooner.
“When Vietnam declared its independence, Ho Chi Minh, the independence movement leader who later became president of communist northern Vietnam, invoked the American Declaration of Independence,” Obama said. “He said, ‘all people are created equal. The creator has endowed them with inviolable rights. Among these rights are the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to pursuit of happiness,'” Obama said.
“But instead, Cold War rivalries and fears of communism pulled us into conflict,” Obama said. He said both sides have moved on and continue to heal the wounds of the Vietnam War.
“Just as we learned in America that even if we disagree about a war we must always honor those who serve and welcome them home with the respect they deserve, we can join together today, Vietnamese and Americans, and acknowledge the pain and sacrifices on both sides,” he said, adding that the U.S. will be a partner for Vietnam.
“Over the centuries your fate was too often determined by others,” he said. “America’s new partnership with Vietnam is rooted in some basic truths. Vietnam is an independent, sovereign nation, and no other nation can impose its will on you or decide your destiny.”
Obama touched on Vietnam’s and other regional allies’ disputes with China over islands in the South China Sea.
“Big nations should not bully smaller ones,” Obama said. “Disputes should be resolved peacefully.”
“That’s what I believe and that’s what the United States believes and that’s the kind of partnership the United States offers this region,” he added.
Obama pledged to continue the freedom of navigation exercises the U.S. Navy has recently conducted in the South Chin Sea.
The U.S. “will stand with partners in upholding core principles, like freedom of navigation,” he said. “As we go forward, the United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, and we will support the right of all countries to do the same,” Obama pledged.
