As someone who was marginally involved (as an aide to Sen. John McCain) in the events that led to normalization with Vietnam, I can testify that the process was the mirror opposite of the approach President Obama took on Cuba.
In the first place, it was a decision that could be fairly attributed to two presidents, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. In 1991, the Bush administration approached Vietnam’s U.N. delegation with a proposal for a quid pro quo normalization process that became known as the “roadmap.”
We had three major issues with the Vietnamese at the time. First, we wanted them to withdraw their forces from Cambodia, which Vietnam had invaded in 1978. Second, we wanted them to release from “re-education camps” South Vietnamese officials imprisoned since the war had ended. Finally, and most importantly, we wanted Vietnam to cooperate much more extensively than it previously had in determining the fates of hundreds of American servicemen still listed as POW/MIA in Vietnam. If they did those things, two successive U.S. administrations said they would lift the trade embargo and eventually restore normal diplomatic relations.
The Vietnamese never formally agreed to the roadmap, but they complied with its conditions. They got out of Cambodia and emptied the re-education camps. Their cooperation on POW/MIA investigations, which had been grudging and fitful, soon became much more helpful and trusting, and allowed for what will be remembered as one of the most extensive efforts to account for the fallen in the history of warfare.
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