Dempsey First Joint Chiefs Leader to Visit Vietnam After End of War
In August, General Martin Dempsey became the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to travel to Vietnam since 1971. Dempsey, who arrived on August 14 for a four-day visit, met with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh to discuss ways the two nations could strengthen their ties.
Vietnam has been looking for support from other countries as it faces off against China in disputes over territorial claims and related oil rights in the South China Sea. Japan, for example, recently provided Vietnam with boats for coastal patrols.
The Vietnamese are also interested in acquiring P-3C Orion surveillance planes the United States no longer needs, The Wall Street Journal reported.
U.S. and Vietnamese officials are discussing “patrol boats or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets,” as well as “even potentially some weapons for their fleet that they currently don’t have,” Dempsey was quoted as saying in an article on Voice of America’s website.
The United States re-established normal diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1995 but has continued to ban weapons sales to its former enemy. Now there is talk of suspending the ban.
Dempsey, who was a student at West Point when U.S. military involvement in Vietnam ended, posted on his Facebook page: “I know I am building on historical investments and on the incredible sacrifices made by those who served there. There are opportunities in this relationship for both of our nations and for both of our militaries. We owe it to those who came before us to seize them.”
Bride Shortage in China Threatens Young Women in Vietnam
China’s one-child-per-couple policy, adopted in 1979 to control population growth, has dramatically increased the ratio of men to women, which in turn has led to abductions of young women from neighboring Vietnam. The Vietnamese women are sold for up to $5,000 to become brides or to work in brothels, reports Thanh Nien News. Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, a Hanoi-based group that helps victims of human trafficking, told Thanh Nien News it has rescued 71 women from China since 2007.
Disturbing demographic trends in China could foreshadow even more danger for young Vietnamese women. Because of a longstanding Chinese cultural preference for male children and the technology to perform sex-selective abortions, China has the world’s most extreme gender imbalance: Men outnumber women by 34 million, and about 120 boys were born for every 100 girls in 2010, according to the 2010 Chinese census. Between 2030 and 2045, according to current projections, 1 out of 5 Chinese men will be unable to find a Chinese wife.
The large number of men seemingly destined for permanent bachelorhood—called “bare branches” in China—is considered a threat to China and its neighbors, according to foreign relations scholars Valerie Hudson at Texas A&M University and Andrea den Boer of the University of Kent, in a blog published in The Washington Post in April.
“Male criminal behavior drops significantly upon marriage, and the presence of significant numbers of unmarriageable men is potentially destabilizing to societies,” Hudson and den Boer wrote, adding: “In the case of China, the fact that a sizeable percentage of young adult males will not be making that transition will have negative social repercussions, including increased crime, violent crime, crimes against women, vice, substance abuse and the formation of gangs that are involved in all of these antisocial behaviors.”
Woman Claimed to be World’s Oldest
Officials in Hanoi announced that Nguyen Thu Tru, a 121-year-old resident of Ho Chi Minh City, is the world’s oldest living person. Her youngest son, one of 11 children, is 72. Tru’s claim is being submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records for verification. Previously, the oldest living person was thought to be a Japanese woman, 116-year-old Misao Okawa.
Vietnam Wants France to Return Cultural Gem
A Vietnamese emperor’s rickshaw, now on display at Paris’ Guimet Asian Arts Museum, will be heading home if Vietnam can raise the money to ship the delicate treasure from France. Inlaid with mother-of-pearl, the elaborate rickshaw was a gift from Thanh Trai, the last emperor of the Nguyen dynasty, to his mother.
Trai, installed as emperor by the French in 1889 when they ruled Vietnam as a colony, was the first Vietnamese monarch to adopt Western hairstyle and dress. Over time, however, he became opposed to French control and mingled with his countrymen by disguising himself as a commoner. Trai was forced to abdicate in 1907 after being captured while trying to flee and join a resistance movement in China. A note written before Trai lost his throne indicates that the emperor gave the rickshaw to his chief French guard, Prosper Jourdan, according to a report in Thanh Nien News.
Bomb Shards Turned Into Bracelets
Between 1964 and 1973, the United States dropped more than 2 tons of cluster bombs on Laos—making the country the most heavily bombed nation per capita in history—and about 1 in 3 failed to detonate. More than four decades later, the metal shards that litter the landscape are being fashioned into distinctive jewelry pieces by local artisans, and some of the sales revenue will help fund removal of unexploded land mines. The shard jewelry is the brainchild of former Coach Inc. employee Elizabeth Suda, who was in Laos in 2007 working on a textile project and noticed locals creating flatware from metal shards.
The jewelry line is called “Article 22,” after a section of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights that says everyone is entitled to “economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.”
Prices for Article 22 jewelry range from $20 to $1,250. Artisans are paid the equivalent of a Laotian government worker’s salary, and partners in the United States do the engraving on the items. Ten percent of the proceeds go toward the removal of land mines. For example, a $70 rock stud wrist wrap pays to clear 4 square meters, and a $235 ribbon bangle pays to clear 16 square meters.
The production started with just the bangle style in one size, Suda said, but “we got so many requests from Vietnam veterans that we created multiple sizes as well as some unisex one-size-fits-all wrap bracelets. It’s been such a pleasure to interact with vets who share their stories with us.”
Suda is developing a pendant line that will provide funds to assist survivors of unexploded bomb explosions—most of whom are children. Since 1975 about 50,000 Laotians have been maimed or killed by unexploded ordnance.
Article 22 jewelry is distributed online to 39 countries and through a network of more than 100 boutiques. For more information, visit Article22.com.
Born in Vietnam, Now U.S. General
Viet Xuan Luong, who was 9 years old when his family fled Saigon the day before the city fell to Communist forces in 1975, has become the first Vietnamese-born U.S. general. On August 6 Luong was appointed brigadier general of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division and will have 23,000 troops under his command at Fort Hood, Texas.
Luong, whose father was a South Vietnamese Marine Corps officer, joined the Army ROTC at the University of Southern California and graduated in 1987. He commanded a battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq and led the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team in Afghanistan.
Originally published in the December 2014 issue of Vietnam. To subscribe, click here.
