-Thursday, Septemberfi, 1978-The Michigan Daily
lbe Miditnn Bai
Eighty-Nine Years of Editorial Freedom
Vol. LIX, No. 13 News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
China-Vietnam split poses
diplomatic problems for U.S
By Gareth Porter
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THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
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4
The deepening conflict between
China and Vietnam poses a new
issue for U.S. policy in Asia:
Should the United States
establish ties with Vietnam at the
risk of displeasing China, or
shout it continue to tilt toward
China, with the risk that Vietnam
wiN be pushed further into the
Soviet camp?
The issue goes beyond the
grand designs of the triangular
politics of the' United States,
China and the Soviet Union. For
the path taken by the United
States could help lead to either
peace and stability among
Southeat Asia's communist and
non-communist neighbors or to
further suspcisions that could
polarize the region into warring
camps.
ALREADY THERE are two
competing views within the
Carter adminsitration, one
favoring stronger ties to China at
the expense of Vietnam, the other
favoring an evenhanded stance
toward the two states.
Until this summer, any
relationship with Vietnam
seemed distant, given Hanoi's
demand for postward
reconstruction aid as a
precondition to normal
diplomatic relations. Then on
July 11, Vietnamese Deputy
Foreign Minister Phan Hien
declared that Hanoi was
prepared to normalize relations
with the United States without
preconditions.
Since then, Hanoi has made it
clear, both publicly and
privately, that it wants to
establish diplomatic relations as
soon as possible. The Vietnamese
are clearly adjusting their
diplomacy to the serious threat
they feel from China, which they
now rank as their primary
enemy.
THE STATE Department's Far
Eastern Bureau is said to be
eager to normalize relations with
the Vietnames at an early date.
The primary interest in
establishing diplomatic ties with
Vietnam has always been to
increase U.S. diplomatic
influence in Hanoi and offset that
of the Soviet Union. Even Henry
Kissinger, whose hostility toward
the Vietnamese Communists was
well known, admitted that the
Vietnamese wanted relations
with the United States to become
more independent of the Soviets
and the Chinese.
President Carter alluded to the
same consideration when he said
in a March 1977 news conference
that the Vietnames "might very
well want to balance their
friendship with us with their
friendship with the Soviet Union
and not be completly dependent
upon the Soviet Union."
But National Security Adviser
Zbigniew Brezezinski, the
primary proponent in the
administration of "playing the
China card"-or strengthening
U.S.-Chinese ties-reportedly
argued that early normalization
with Vietnam would complicate
U.S. efforts to cement its ties with
China.
THE CHINESE have begun to
tell Americans privately that
they do not want the United
States to enter into diplomatic
relations with Vietnam.
According to informed sources,
they compare Vietnam today
with Cuba in 1962 as a security
threat because of Soviet military
influence in both countries.
Following Brzezinski's Peking
trip last May, sources indicated
that the White House mood
toward relations with Vietnam
was negative. Normalization of
relations with China, which the
administration had planned for
1980, has been moved up to 1979
as a result of the Brzezinski trip.
Bdt the problem of getting China
to agree to a formula on Taiwan
that would be acceptable to
Congress is expected to take
many months of negotiations and.
maneuvering. Establishing
relations with Vietnam in the
meantime would be an affront to
China.
So far, the State Department,
which favors quickly establishing
full diplomatic relations with
China, has prevailed on also
normalizing relations with
Vietnam.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
Richard Holbrooke, chief of the
Far Eastern Bureau, repeated in
a mid-June speech that the
United States would exchange
ambassadors with Hanoi without
preconditions, and Secretary of
State Cyrus Vance reaffirmed
that position in early August.
"Naturally we are going to take
China into account," said one
State Department official, "but
we aren't going to give them a
veto."
Although State Department
sources say no date has been set
for another round of talks with
Vietnam, Holbrooke is expeced to
meet with Vietnamese Deputy
Foreign Minister *Nguyen Co
Thach during the upcoming U.N.
General Assembly session. An
agreement before 1979 is
considered likely; State
Department sources said, unless
Brzezinski persuades Carter to
reverse the current policy at the
last minute.
BEYOND ESTABLISHING
diplomatic and trade relations,
the administration also must
define the relationship it wants
with Vietnam. Should Hanoi be
treated as a bulwark of stability
and peace in a Southeast Asia
free of great power influence or a
threat to regional security, an
agent of Soviet influence. Again,
Brzezinski and the State
Department appear to have very
different views.
During his toast at the'
welcoming banquet in Peking,
Brzezinski declared, "We
recognize-and share-China's
resolve to resist the efforts to any
nation which seeks to establish
global or regional hegemony.'
The Chinese had long been
privately warning other
countries in the region that
Vietnam sought "regional
hegemony" in Southeast Asia.
State Department officials said
Brzezinski's words could only
have been interpreted in Peking
and Hanoi as agreement with the
Chinese view, and they
complained to the White House
that Brzezinski, in effect, made
policy in a new area without prior
consultation with them.
BUT A WHITE HOUSE source
said Brzezinski does not yet have
a position on the Chinese charges
that Vietnam is expansionist,
explaining that he has been too
preoccupied with the Middle East
to study the question. Yet
Brzezinski apparently did
nothing to indicate any
disagreement with his Chinese
hosts on their views of the
matter.
Officials in the State
Department's Far Eastern
Bureau have their own
assessment of Vietnamese
policies, which differs sharply
from China's. They regard
China's fear that Vietnam will
offer the Soviets a military base
as groundless. The Vietnamese,
they believe, are so indpendent
they would never permit the
Soviets to have overwhelming
influence or a military presence.
Nor do the officials see Vietnam
as having any intention of
sending troops beyond Indochina.
Since Kissinger left the
department, U.S. officials have
been privately reassuring
Thailand that there is no reason
to fear Vietnamese designs on its
territory.
As for Chinese allegations of.
Vietnamese aggression against
Cambodia, these officials do not
put all the blame on Vietnam,
recalling the major Cambodian
attacks of April and September
1977, which penetrated six miles
into Vietnames territory.
Moreover, they agree with the
Vietnamese charges that the
Cambodian regime of Pol Pot has
perpetrated crimes against its
own population, and some U.S.
officials are not upset at the
prospect that Pol Pot might be
replaced by a more moderate
regime supported by the
Vietnames-provided that the
Vietnamese do not march into
Phnom Penh.
THE WAY IN which the Cartel
administration characterizes an
deals with Vietnam in the futur<
can be expected to ,have a majo
impact on Vietnam's relation
with non-Communist Southeas
Asia. Until 1978 Hanoi expresse
suspicion toward the Associatio
of Southeast Asian Nation
(ASEAN), which includes all non
Communist states in the region
except Burma. But now Vietnam
has' dropped its oppositio
against the organizaion and the
ASEAN proposal for a "zone o
peace; freedom and neutrality."
Hanoi is trying to .reac
agreement with all five member
of ASEAN on such a zone, whic
would symbolically unit
Vietnam with its non-Communis
neighbors.
Such an agreement, which th
Carter administratin has quietly
encouraged, would be the logical
conclusion of the trend towar
accommodation between forme
foes. But now that China an.
Vietnam are rivals for influence
the Chinese are openly opposing
any agreement between Vietna
and non-Communist Southeast
Asia as a Soviet-inspired ploy.
THE ASEAN STATES are
hesitating because they are
afraid of Soviet influence in the
region and because they believe
the United States would no
support any move that woul
offend China.
If the United States clearly
indicates that it does not agree
with China's view of Vietnam as
an ambitious pawn of the Soviets,
the ASEAN states will be more
likely to proceed with a regional
pact with Vietnam.
But if the United States bows to
China and remains cool to
Vietnam, the trend toward
regional unity will be reversed.
Vietnam would interpret the
rejection as a U.S.-Chines
conspiracy. The result could be a
new polarization between states
that are anti-Soviet and anti-
Vietnamese and those that are
anti-Chinese.
Such a situation appears to be
what China wants. But that result
would not be in the interest of
stability and peace in Southeas
Asia, in which the United State
has a major stake.
Gareth Porter is a former
co-director of the Indochina
Resource Center and author o]
the book "A Peace Denied."
He is currently writing a two
volume study of the Vietna
war, to be published by Cor
nell University Press. H
wrote this piece for the Pacifi
News Service.
Minors have rights too
0 N MONDAY, a 15 year old May- The right to make a decision to have
ville, Michigan girl was driven to a child or terminate a prefnancy is
Flint by her grandmother and mother. certainly an inalienable right. While
She had been pressured by her parents' parents should guide their children in
family to have an abortion. making a' decision that will have a
The trouble was the girl wanted to lasting effect of their lives, no one
keep the baby. She wanted to marry, should be forced to take an action that
the 17 year-old father and bear the conflicts directly with their own sense
burden of responsibility for their of morality.
actions together. She feels that I
abortion is murder. It is clear that some legislation is
"I thought I had to have an needed in this area. If it was not for the
abortion," she said. "I just couldn't kill intervention of the ACLU in this
anything, I just couldn't." instance the Flint abortion clinic
If it had not been for the intervention would have performed the abortion.
of; the American Civil Liberties Union One shudders to think of the number of
(ACLU) the abortion would have been times the inalienable rights of a minor
performed, and the girl's civil rights were trampled under parental feet
would have been violated . The two because the ACLU or similar groups
teenagers would have had to deal with were not informed of the problem.
the guilt for the rest of their lives. But the legislature mandating that
rhe situation represents a no one can be forced to have an
significant breakthrough in a abortion is only the beginning. It is a
movement whose time has come. No solution that does not attack the root of
oie should be forced to have an the problem.
abortion. It should be the right of Teenage pregnancies have reached
minors to decide, with the counceling epidemic proportions across the state.
ofiparents, whether or not to terminate Although many . agencies give
a pregnancy. contraception information to minors,
Luckily, there are groups in society, some do discriminate.
Iile the ACLU, who keep vigilant Legislation ensuring success to
watch over the rights of the contraception without parental
uiinformed and the indigent. consent is a must.
.-
--
U.s
denies charg~e
of Nicaragua
role
By Luis Quintanilla-
and Mark Shwartz
The State Department has
denounced as "utter nonsense"
charges that President Carter
"ordered" Guatamalans and
Salvadorans into Nicaragua this
week to prevent the overthrow of
besieged Nicaraguan President
Anastasio Somoza.
According to a Sept. 12
announcement by the Rev.
Ernesto Cardenal, a spokesman
for the rebel Sandinista army, 200
troops from El Salvador and 200
from Guatamala have entered
Nicaragua by boat and have
begun fighting guerrillas in the
northern provinces.
CARDENAL, A Catholic .priest
now headquartered in San Jose,
Costa Rica, claimed that
President Carter ordered the
invasion under the auspices of the
Central American Defense
Council (CONDECA)-a military
command until formed in 1961.
CONDECA represents five
Central American countries and
mercenaries) at all into
Nicaragua.'"
But he added, "I can't
guarantee that there hasn't."
The charges were also denied
by the governments of
Nicaragua, El Salvador and.
Panama.
CARDENAL'S accusations
have caused a flurry of press
inquiries by reporters in Central
America. Jose Castillo Osego,
news director of Nicaragua's.
independent Radio Corp. in
Managua, said, "We don't have
to believe the government's
denial." Osega told Pacific News
Service in a telephone interview,
"Our reporters in the north have
tried to confirm the news but
have had no luck at all."
Cardenal said the troops landed
at Cosiguina beach on the Pacific
Ocean near the town of
Chinandega, currently the scene
of heavy guerrilla activity. The
fighting there has made
communications from the
northern provinces virtually
impossible, Osega added.
"'A In+of-a .C" L +hi.. lr +hIT C
people to stop the violence and
get together and start talking and
try to come up with a broadly
based solution-a political
consensus to run the country."
He said the United States hopes to
solve the crisis through the
Organization of American States.
Luis Quintanilla is news
director of KOFY-AM, a
Spanish language station in
Burlingame, Calif., where he
maintains direct telephone
contact with Nicaraguan gov-
ernment and rebel leaders
Mark Sh wartz is an editor of
Pacific News Service.
a
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GUATA MA LA H OND U RA S