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Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Trump Is Undermining U.S.-Vietnam Postwar Reconciliation
Spectators watch as soldiers take part in a parade to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, in Ho Chi Minh City on April 30, 2025. Credit - Manan Vatsyayana—AFP/Getty Images April 30 has been called different things: Liberation Day, Reunification Day, Unity Day, Victory Day. But five decades after the collapse of the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government, it's less the name of the commemoration and more America's legacy in Vietnam and future relationship with the Southeast Asian country that is mired in uncertainty. Over 20 years of fighting, the Vietnam War—or American War, as it's known in Vietnam—cost the lives of almost 60,000 American servicemembers and more than 3 million Vietnamese and left a lasting mark on both nations. In the 50 years since, particularly the past 30 after formal relations were normalized in 1995, Washington has pursued reconciliation efforts with Hanoi, including a number of programs that sought to repair some of the damage the war wrought on generations of Vietnamese. In 2023 the two governments upgraded ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the highest-level cooperative agreement under Vietnamese standards. 'We've come a long way, and it's profoundly changed the nature of our relations from former enemies to now partners,' says Tim Rieser, who served for 37 years as a foreign policy aide of then-Senator Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.), who was known for leading humanitarian efforts between the U.S. and Vietnam, and now serves as a senior policy advisor to Sen. Peter Welch (D, Vt.). But under President Donald Trump's second-term administration, which marks its 100th day also on April 30, 2025, that progress is now at risk, Rieser and others tell TIME. In recent months, the Trump Administration announced a freeze on a majority of foreign aid contracts via USAID, which in Vietnam helped to fund a number of reconciliation projects, including cleanup and rehabilitation programs addressing the effects of toxic herbicides used in the war, such as Agent Orange. The State Department also temporarily suspended global mine-clearing programs, including groups in Vietnam that have worked to clear unexploded ordnance (UXO) left behind from the war. The Trump Administration has since backtracked on some of these moves. Some USAID programs related to Vietnam have been 'unterminated,' after a group of senators, including Welch, penned a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Meanwhile, the State Department order on demining was meant to last three months, and a State Department spokesperson tells TIME that 'U.S. demining programs in Vietnam are active with clearance operations ongoing.' Still, the Washington Post reported Wednesday that at least 34 of 43 USAID contracts with Vietnam have been axed and about 100 USAID employees let go. The State Department spokesperson explained to TIME: 'Programs that have been terminated were determined to not fit within the standards laid out by Secretary Rubio for U.S. foreign assistance, which must make the United States stronger, safer, or more prosperous. The United States remains committed to strengthening its partnership with Vietnam. Ensuring we have the right mix of programs to support U.S. national security and other core national interests of the United States requires an agile approach. We will continue to make changes as needed. The United States and Vietnam have a robust bilateral relationship and we are committed to deepening and broadening those ties. We look forward to working with the Vietnamese government and people to address shared challenges and opportunities.' But some damage has already been done. 'This Administration has done severe damage to the credibility of this country in the perceptions of people around the world that we're no longer a reliable partner,' says Rieser. 'It's the consequence of actions by people in Washington who have little sense of history, who know nothing of the importance of what we've done to build this relationship over many years.' A 2006 study led by Charles Bailey, who worked in Vietnam from 1997 to 2007 as a representative of the Ford Foundation, found that there were three hot spots of dioxin—a toxic contaminant in Agent Orange, an herbicide used by U.S. forces during the war that has caused a range of disabilities among millions of Vietnamese: Phu Cat, which was cleaned up without U.S. aid; Da Nang, which was cleaned up through a USAID-funded project that was completed in 2018; and Bien Hoa, which was the worst contaminated. The U.S. launched a campaign to decontaminate Bien Hoa during Trump's first term in 2019. The project would take 10 years and cost a total $450 million, funded by USAID and the Department of Defense. But amid USAID cuts, workers on the project at Bien Hoa Air Base on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, were suddenly told in February to stop working. According to ProPublica, pits of contaminated soil were left exposed or covered with flimsy tarps before the U.S. appeared to reverse course a week later, but Bailey tells TIME it's not certain for how long funding will continue or how the project will fare once most USAID staffers leave Vietnam later this year. In addition to clean-up programs, USAID provided $30 million of annual funding to Agent Orange-related disability rehabilitation programs in 10 provinces in Vietnam, some of which have resumed. But Bailey says several organizations lacked the financial resources to 'bridge the gap between the original termination and the resumption,' so even when funds slowly began to flow in again, they had to let some staff go. 'The practical matter is that they are not fully functioning,' says Bailey. Demining programs were also paused as part of the U.S. freeze on foreign aid. The halt at least temporarily cost some 1,000 people their jobs in Quang Tri, according to the province's foreign affairs department. The province is believed to have the highest number of unexploded mines in Vietnam. Vietnamese media have estimated that UXO are responsible for some 40,000 deaths and 60,000 injuries since the end of the war in 1975. The State Department told TIME that 'war legacy projects including dioxin remediation programs in Bien Hoa and demining programs in Quang Tri remain active and running.' Another program started during Trump's first term and paused during his second is the Vietnam Wartime Accounting Initiative, a $15 million effort to help Vietnam locate and identify the remains of hundreds of thousands of people missing from the war that USAID and the Department of Defense began funding in 2020. Thao Griffiths, a commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) tells TIME that the Trump Administration terminated the program and put it under review, before reinstating it around a month later. It took around another month to hire and train new staff to get the program running again. Rieser says addressing the war's legacy in Vietnam has long been important to the U.S. because lingering problems like Agent Orange, UXO, and unaccounted-for persons were 'a source of continuing anger and resentment' for the Vietnamese. 'There's hardly a family in Vietnam that didn't lose somebody or that doesn't know someone who died during the war and has never been accounted for,' he says. 'We couldn't get to ways of cooperating in other areas, whether it's maritime security, law enforcement, higher education, climate change, or public health, unless we first dealt with this.' At the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, photographs of the 1968 My Lai massacre in which American soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians line the walls. There's an exhibit of the Con Dao prison, which was built by French colonists in 1861 but used by the Americans during the war to hold prisoners, who were routinely abused and kept shackled in cramped 'tiger cages.' Another exhibit shows photographs of the devastating effects of U.S. napalm bombs and Agent Orange. It's 'essentially a museum of American war crimes,' Rieser says. But 'there's another chapter to the story, and that is what we've done since the war to deal with the terrible things that happened.' 'The dominant cultural memory in Vietnam has centered around heroic national resistance and sacrifices to defend the nation against foreign invaders,' including the U.S., says Phan Xuan Dung, a Vietnam Studies researcher at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and a PhD candidate at the Australian National University, but cooperation in addressing legacies of the war 'helped to build trust' between the two sides. A new exhibit meant to open in July, which was spearheaded by former Sen. Leahy and Rieser and backed by $2 million in USAID funding, was supposed to highlight American reconciliation efforts and positive U.S.-Vietnam cooperation. According to Rieser, it would have shown that 'the United States didn't just walk away from the past and that we've tried to address it as best we can.' But the exhibit, like other war legacy programs, has also fallen victim to the Trump Administration's ruthless slashing. 'We've been working very hard to meet that deadline, and then suddenly, some anonymous uninformed person in Washington stops the funding with no idea what this is, or why it's important, or the consequences,' says Rieser. What's at stake is U.S. credibility, says Phan. The Trump Administration's recent actions, which also include the high tariffs on global trading partners that the White House announced earlier in April then temporarily paused, 'reinforce Vietnam's belief that the U.S. is not a reliable partner, and thus Vietnam needs to avoid being reliant on the U.S., even on assistance to deal with the aftermath of U.S. wartime actions.' Rieser says that it is particularly critical to maintain strong ties with Vietnam in order to counter the influence of China in Southeast Asia and protect U.S. interests in the region. Chinese troops marched through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City at this year's military parade for the first time, following Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Vietnam earlier this month. The invitation to China to participate in the Vietnamese parade—alongside representatives from neighbors Laos and Cambodia—was framed as a move to celebrate the 'long-standing traditional friendship and bonds' between the countries and their support for Vietnam in its struggle for independence, even as China and Vietnam clashed over their border from 1979, didn't officially normalize relations until 1991, and continue to dispute territory in the South China Sea. 'For us to be taking steps that cause uncertainty in our relations with Vietnam, whether it's by suddenly imposing large tariffs or walking away from war legacy programs that are important to both countries, to downgrading our engagement with Vietnam,' says Rieser, 'it's the polar opposite of what a sensible U.S. foreign policy should look like in that part of the world.' Just days before the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, the New York Times reported that the Trump Administration told its senior diplomats in Vietnam—including U.S. ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper—not to participate in April 30 commemoration events, citing four unnamed sources. Vietnamese officials, however, said they still expected U.S. officials to attend, and the Times later reported that the U.S. Consul General Susan Burns ended up doing so. Historically, U.S. diplomats have not attended annual Vietnamese Victory day parades, instead holding separate ceremonies on April 30 and coming together later in the year to commemorate the anniversary of normalized ties. But a number of Americans had been planning to attend commemorative events for the 50th anniversary of the end of the war—and a number still did, including John Terzano, a veteran of the Vietnam War and cofounder of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Campaign for a Landmine Free World, who is frustrated by the Trump Administration's 'fickle' approach to diplomacy. 'Vietnam is a country and a people that deeply believes in symbolism. What makes the current [U.S.] ambassador and his presence or non-presence here so symbolic is he's the son of a Vietnam veteran,' Terzano tells TIME. 'He represents, in my opinion, the passing of the torch from one generation to another.' The Trump Administration's recent actions, on the other hand, show a lack of understanding of the historical significance of the U.S. and Vietnam's relationship, Terzano says. 'April 30 is a day of peace. It is a day of commemoration and acknowledging sacrifices of people made on both sides, but it's also a day of looking forward,' he says. 'The United States is really still stuck in the past.' Contact us at letters@
The Guardian
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Shaved heads, collapsed roads and burnt bread: photos of the day
Models present creations by Walério Araújo during the Sao Paulo fashion week Photograph: Tuane Fernandes/Reuters A Drosera capensis plant traps an insect at a carnivorous plants exhibit at the Botanical Garden Photograph: Fernando Vergara/AP Visitors walk along the Grand Ring, made of wood, as it is reflected in the water during a media preview day for the 2025 Osaka Expo Photograph: Richard A Brooks/AFP/Getty Images The site of a collapsed road above part of an underground transit project connecting Seoul's Yeouido district to Ansan and Siheung in Gyeonggi province Photograph: Yonhap/AFP/Getty Images Young ethnic Shan boys wearing shimmering clothes and colourful floral headpieces take part in the annual Poy Sang Long procession, a traditional rite of passage ceremony for young boys being initiated as novice Buddhist monks Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images Dressed in flowers, finery and makeup, scores of boys are paraded around the Wat Ku Tao Buddhist temple before having their heads shaved, a symbolic start to their Shan monkhood Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images Devotees celebrate the annual Biska festival by pulling the chariot of the god Bhairab. Devotees pull the chariot through the city centre Photograph: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters Indian security personnel detain a Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) activist outside the Chinese embassy. TYC members were protesting about the alleged sudden and mysterious death of Tulku Hungkar Dorje, a revered Tibetan religious leader, while in custody in Vietnam. The activists called for a transparent and independent investigation into the circumstances of his death and the public release of its findings Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray and burn leavened bread in the Mea Shearim neighbourhood. The burning of all products containing leavening agents, or Chametz, is a customary preparation ahead of the week-long Jewish high holiday of Passover that commemorates the Jewish exodus from Egypt Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA Members of the Fujo family, who have taken refuge in a makeshift tent struggle to survive their daily lives in harsh living conditions while being deprived of the most basic needs such as food and clean water Photograph: Doaa Albaz/Anadolu/Getty Images Flowers remain under snow as snowfall continues in the Sarikamis district of Kars Photograph: Huseyin Demirci/Anadolu/Getty Images Blooming tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and lily fields create a colourful carpet Photograph: Nikos Oikonomou/Anadolu/Getty Images Enthusiasts listen to a concert by Italian pianist and performer Marino Formenti, during an opera sleepover event at the Grand Theatre. Once a year the theatre allows a small group of enthusiasts to spend a night, set to music, exploring its majestic halls, admiring its marble entranceway and meandering through fresco-covered foyers Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images Sheep in the vineyards of French winemaker Boris Champy, the sheep help this biodynamic estate enrich the soil naturally and limit its carbon footprint Photograph: Arnaud Finistre/AFP/Getty Images A wildfire on the Scottish island. Fire chiefs are calling on people to act responsibly after an 'extreme' wildfire warning was issued for the whole of Scotland Photograph: Police Scotland/PA Lorries queue along the A20 as the Tap traffic management system is deployed as holiday and freight traffic head for the port Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Children explore the ancestry in the stars exhibit that forms part of YOU:MATTER, after the cutting-edge experience opened at the National Science and Media Museum. Created by renowned artist collective Marshmallow Laser Feast, the installation uses cutting-edge immersive technology to take visitors on a journey exploring the connections between our bodies, the planet, and the wider universe Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
Gulf Business
07-02-2025
- Health
- Gulf Business
New food assessment system in UAE: See details here
Image credit: FAO/Manan Vatsyayana The UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have launched the Food Control System Assessment in the UAE. — وزارة التغير المناخي والبيئة (@MoCCaEUAE) Read: It was launched during a five-day inception and training workshop held at MOCCAE headquarters in Dubai. More than 50 professionals from the UAE's Competent Authorities (CAs) participated in the workshop, marking the beginning of a comprehensive evaluation of the national food control system. Dr Mohammed Salman Al Hammadi, Assistant Undersecretary for the Food Diversity Sector at MOCCAE, said food safety is a key pillar of the UAE's National Food Security Strategy and plays a crucial role in protecting public health. Find out: The Food Control Systems Evaluation Project–Food Safety Index has been launched in collaboration with the FAO, with index measurement set to begin in 2025. Reason why the project has been launched The project aims to: Assess the current status of food safety systems in the UAE Identify necessary initiatives and actions for the ministry and local authorities to enhance existing systems in line with international best practices Determine the food safety rate at the federal level The authorities will also review data and the capabilities of food regulatory bodies in the country as part of the project Food establishments, imported food shipments, food laboratories, animal feed, and other related aspects of food safety will also be considered. Advantages: How the assessment will help the UAE This assessment will provide valuable insights and data needed to strengthen the UAE's food safety system. Not only will it assist the country in addressing food safety risks, but it will also help align the UAE with global best practices and promote regional and international trade.
