Anti-American Propaganda in Vietnam

By Christelle Nguyen On January 11, 2020, Hanh, who was living in Long Bien district in Hanoi, was unable to contact her parents all day long, either by phone or on the internet. Spokesperson of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Le Thu Hang was quoted as saying: “Vietnam holds that the U.S. Department of State’s presentation of the award to Pham Thi Doan Trang, a person who has violated Vietnamese law and has been brought to trial and is serving her prison sentence, is a subjective act that is neither appropriate for nor conducive to the development of the Vietnam-U.S. relations.” According to a retired U.S. diplomat, “The Marxist-Leninist view I see often in Nhan Dan and other official organs holds that the United States is fundamentally hostile to proletarian socialist regimes, as evidenced by its support 30-some years ago of ‘color revolutions.’ ” To the CPV, the fact that Vietnam was elected for a 2023-2025 tenure at the United Nations Human Rights Council in late 2022 justified its criticism of the United States and U.S.-based Vietnamese organizations. “Those who distort and reject human rights achievements in Vietnam today are mostly the far-right forces in Western countries, mainly in the U.S., the overseas Vietnamese far-right forces, and local Vietnamese bribed and used by foreign far-right forces to undermine the ideological foundation and socio-political regime in Vietnam,”asserted an article titled “Countering the allegation that ‘Vietnam’s human rights record remains dire’ ” in the online journal “Political Theory,” an “academic” mouthpiece of the CPV. Since the 1980s, the United States – where many Vietnamese top leaders sent their children to study – has often been described in the national discourses as typifying “capitalism in death throes.” Following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, Vietnam has been facing threats of U.S. sanctions over its military ties with Moscow, given that around 80 percent of Hanoi’s arms are imported from Russia. In a joint declaration issued during the visit, both committed to wrestle with external challenges, including “color revolutions” and “criticism of their human rights records.” “The party/state can only rely on the United States to act in U.S. interest, which may or may not coincide with Vietnam’s interest,” the U.S. diplomat said.