George McT. Kahin: A Tribute

by Jayne S. Werner

George McT. Kahin, one of the foremost academic critics of the Vietnam War, died 29 January 2000, at the age of 82. He had a seminal influence on the debate over US covert and military intervention in Southeast Asia, particularly with regard to the Vietnam War. He voiced his opposition to the Vietnam War earlier than any other major academic figure, starting in the early 1960s. Virtually all the arguments he made at the time have since been accepted by both academics and journalists, including many who once supported or quasi-supported the US position. Even former government figures have acknowledged the foresight he had at the time. His basic arguments were as follows:

• US involvement in Vietnam stemmed from US support of the French and started early, in the 1940s.

• The "domino theory," the term coined by the Eisenhower administration to explain communist "subversion," was based on fallacious reasoning and a fundamental misunderstanding of Asian nationalism.

• The Geneva accords of 1954 did not divide Vietnam into two separate countries, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. They called for elections in two years (1956) to decide the political future of a united Vietnam. The failure to carry out these elections was in large part responsible for the origins of the Vietnam War. The US-installed Ngo Dinh Diem regime was responsible for reneging on the Accords.

• The Diem regime was autocratic, had shallow roots among the populace, was a creation of the United States, and had no political legitimacy.

• The southern communist movement was a movement against this imposed regime, and was not a product of a northern "invasion" to reconquer and rekindle the war in the south.

• The main source of strength of Vietnamese communism was nationalism.

George's stand on Vietnam stemmed from his involvement in the nationalist revolution in Indonesia in 1948-9, his experience with McCarthyism is the late 1940s and early 1950s, and his strong views regarding the moral responsibility academics carry for the non-Western peoples they study.

Jayne Werner is a professor at Long Island University. This material is taken from a longer remembrance published in the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars.

Vietnam to Expand Rights of Overseas Vietnamese Investors

Overseas Vietnamese investors will be granted equal status to their local counterparts under a new priority policy developed by Vietnam's government.

The government has paid special attention to mobilizing the capital and intellectual resources of the overseas Vietnamese community, which boasts more than three million members in different parts of the world. Last year alone, overseas Vietnamese remitted some $1.2 billion to the country, equivalent to the value of the Mekong River Delta's annual rice export.

"Single-price card" will be issued for overseas Vietnamese investors so that they are equal with domestic investors in paying for such services as accommodation, hotels, travel, post and telecommunications, etc. Especially, the card holders are also eligible for preferential prices currently granted for domestic projects in the purchase of raw materials and fuel needed for production operations.

However such preferential treatment is only granted for investment projects operating in fields encouraged and favoured by the State, for example, projects in remote and mountainous regions. To date, Vietnam has some 430 overseas Vietnamese-invested enterprises with a total capital of more than $28 million. Under the circular, nearly one-fourth of them are eligible to benefit from the single-price policy.

The circular creates favorable conditions for investors, whose investment had to bear others' names, to legalize their investment property and use their own names for their investment projects. The transfer of investment property between the investors and the name vendors must be done according to law.

It is estimated that the total capital of overseas Vietnamese in this form of investment has so far amounted to approximately $1 billion. (VNA)