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Vietnam ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed
in 1967 as a regional, economic, cultural, and social cooperative
organization. The original five member nations--Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand (the sixth
member, Brunei, was admitted in January 1984)--had little in
common in their culture, history, or politics. Nevertheless,
after a slow start the organization flourished; by 1987 it had
the fastest growing GNP of all economic groups in the world and
was a key force for regional stability.
ASEAN's charter declares that membership is open to all
states in the region--a gesture toward Vietnam that Hanoi
repeatedly rebuffed. Before Vietnam's invasion and occupation of
Cambodia in December 1978, integration of the three Indochinese
states and ASEAN into a larger regional organization was
discussed within the ASEAN community as a possible solution to
regional problems. The proposal surfaced at an ASEAN summit
meeting held in Bali in January 1976, when, following
reunification, Vietnam requested observer status at ASEAN
meetings. It was understood at the time, however, that the
inclusion of communist states within a grouping of free-market
countries was unprecedented, and the idea was interpreted to be
more a goodwill gesture than a serious proposition.
From 1976 to 1978, ASEAN's differences with Vietnam were both
symbolic and real. ASEAN, for example, proposed establishing
Southeast Asia as a zone of peace, freedom, and neutrality and
invited Vietnam to support the proposal. Hanoi refused but
countered with its own proposal, calling instead for a region of
peace, independence, and neutrality. Apparently, the Vietnamese
objected to the term freedom because of their vulnerability to
criticism on human rights issues. The term Independence,
on the other hand, was promoted by the Vietnamese as a concept
opposing all foreign military bases in Southeast Asia, an idea
that many of the ASEAN nations did not share.
During the Second Indochina War, each ASEAN state pursued its
own Vietnam policy. Malaysia and Indonesia maintained strict
neutrality, whereas Thailand and the Philippines contributed
personnel and materiel to South Vietnam. Perceptions of Vietnam
as a possible threat to the region also varied among member
nations. Indonesia and Malaysia viewed Vietnam as a buffer
against Chinese expansionism, whereas Thailand, wary of possible
repetition of historic patterns of confrontation with Vietnam,
turned to China for protection following the war's end and the
subsequent withdrawal of United States forces from Thailand.
Following the 1978 invasion of Cambodia, however, the ASEAN
nations were united in their condemnation of Hanoi. They took the
lead in mobilizing international opinion against Vietnam, and, in
the UN General Assembly, they annually sponsored resolutions
calling for withdrawal of Vietnamese troops and for
internationally supervised elections. The ASEAN nations also were
instrumental in preventing the Vietnam-sponsored Heng Samrin
regime in Phnom Penh from taking over Cambodia's UN seat. In June
1982, ASEAN was instrumental in persuading three disparate
Cambodian resistance elements to merge into a coalition
resistance government
(see Laos and Cambodia
, this ch.).
ASEAN's position on Cambodia was important to Hanoi, because
it was through ASEAN's efforts at the UN that the world's
attention continued to focus on Cambodia in the late 1980s. The
Vietnamese thus saw ASEAN as having the power to confer upon them
or to deny them legitimacy in Cambodia. Vietnamese diplomats
sought to convince the ASEAN countries that the invasion of
Cambodia was intended to eliminate the threat posed by Pol Pot's
alignment with China. Rather than have its activity in Cambodia
perceived as potentially damaging to ASEAN's security, Vietnam
wanted to assure ASEAN members that it was in the group's
interest to join with Vietnam in countering the Chinese threat to
the region. Cultivating goodwill with key ASEAN members was an
important part of this strategy. Thus, in 1978 Vietnam and the
Philippines agreed to negotiate but failed to settle their
conflicting claims to the Spratly Islands. Foreign Minister
Thach, during a late-1982 visit to Indonesia, took a conciliatory
position in discussing Vietnam's and Indonesia's competing claims
to the Natuna Islands, and in 1984 Hanoi made a similar gesture
to Malaysia in order to help resolve their conflicting claims
over Amboyna Cay. In 1987, however, resolving the war in Cambodia
remained the key to any further resolution of differences between
Vietnam and ASEAN.
Data as of December 1987
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