China Factor And Brzezinski’s Opposition Toward The US-Vietnam Normalization During The Carter Administration

Jimmy Carter was the first elected-President after the Vietnam War,in his tenure(1977-1981)he wanted to build a new image of the United States or restore its prestige especially in the Third World.In the previous period the American military intervention or over-involvement in the internal affairs in some countries of the Third World(especially in Southeast Asia)left a stain on its reputation especially in the Vietnam War.Carter did criticize these involvements as "intellectual and moral poverty" and were “not in the best interests of world peace”1.For those goals,Carter wanted to improve the relations with many countries of the Third World.Regarding the policy toward Vietnam,at the outset of the administration,normalization with Vietnam was considered as one of the first priorities.In his calculation,by normalizing with Vietnam he wanted to heal the wounds of the Vietnam War and write a finis to a disastrous and debilitating episode in American foreign policy as well as in American history.In the other respect,the normalization with Vietnam was also a challenge to the influence of the Soviet Union in the world in general and in Vietnam in particular.He supposed that the countries such as Vietnam were quite independent on the Soviet Union and the United States could exert its influence on the foreign policy of these countries and therefore the United States should “give them options to be our friends and allies,hoping that they will come to a more democratic,free society and join with us in the making of a better world”2.However,in the question of the US-Vietnam normalization,there were two different views which corresponded with two factions within the administration: Cyrus Vance,Secretary of State,headed the faction supported it and Brzezinski,National Security Advisor headed the faction opposed it.According to Vance,by normalizing the relations with Vietnam the United States could exert influence on Vietnamese foreign policy,drew Vietnam out of the Soviet influence and also sustained the stability in Southeast Asia.In contrast,Brzezinski supposed that the United States would have no benefit in normalizing with Vietnam and it could affect negatively the normalization of relations with China,the strategic actor in his new containment policy with the aim to contain the Soviet Union.In this thesis,I will make clear the rationales behind the opposition of Brzezinski towards the USVietnam normalization or why Brzezinski opposed the US-Vietnam normalization.This one is also the research question of the thesis.As we know Brzezinski was a geo-politician,a geo-strategist.He viewed the world under the prism of US-Soviet relationship or East-West confrontation.It was the antiSoviet view that decided the policy of Brzezinski towards Vietnam and China.In Brzezinski’s view the Soviet Union was the direct competitor of the United States as well as an aggressor always wanted to exert its influence throughout the world.It was the primary source of the instability in the Third World countries thereby the United States must contain them by any means.To contain the Soviet Union’s ambition Brzezinski proposed many measures such as strengthened the US’s capability,enhanced the traditional alliances(Western Europe,Japan…),conducted the policy of linkage.Furthermore,the other way was to ally with China,the Soviets’ enemy.In Brzezinski’s strategy,China played a significant role in the communist world especially in Africa where the Soviets were working influence.China at this time under the leadership of Deng Xiao Ping(de facto leader)was conducting the radical economic reform.But in his view of foreign policy he still considered the Soviet Union as a dangerous enemy,remained the policy of the previous leaderships(Mao era and Gang of Four).These two factors made China improve the relationship with the United States as the number one superpower with large market,abundant sources of capital or technology-science…as well as a counterweight to the Soviets.So China could not be a better card for the US strategy in containing the Soviet Union.However also at this time,the Vietnam-China relations became worse,the dispute stemmed from the divergence between the two countries in the Vietnam War about how to conduct the war now emerged and became more exacerbated by new territorial disputes,the ethnic Chinese issue,the Vietnam-Cambodia conflict.In the context of Soviet-China split,the Vietnamese was getting tilt towards the Soviet Union to be against China and Cambodia.The tension between the two countries reached high peak in 1978.The Chinese condemned Vietnam pursued policies against China also pursued hegemony in Indochina peninsula.The Chinese leaders reviled Vietnam as a “petit hegemony”,“ungrateful”,“Asian Cuba”.Vietnam retaliated by stating that China was a most dangerous enemy and expressed its intention to intervene into Cambodia to overthrow Polpot regime backed by China.In the Carter administration,Brzezinski was the most dynamic figure in conducting the China policy.In every conversation between Chinese and American leaders,Brzezinski found that how the Vietnam issue was important to China.Regarding the Chinese attitude toward the US-Vietnam normalization he felt that they were unpleasant or even in their mind opposed it.As Brzezinski viewed,Vietnam was just merely a Soviet proxy or Soviet ally.The United States could not influence on the Vietnamese foreign policy thereby there would be no benefit in the normalization of relations with Vietnam.Being afraid that if the United States still continued to carry out the normalization with Vietnam would offend Beijing so Brzezinski opposed it by convincing the President Jimmy Carter to postpone it.He by one way or other convinced the President that China was the top leading priority in American foreign policy and could not let Vietnam derail the US-China normalization as he indicated in a memorandum to the President on July 7th 1978.However,at this time,Carter still wanted to normalize with Vietnam.Until September 1978 as Vietnam dropped the reconstruction aid as a precondition the normalization as in their hands(Vietnam for this time was the key factor to whether achieve the normalization or not).The meetings between Vietnam and the United States in New York on 22 nd and 27 th of September reached an arrangement that the two countries would normalize relations till the end of the Congressional election in early November.Brzezinski did not accept this,he did not want to see any improvement between Vietnam and the US until the normalization with China accomplished.So Brzezinski continued to convince Carter to postpone the normalization with Vietnam with a high degree of determination.China was of the paramount importance so Carter decided to postpone the normalization with Vietnam at the middle of October to let the normalization with China goes smoothly.After postponing the normalization with Vietnam,in the final months of 1978,a series of developments occurred such as the friendship and cooperation treaty between Vietnam and the Soviet Union,the increase of refugee exodus and especially the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.Those seemed reinforce more Brzezinski’s view of the normalization and put off this process.