Of two minds on Vietnam

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Today, Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet will visit the United States. This is the first time a head of state from Vietnam has visited the U.S. since before the end of the war in Vietnam in 1975.

President Triet is making the trip to reciprocate President Bush's state visit to the communist-run country last November. While attending the Asia-Pacific summit in Hanoi, Mr. Bush told Mr. Triet to feel welcome to visit the U.S.

The two presidents are expected to sign a trade agreement in the White House today.

Vietnam is wooing the U.S. and the world with a breathtaking economy. And U.S. and international dollars are flowing into Vietnam. Intel Corp. started construction of a $1 billion semiconductor plant in southern Vietnam in April — just one example of huge U.S. investments in Vietnam.

Microsoft and Vietnam recently signed an intellectual property rights (IPRs) agreement — a breakthrough against pirating IPRs in Asia. Before Vietnam and Microsoft signed the licensing agreement, the software piracy rate in Vietnam was about 90 percent, one of the highest in the world, according to the U.S.-based Business Software Alliance, a piracy watchdog group. A version of Microsoft Windows can be bought on the streets of Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City for as little as 50 cents.

Vietnam also has been forthright about reporting on the bird flu, something China has refused to do. And Vietnam has bent over backwards to help resolve U.S. and other allied POW and MIA cases.

Mr. Triet is expected to be greeted by protesters in the U.S. who support Vietnam's dissident community and human rights activists. Despite plenty of good economic and other news from Vietnam, the country has an abysmal human rights record.

The protesters President Triet will probably see in Washington walk a tricky path. Ironically, although Mr. Triet will be free in the U.S. and undoubtedly well protected and cared for, Vietnamese Americans who engage in human rights advocacy face a strangely coercive dilemma. Many fear for their safety if they return to Vietnam to visit friends and family. Vietnam's communist government frequently scoops up purported trouble makers and jails them without charges — often for stretches more than a year.

This has a very personal twist for me as my Vietnamese-born wife, now an American citizen, wants to show me the place of her birth. Many Vietnamese Americans naturally still call Vietnam "home," even though they abhor the communist government and its human rights abuses.

But many Vietnamese Americans are shrewd business people who also see money making opportunities in Vietnam. They know if they speak out too loudly about human rights abuses in Vietnam, they will be subjected to the abuse when they visit "home."