U.S. Institute of Peace experts discuss the latest foreign policy issues from around the world in On Peace, a brief weekly collaboration with SiriusXM's POTUS Channel 124.

Transcript

Laura Coates: Andrew Wells-Dang, Southeast Asia expert for the United States Institute of Peace, joins us now. Good morning, Andrew. How are you?

Andrew Wells-Dang: Good morning, Laura. Nice to be with you.

Laura Coates: I'm glad that you're here. There was a Third Annual Dialogue on War Legacies and Peace in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia that your organization held. Talk to me about the main takeaways there. And first, what was this dialogue intended to do?

Andrew Wells-Dang: So the U.S. Institute of Peace has had a Vietnam War Legacies and Reconciliation Initiative for the last three-plus years, and this is about the centrality of dealing with the aftereffects and consequences of the war in Southeast Asia for the people of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and it's become a foundation of U.S. cooperation with those countries. So especially with Vietnam, we were looking at what's happened in the last year since Vietnam and the U.S. agreed on a comprehensive strategic partnership, so the highest level of partnership that is now between our countries. And war legacies used to be an obstacle to this partnership, but now it's a key foundation for it.

Laura Coates: So when you have this, and reconciliation I know is something that there was some comment about in post-apartheid South Africa, there was the famous Truth and Reconciliation Committee hearings and beyond. Is this something similar, obviously albeit for very different historical reasons and context?

Andrew Wells-Dang: Well, it's a very long process, Laura. I mean, we're talking 50 years after the end of the war, and it's taken a lot of efforts by veterans from both countries, by peace activists, by Vietnamese living in the U.S. who have re-established contact in Vietnam, for instance, same with Laos and Cambodia, and then the governments of all these countries have taken a lot of steps to improve their partnerships. So it's not through a truth and reconciliation commission kind of process, it's more a gradual series of steps that individuals and the countries have taken to get over the war and improve their relations.

Laura Coates: Well, let's talk about some of the takeaways from this important conversation that is obviously ongoing. What were the main takeaways from your perspective?

Andrew Wells-Dang: Yeah, I think there were several new areas that this year's dialogue resulted in, and one of them is we had a youth forum that brought together young Americans with Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodians studying in the U.S. and Asian Americans as sort of a part of both of those groups. And, you know, they're the new generation. They grew up after the war. They've heard about it, but haven't experienced it, and they have a new vision for how our countries can work together.

Laura Coates: Oh, I'd be curious to see on that point, essentially the youth of the different countries, and how insightful they can often be. Okay, your next point?

Andrew Wells-Dang: My next point is that I think it's important that Americans of Asian descent are really involved in the relationship, diplomatically and through educational exchange and economically, that's a special feature, really. It's because of the war, right, that there are so many Southeast Asians living in the U.S., and many of them have done very well. They've gone back to visit their parents, home countries, and they can contribute a lot to the relationship.

Laura Coates: How has the United States government played a role in this reconciliation, or has it been organizations like your own, institutes, that have really led the forefront?

Andrew Wells-Dang: Well, the key turning points were in the 1990s when the U.S. ended its trade embargo and re-established normal relations with Vietnam, and that happened because of the leadership of a bipartisan group of senators, who included many Vietnam veterans, as well as the Clinton administration. And since then, the governments have taken other steps to increase their partnership and have, for instance, security cooperation and more economic and technological exchange, and that led to, finally, this comprehensive strategic partnership in 2023. None of that would have been possible without the U.S. and Vietnam agreeing to do things about war legacy issues like missing persons from all sides, cleaning up Agent Orange and unexploded bombs and so on.

Laura Coates: Extremely important as, at least what you just said in the last, the what the points have been, especially the comprehensive strategic partnership. What led us though to having that comprehensive strategic partnership, which is really a historic development that has a lot of people asking, well, what could be next?

Andrew Wells-Dang: So I think many people in both countries wanted this, but for different reasons, and in Vietnam wanting more U.S. investment, technology, economic relations was a key driver. For many in the U.S., seeing Vietnam as a kind of swing country that's between the U.S. and China and can play a balancing role in the Indo-Pacific was really important. So both of those things and also as a way to continue the kinds of people-to-people cooperation that the U.S. Institute of Peace works on. We've only gotten involved in the last few years, really, but we want to help take this partnership forward.

Laura Coates: Tackling the issues such as locating missing personnel, or mitigating Agent Orange's effect or clearing up unexploded ordinances, that's a very important series of steps, but it's also quite difficult. How is this happening? What have been the priorities, and is either kind of taking the lead on either?

Andrew Wells-Dang: Yeah, it's a kind of public-private cooperation, right, where there are U.S. government funds from the Defense Department, from USAID, for instance, working with Vietnamese and U.S. nonprofits and companies to carry this out. And all of that is in cooperation with the Vietnamese government, because they control, like, the base where the dioxin from Agent Orange is located, right? So they are also doing this together with the U.S.

Laura Coates: Really, really important to hear about this progress being made. Interesting. Thank you, Andrew Wells-Dang I appreciate your time so much.

Andrew Wells-Dang: Thanks for the time, Laura. Have a great day.

Laura Coates: You too, thank you. So if you want to learn more about the work that they're doing, you can go to the United States Institute of Peace website as well. You'll hear more about their Dialogue on War Legacies and Peace in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.