From: vinsight@netcom.com (Chan T. Vninsight)
Subject: Notable Quotes
Originator: daemon@media.mit.edu
Reply-To: vinsight@netcom.com
Organization: N/A
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 08:05:48 GMT


NOTABLE QUOTES

"The evil doctrine of communism has suffered mortal blows in the 1990s.
Communist regime have been overthrown in almost every country. In the
Soviet Union, the birthplace of Marxist/Leninist dictatorships, people
are demanding freedom and have resisted attempts to restore repression.
I am sure that it cannot be long before the brave people of Vietnam are
also able to regain their freedom and independence. The defeat of
communism cannot be long delayed."

By Sir Philip Goodhart, M.P. House of Commons, Britain who sent this
message upon a meeting of the Movement for the Cessation of the
Communist Regime in Vietnam on October 26, 1991 at the Trafalgar Square,
London.

***********************

"Without investment, our economy cannot grow, but we will be talking
about investment in a post-apartheid South Africa, not now."

Statement by Mr. Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National
Congress, during his recent trip to the United States to urge delay in
aid to the white minority government currently in power.

***********************

"To reward the Vietnamese Communist regime for the negligible progress
they have made on Cambodia and POW/MIAs by lifting the trade embargo --
besides being an insult to veterans who served in Southeast Asia --
would amount to a major concession on the part of the United States with
no quid pro quo. To the Vietnamese communist leaders, this would be
perceived as a sure sign of weakness.

"It would not lead to further cooperation, but further intransigence. It
would strengthen the hard-line communist gerontocracy at the expense of
reform-minded younger members. The United States must therefore maintain
the current policy -- at least until the objectives in these two areas
(The Cambodian settlement and resolution of POW/MIAs issue) are
achieved.

"However, once these conditions are met, the United States should not
immediately normalize relations, but instead use the normalization
process to press for further progress -- especially on human rights. As
Lane Kirkland of the AFL-CIO accurately put it in a letter to Secretary
of State James Baker, the United States should "expect the government of
Vietnam to move forward in normalizing relations with its own people"
and that "the two types of normalization go hand in hand."

By Representative Robert K. Dornan of California, USA

*******************************

"The myth that 'increased commercial contact' has a salutary effect on
human rights practices should have been laid to rest by the U.S.
experience with China, which crushed democratic demonstrations while
enjoying 'Most Favored Nation' trading status with the United States.
Re-establishing trading relations will indicate to the Vietnamese
government, not outrage with its repressive tactics, but acquiescence.

"The campaign against religion in Vietnam offers good measure of the
communist government's contempt for rights in general....A government
that refuses to recognize this most fundamental right is by definition
totalitarian and incapable of permitting other liberties."

By Anne Himmelfarb, a research associate for Puebla Institute in
Washington, D.C. USA.
-- 
Vietnam Insight (vinsight@netcom.com)
Chan Tran, editor
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese