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Regardless of numerous challenges, the administration of President Bill Clinton reached a historic landmark in lifting the commercial embargo against Vietnam in 1994 and normalizing diplomatic relations with the Southeast Asian country in 1995.

>> 20 years of Vietnam-U.S. diplomatic ties – P1: Untold stories behind normalization >> 20 years of Vietnam-U.S. diplomatic ties – P2: Massacres by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge >> 20 years of Vietnam-U.S. diplomatic ties – P3: Hostility from Washington

A month after the normalization, Vietnam opened an embassy in Washington, D.C.

The then-ambassador of Vietnam to the U.S., Le Van Bang, recalled that he was honored to have many meetings with senior leaders during his first days of returning to Hanoi.

“Back in Hanoi, I often spent whole days writing reports on my job and the situation in the U.S.

“But then-Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet even told me to drop by his office in the evening to further discuss the affairs.

“Once, he told me to come at 8:00 pm, or an hour earlier if it rained,” former Ambassador Bang said.

Former Trade Minister Le Van Triet recounted the period before the normalization with the U.S., “Our nation was under renovation then, but the embargo by the U.S. was still in effect.

“It was very difficult.

“How could we have reached success if the U.S. had kept isolating Vietnam?”

Senior Vietnamese leaders then consulted many intellectuals, including officials of the former Saigon regime, to find an escape from the U.S. embargo.

Then-PM Kiet once visited Doctor Nguyen Van Hao, the former deputy prime minister of the U.S.-backed Republic of Vietnam who was living in France, to seek his advice.

In Washington, President Clinton selected the POW/MIA issue as the top condition for normalization with Vietnam.

U.S. assets worth US$200 million were left in Saigon after 1975, and when Vietnam was reunified, they were well resolved.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher speaks at a ceremony to open the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi.

The Clinton administration opened numerous important doors for Vietnam to head toward normalization.

In 1993, a series of major American corporations such as Bank of America, Philip Morris, Vatico, IBM and Caterpillar opened representative offices in Vietnam.

In October the same year, Phan Van Khai, who was then deputy prime minister of Vietnam, flew to the U.S. and met Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and Washington announced it would not consider Hanoi its foe anymore.

Three months later, on February 3, 1994, Ambassador Bang, who was in New York, received a phone call from the U.S. Department of State asking him to return to Washington, D.C., for there would be “an important piece of news for you and your nation.”

Ambassador Bang said he felt the normalization was near.

At 5:00 pm, the ambassador was at the house of Virginia Foote – then president of the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council – to watch the official announcement of the U.S. president on the lifting of the embargo.

The American friends shook hands in congratulations, but Ambassador Bang just shed tears.

The Vietnamese diplomat recalled the advice of former President Le Duc Anh before he left for work in the U.S., “I know you may encounter challenges from our Vietnamese people living in the U.S.

“If they scold or insult you, just hang on and listen to them honestly because they are also of our Vietnamese origin.”

Then-United Nations General Secretary Boutros Boutros-Ghali invited Vietnam to take part in a conference on trade promotion and helped create a chance for the Vietnamese delegation to meet their U.S. partners.

Vietnam’s then-Trade Minister Le Van Triet met his U.S. counterpart Ron Brown thanks to the chance.

On July 11, 1995, President Clinton officially announced the normalization of diplomatic relations with Vietnam, and Hanoi opened its embassy in Washington, D.C., on August 5 the same year.

The embassy building was the one owned by the South Vietnam regime before 1975.

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Pham Nguyen Quy

Do you agree to a 30-50 percent cut in your income? Will you refrain from going out to meet friends and family for extended periods of time, maybe forever?

These were much-debated questions in Japan where I live, as the country faced arguably the most impactful event of the decade in the form of a pandemic. Last year when the disease hit the country, authorities asked citizens to “refrain from going outside unless it was necessary or urgent.” But it was difficult to pin down a definition of “necessary” or “urgent.”

For the first few months, people heeded the request. Not surprising, considering the nature of news coming in, of deaths in the thousands, and suffering in the millions.

Over time, that sense of danger diminished, albeit slowly. People began to pay more attention to the costs of social distancing. For many, their jobs were their literal lifelines, keeping them and their family afloat. A pandemic disruption could lead them to ruin.

And reports were already showing rising numbers of the unemployed, businesses and individuals going bankrupt and many having their incomes cut drastically. The demand for social security support increased 25 percent year-on-year. The hospital where I work constantly saw new patients with severe conditions, not because of Covid-19, but because of delayed diagnosis and intervention. Either their insurance had expired or they were “waiting for Covid-19 to die out.” People were getting stressed, depressed and committing suicide.

While there is a demographic of those more vulnerable to Covid-19 with underlying medical conditions, there are also those who are vulnerable after their incomes were cut. Without a financial safety net, that section of society also finds itself vulnerable to the disease.

However, the very measures we put in place to stop Covid-19 have been double-edged. Society began classifying behaviors that reduce the chance of infection as “good” and the opposite as “bad.” Of course everyone wants to protect the elderly and prevent hospitals from being overstretched, but that doesn’t mean every action has to be labeled “good” or “bad.” We can’t blindly justify travel restrictions and increased surveillance just because it’s an “emergency” and therefore no discussion.

If we do, we need to think again. Are we that willing to trade values we hold dear, like freedom of movement, meeting loved ones whenever we feel like it, give up our privacy, or the right to work and socially connect?

If such measures last a few weeks or even a few months, it’s manageable.

But we can see that Covid-19 is here to stay, maybe for years or even forever, coming back seasonally to haunt us. But we cannot let our sacrifices and giving up our rights to go along with the pandemic. It would set a horrible precedent.

Make no mistake, the pandemic’s impacts are horrible, too. I’ve met several elderly patients living in nursing homes, whose personalities slowly recede as dementia consumes whatever’s left of them, leaving them mere shadows of their former selves, all because they couldn’t see any of their loved ones for an entire year because of Covid-19. My colleagues are chronically stressed as their lives are confined within the walls of hospitals, waking up to the same schedule and meeting the same people, day in, day out.

Covid-19 is not just taking lives, but the joy of living, too.

A group of people sits at a coffee shop in HCMC while wearing masks. Photo by VnExpress/Tam Linh.

I know there was no choice about facing tough restrictions in this war against the pandemic. But, even as we fight the pandemic, shouldn’t we think of how to let people retain their quality of life even in this situation. Instead of allowing ourselves to be shackled, shouldn’t we start to think of new ways to adapt to the new normal that retains and betters the quality of our lives?

Governments around the world are trying to find ways to restart their economies. Even with a vaccine, the virus will not be eradicated any time soon. That is a fact that we all need to come to terms with, Vietnam included.

After all, what’s life without risks? As we move towards the second year of living with Covid-19, I hope for a mentality that accepts risks, but does not accept a surrender to life-restricting conditions.

We should realize this and take it to heart: It’s never been about waiting for the storm to pass, but about learning to dance in the rain.

*Pham Nguyen Quy is a doctor at the Kyoto Min-iren Chuo Hospital and a medical researcher at the Kyoto University in Japan. He’s also the co-founder and project head of a community health organization since 2012 with over 300 doctors, medical workers and collaborators with the aim of raising medical awareness for Vietnamese. The opinions expressed are his own.

A Vietnamese teacher has dedicated the last 20 years of her career towards working with hearing impaired children at a school in Ho Chi Minh City so that her students might have a better chance at successfully integrating into society.

Lam Thi Minh Chau’s career has been rooted in one goal: helping the hundreds of hearing-impaired students she’s worked with at Hi Vong (Hope) School develop the soft skills necessary for social interaction.

And what does she say is the secret to her success?  One little word: Patience.

Learning from students

It’s surprising that Chau was never formally trained to teach deaf children.

“I studied kindergarten education for regular children without disabilities but my first students after graduation were hearing impaired,” Chau said.

“When I was appointed to this job, I was both happy and worried.”

Chau’s first days on the job were not easy.

The then-24-year-old teacher clumsily tried to communicate with the children without knowing sign language and, even to this day, recalls the feelings of confusion and despair she felt during her first days on the job.

Her inability to communicate remained a huge obstacle, and many of her students were completely unable to communicate with her.  All she could do was stare hopelessly at her students for those first few days.

But things quickly began to change.  Understanding that communication was crucial for helping the children, Chau began to learn sign language.

Her inspiration was drawing parallels between her situation and that of her students: while they struggled to integrate into society, she struggled to integrate in their world.

Even though she was supported by her colleagues, it was her students who often stepped in to offer help.

They’d help her learn sign language, instruct her, and let her into their community.

Beyond knowledge

Teaching students to communicate, write, and do math, are just a few of Chau’s responsibilities.

“The most difficult thing about teaching the deaf children is understanding what they want to say,” she shared.

Before she teaches them to communicate like her, she must learn to communicate like them.

Not being professionally trained to teach disadvantaged children, Chau has come across many struggles, especially in helping develop her students’ limited hearing abilities.

“The greatest motivation for me is seeing a child’s development,” said the young teacher explaining that in many cases the students travel long distances just to be able to study at quality schools for the deaf.

One of such students is Le Tran Duy Luan, 6, whose condition has significantly improved since he started attending Chau’s classes.

“Our child became much more responsive.  He began to understand us and his friend.  He’s definitely developed beyond our expectations,” Luan’s mother said.

Even though Chau prides herself on seeing the children improve, she hopes that one day they will be able to learn at a regular school, where she believes as a brighter future awaits.

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Read what is in the news today:

Politics

— Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong hosted a reception in Hanoi on Friday for Chinese State Councillor and Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi, who is on a Vietnam visit to chair the seventh meeting on crime prevention and control between the two Ministries of Public Security.

Society

— Authorities in Di An City in the southern province of Binh Duong are searching for two Chinese nationals, who escaped from a centralized quarantine center when they had gone nine out of 14 days of mandatory quarantine.

— The results of the first trial phase of Nano Covax showed that the made-in-Vietnam vaccine is safe, with no volunteer having serious complications after trial shots, produces antibodies, and is capable of COVID-19 prevention, according to the Ministry of Health’s report to Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam on Friday afternoon.

— The COVID-19 situation in 12 out of 13 cities and provinces has been basically controlled, said the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Friday afternoon.

— Hanoi deputy chairman Chu Xuan Dung said on Friday afternoon that there have been cases of people intentionally falsely reporting that they had returned to the capital from the now epicenter of Hai Duong Province so as they could be tested for COVID-19. These fake reports are subject to administrative punishments.

— Government inspectors have found out that authorities in northern Hoa Binh Province wrongfully approved the planning of the Hoa Binh – Geleximco golf course construction project on an area of more than 140 hectares of forest land.

— Traffic congestion took place for over three hours on the Phu My Bridge in the direction from District 7 to Thu Duc City in Ho Chi Minh City after two container trucks had broken down and a traffic accident between another container and a taxi had occurred on the bridge on Friday afternoon.

— The Ministry of Transport on Friday held a launching ceremony on the occasion of the beginning of the 2021 Lunar New Year for the construction projects to renovate and upgrade essential works of the Hanoi -Ho Chi Minh City railway with a total investment of VND7 trillion (US$303.65 million).

— A delegation led by the provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Van Loi on Friday surveyed the location for the construction of the airport project in Hon Quan District in the southern province of Binh Phuoc, which is about 110km north of Ho Chi Minh City.

Sports

— Daniil Medvedev of Russia defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 on Friday to advance to the Australian Open final, where he will face titleholder Novak Djokovic of Serbia, according to Reuters .

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Senior Colonel Quach Huu Trung, Director of Hospital 199 said that in 2020, the hospital combined with medical facilities and other relevant sectors in the city to meet the requirements of examining, treatment and handling emergency situations related to epidemic, flooding, accident, massive injuries, etc.

As for the Covid-19 prevention and control, the hospital has received, isolated, monitored and treated 368 Covid-19 suspected cases, including 96 foreign cases from 32 countries and territories, 528 patients from other local hospitals.

In addition, the hospital took sample for SARS-CoV-2 testing from 2,829 police officers, 659 medical staffs and 1,718 patients and other subjects. Besides that, the medical facility has also widened remote examining and treatment for soldiers and people in the Central and Central Highlands regions.

On the occasion, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Son highly appreciated the great efforts by medical staff and doctors during the passing time although 2020 was remembered as a year of difficulties and challenges for the medical sector.

On the other hand, the delegation leader suggested that the hospital should enhance cooperation and connection with local and international medical facilities for experience exchange and studying.

By Xuan Quynh- Translated by Huyen Huong