US embassy cable - 04HOCHIMINHCITY1204

UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 001204 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO, PGOV, PHUM, PREL, PROP, OPRC, VM, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: SUBDUED REACTION TO IRF REPORT IN SOUTHERN VIETNAM 
 
REF:  A) HANOI  2625;  B) HCMC 1077 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  Media coverage and official reaction in 
Southern Vietnam to the decision to designate Vietnam a Country of 
Particular Concern (CPC) has been muted.  While the HCMC press 
faithfully carried Hanoi-issued editorials on CPC, there was no 
"piling on," i.e., no effort to supplement with locally produced 
material.  CPC coverage was relegated to the papers' inside pages 
while the visit of Washington State Governor Locke and the 
continuing Agent Orange campaign were front-page news.  Similarly, 
despite numerous opportunities to focus on CPC in official 
meetings, reactions of our interlocutors were either extremely 
mild or nonexistent.  End summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Media coverage in HCMC of the IRF report and Vietnam's 
designation as a CPC has been subdued.  Most HCMC papers have 
simply provided straight reporting of Vietnam News Agency press 
releases.  (Note: VNA is directly controlled and operated by GVN 
and serves to release statements by government ministries and mass 
organizations.  End note).  To date, only one locally-produced 
editorial denouncing the CPC decision has appeared in any HCMC 
newspaper, and that came from the Cong An Daily (Police), a paper 
that serves as the mouthpiece for the Ministry of Public Security 
and which is known to generally level the harshest criticism at 
U.S. policy.   While Hanoi papers have printed daily interviews 
with religious dignitaries defending Vietnam's religious policies 
(Ref A - Hanoi 2625), to date only one HCMC paper, Nguoi Lao Dong 
(Laborer), has carried a similar interview. 
 
3. (SBU) In contrast to CPC, a trade mission led by Washington 
State Governor Gary Locke received broad, positive, front-page 
coverage in nearly all of the major dailies and prominent inside 
coverage by Saigon Giai Phong, the Communist Party's official 
paper in the South.  The ongoing GVN-sponsored campaign on Agent 
Orange (Ref B - HCMC 1077) also eclipsed CPC here.  In recent days 
all coverage of the CPC decision has virtually disappeared from 
HCMC papers. 
 
4. (SBU) Subdued reaction to CPC was also the norm in ConGen's 
official meetings and private conversations.  Typical was a 
meeting the day of the designation, when the only comment on CPC 
by a senior member of the Communist Party in HCMC to PolOff was 
that while the decision was regrettable, the bilateral 
relationship was still positive on many other fronts.  He then 
shifted the discussion to internal party politics.  Other 
officials have opted to avoid the topic altogether.  In a meeting 
on September 22nd with the Director of the Department of Culture 
and Information, the CG provided numerous openings yet absolutely 
no mention of CPC was made.  Similarly, as PAO met with various 
officials in the Mekong Delta last week, the subject was never 
broached.  This is in stark contrast to the incessant `demarches' 
PAS received at all official meetings in Danang following the 
House passage of the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR 1587) in July. 
 
5. (SBU) When our interlocutors sought to discuss CPC, their focus 
appeared to be more on damage limitation than on hectoring.  One 
official at the HCMC External Relations Office told us that he 
feared that CPC would be exploited by hardliners in the GVN who 
want to obstruct further progress in bilateral ties.  He sought 
guidance as to what the GVN could do to get its views on issues of 
religion out to the U.S. decision makers more effectively and how 
the GVN might avoid sanctions.  He fretted that hardliners would 
particularly benefit were the U.S. to impose sanctions, as the GVN 
"would be forced to retaliate." 
 
 
WINNICK