We've been successful and we are achieving successes in a number of areas, U.S. Ambassador Michael W. Michalak told DTiNews' David Cornish in a candid interview, on the occasion of celebrating the 15th anniversary of normalized relations between Vietnam and the United States.

U.S. Ambassador Michael W. Michalak

As far as Vietnam and the U.S. are concerned, how would you summarize where the relationship stands?

- Right now I'd say that the relationship is the best it's ever been. We've gone through several different stages of our relationship and I think that right now we are at a stage in which we're working with Vietnam to help it realize its own objective of integration into the global society. I think that we've been successful and we are achieving successes in a number of areas ranging from economics, military to military, education, science and technology, regional affairs, just a whole wide range of issues that we couldn't even begin to talk about five or six years ago.

Since you became ambassador in 2007, what is the most positive change you've seen in the relationship?

- There are a number of positive changes. Look at our economic relationship, when we established relations fifteen years ago, our two way trade was 451 million dollars, now it's almost 16 billion. That's a huge increase in trade. The U.S. had zero investment in Vietnam back then. Last year and at least for the first quarter of this year, the U.S. was the number one investor in Vietnam. When I got here, in 2007, I said I would double the number of students going to the United States, and now, as I approach the third year [since I've been here], we have almost tripled the number of students, it's almost 13,000 now. We had almost no relationship with the Vietnamese military, these days we have a number of ships that have come calling in Vietnam and we're looking forward to a sizable ship visit in celebration of our fifteenth anniversary [of normalized relations]. In terms of culture, we had the New York Philharmonic come here recently, we did the Southwest Chamber Orchestra, we had a hip-hop group come through, and we are supplying funds to renovate the O Quan Chuong gate in Hanoi which is not only in commemoration of our 15th Anniversary [of normalized relations] but is also our contribution to Vietnam's celebration of Hanoi's 1,000 year history.

Vietnam is the Chair for ASEAN this year, they've been invited to G20 in Canada, they are hosting the World Economic Forum on East Asia here, it appears that Vietnam and the United States are standing side by side on a number of issues, do you think that Vietnam is to become a major player on the international scene?

- I think that yes, Vietnam can be a major player on the world stage. They have been integrating into the global society, they hosted the APEC in 2006, joined the WTO in 2007, became a non-voting member of the [UN] security council in 2008-09, now they have become the chair of ASEAN, they've also been the host this year to the International Ministerial Conference on animal and pandemic influenza, and they are the host this year of the Lower Mekong Initiative meeting. In many ways, Vietnam is opening up its economy to the outside and it is participiating in major international meetings. As Vietnam develops experience in dealing on the international stage and participating in the give and take of opinions and views and compromise, I think that there is definitely a potential leadership role for Vietnam going forward.

Vietnam is developing at a very fast pace and with that comes some good and some bad, how closely are you working with Vietnam as they plan for their development and what role does the U.S. play?

- We do play a strong role in the overall socio-economic development of Vietnam. We, along with many other international donors, provide large amounts of money for technical assistance for Vietnam. Through our STAR program, which is support for trade acceleration, we have worked with them to draft over 131 of their basic economic laws, we're working with them on another 50 or 60 laws even as we speak. There are many ways we do this, we also do this in terms of governance, we have worked with the National Assembly to build capacity for helping them to be better able to fulfill their roles of oversight and input into Vietnamese law-making. We have many programs where we try to improve the access of ordinary Vietnamese to the government in terms of being able to comment on rules, regulations and laws.

We know that there are still MIA's in Vietnam, some people in the U.S. also have a perception that perhaps there are still some living POW's. Is there an approach of putting this issue to rest for Americans back home?

- Some years ago, before I even got here, the United States government did a thorough investigation and I believe our government has determined that there are no prisoners [of war] left in Vietnam. We work very hard with the government of Vietnam to find our MIA's. To date we have positively identified 655 sets of remains. We conduct three to four (depending on weather) expeditions a year to investigate reports of sightings of downed aircraft and things like this to search for our MIA's. During the last exercise, 7 sets of remains were found, 3 of which were found or turned over unilaterally by the Vietnamese. This was the largest repatriation ceremony in over twenty years. We are having excellent cooperation with the government on that mission and we are also in the processes of working with them to help identify their MIA's.

Is the United States playing a role in helping to clean up Dioxin and Agent Orange, is the role large enough, and are we helping victims who are born with abnormalities and are effected by Agent Orange/Dioxin?

- We approach the Agent Orange/Dioxin issue on two tracks, one is an environmental track, the other is a health track. On the environmental track we've been working for close to ten years with the government of Vietnam to sample the country, to determine where dangerous concentrations of Dioxin may still be, and working with them along with other donor countries to eliminate those concentrations. The government of Vietnam has asked the U.S. to work with them to help clean up Da Nang. We are making very good progress in finalizing a road map that shows what the steps are we have to take to finish our remediation operation. On the health side, over the past twenty years or so, we've been giving assistance to people with disabilities regardless of causes. We have about 9 million dollars that we're using to fund three disability programs. The activities of those projects range from physical assistance, prosthetics, surgeries etc. to integration, to what we call entrepreneurship, which is teaching people to make use of their talents to set up businesses, access social programs and help them adapt to society.

In what ways is the war an ongoing issue?

- It's a long-term process and it's an on-going process. It's one that not only myself and my Vietnamese counterparts, but also others in the U.S. and in Vietnam engage in every day. Senator Jim Webb has been tireless in his pursuit to promote the process of reconciliation and I think it's going very well.

What is your favorite thing about Vietnam?

- (laughing)...The food. Bún chả, I love bún chả.

How would you like to be remembered when you finish your role here as ambassador?

- I'd like to be remembered as a guy who definitely promoted and improved the relationship between the United States and Vietnam. I think that this is a wonderful country and I think that the United States and Vietnam have many opportunities for partnership going forward. I hope I'll be remembered as someone who came across as a person who respects Vietnamese and respects Vietnam, maintains his American values and did his best to make sure that the United States and Vietnam will have a cooperative and productive relationship going forward.

- Thank you Mr. Ambassador!

davidcornish@dtinews.com