the view of those who hold these opinions, Vietnam should never have been recognized until a complete accounting was made, and they fear that without the bargaining chip of recognition to hold over Vietnam, that accounting will never be forthcoming.
To a larger number of Americans, however, including Senator McCain and most Southeast Asia specialists, the normalization of relations with Vietnam marks not the final acceptance of defeat but instead a reversal of fortune that amounts to an ultimate victory. Although the government of Vietnam remains authoritarian and nominally Communist, in practice Vietnam is throwing itself open to the capitalist world. In particular, the Vietnamese political leadership have eagerly sought American business investment in Vietnam--precisely what they once denounced as economic imperialism.
Thus it can be argued that the recognition of Vietnam is a symbolic return in triumph of the United States to a country from which it was forcibly ejected in 1975. By establishing full diplomatic relations with Vietnam, the United States will encourage Vietnam to move further toward the West in economic terms, and ultimately in political terms as well.
More specifically, the normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam, and the economic ties that are expected to follow, will greatly increase American influence within Vietnam (Galloway, 1995, p. 21). Indeed, in the views of Senators McCain and John Kerry, normalization will make it easier to resolve the remaining questions regarding the fate of Americans missing in action from the war (Alter and Moreau, 1995, pp. 34-35).
Apart from the purely bilateral issues bearing on relations between the United States and Vietnam, issues ranging from the fate of service members missing in action to the prospects for profitable American business ventures in Vietnam, further strategic arguments have been put forward for normalization of Vietn...