The Power Elite Playbook, Viet Nam – Plundered: Part IX

 

December 29, 2007 -- Under Ngo Dinh Diem, South Viet Nam’s U.S. puppet, things ran as expected for a while. Sure, there was religious persecution, rigged elections, prohibition of free speech, a managed press and the absence of liberty for the majority – all made acceptable by Article 98 of Diem’s amended constitution. Despite the power perks, Diem began to resent America’s escalating role. Between 1961 and 1963, the U.S. chaos-creating military presence had engaged in “hundreds of firefights” and thousands of bombing raids against “Vietcong positions.” This predictably provoked an angry response from North Viet Nam who wanted to eliminate the “U.S. imperialists” and the “Ngo Dinh Diem clique” and reunite the country. [i]

 

Ngo Dinh Nhu, Diem’s brother/political advisor, further clinched the Ngo family fate when he told a news interviewer in the spring of 1963: “I am anti-communist from the point of view of doctrine, but I am not anti-communist from the point of politics of humanity. I consider the communists as brothers, lost sheep. I am not for an assault against the communists because we are a small country, and we only want to live in peace.” [ii] Furthermore, the U.S. wanted to build a military base at strategic Cam Ranh Bay, great for aerial surveillance of South Vietnam's coastal waters. That did it – Diem and his brother Nhu were assassinated on November 1, 1963 on the instructions of W. Averell Harriman. The airfield at Cam Ranh Bay was opened on November 1, 1965. Pictures are here.

 

Almost four years after the Ngo assassinations, Nguyen van Thieu became America’s more obedient puppet president, serving from September of 1967 until just nine days before North Viet Nam’s invasion of Saigon in April 1975. He consolidated political power in the executive branch by seizing authority from congress. During the final days of the Saigon regime, Graham Martin, U.S. Ambassador to Viet Nam, micro-managed by Henry Kissinger, convinced Thieu to resign. [iii] Thieu resigned in anger, saying the U.S. had failed to keep its monetary promises and its commitment to help South Viet Nam fight for its freedom. He also claimed that Kissinger tricked him into signing the Paris Peace (January 1973) by promising additional aid.

 

Rockefeller agent, Kissinger, purportedly orchestrated Watergate, a distracting media circus that ultimately benefited Kissinger, Ford and Rockefeller. [iv] The unelected Vice President Gerald Ford replaced Nixon on August 9, 1974, possibly as a reward for his accommodating cover-up tactics on the Warren Commission. Ford then used the 25th Amendment to appoint presidential wannabe, Nelson Rockefeller, as his Vice President.

 

Attorney Hillary Rodham, along with Fred Thompson, Trent Lott, and Howard Baker,[v] were on the legal staff of the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate fiasco to help prepare articles of impeachment against Nixon. She landed this job right out of law school, thanks to Ted Kennedy and Burke Marshall. Allegedly, her legal procedures were ethically flawed. [vi] [vii] Later, Bill Clinton took up residence in the Arkansas Governor’s mansion with the assistance of the very influential Winthrop Rockefeller, a former governor of Arkansas. [viii]

 

Mobil Oil and Pecten began exploration drilling in 1975 in the Nam Con Son and Cuu Long basins and found the largest oil field in the South China Sea. Nam Con Son is said to contain 20% of Viet Nam’s oil resources and Cuu Long is said to contain 30% of Viet Nam’s total hydrocarbon resources. [ix] However, all exploration and drilling ended with the 1975 unification of Vietnam. [x]  Mobil Oil Corp. would have to wait almost twenty years (December 21, 1993) to finalize an agreement to continue exploiting Viet Nam’s oil in those same offshore basins. [xi] [xii]

 

The new unified government would not honor the paltry concession agreements previously made with the South Viet Nam puppet government. On June 3, 1974, the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) of the Republic of South Viet Nam Foreign Ministry statement: “The Nguyen Van Thieu administration has no qualifications and right to represent the South Vietnamese people. All the agreements between the Nguyen Van Thieu administration with whatsoever foreign country, whatsoever foreign company or whatsoever corporation on the exploration and exploitation of natural resources in South Viet Nam including oil resources are illegal and unvaluable and completely have no bound on the South Vietnamese people and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Viet Nam.” [xiii]

 

The unified government was open to new joint venture agreements on the condition that they offered increased financial benefits for Viet Nam so they could rebuild their country. This request, rather than the POW/MIA situation, was probably the reason the corporate-controlled U.S. government imposed economic sanctions. 

 

By January 1976, American companies had recognized the business opportunities in Viet Nam with millions of potential consumers and well-educated, hard-working laborers. Viet Nam also had four billion untapped barrels of offshore oil. [xiv] The North Vietnamese had, through the war years, received free oil from their Russia allies. Interestingly, on October 31, 1976, Russia altered its Vietnam oil policy and told the Vietnamese they would henceforth have to pay for their oil. [xv]

 

Up until 1975, North Viet Nam had a state-owned bank – the National Bank of Vietnam. Commercial facilities were non-existent. Foreign trade was difficult until an import-export bank, advantageously established in 1989, promoted foreign investment and transactions. Thereafter, foreign commercial banks were allowed to establish branch offices. [xvi] Anxious to attract capital, Viet Nam established very liberal foreign investment laws. But the bulk of the new business profit ends up in foreign banks. [xvii]

 

Petro Viet Nam, established in 1975, chose to use Production Sharing Contacts (PSC) with oil companies, which allowed greater flexibility and more rights for oil companies on a number of issues. But it wasn’t enough – oil companies wanted more. [xviii] Modifications were made! The Law of Foreign Investment in Vietnam (1987) and the Petroleum Law (1993) plus a system of specialized legal documents and regulations “played an important role in attracting foreign investment into the oil and gas industry.” This included the Joint Operating Agreement (JOA). Further Amendments to the Petroleum Law since June 2000 have given even greater incentives (more money) for foreign investment in the industry. [xix] PetroVietnam has foreign partners: BP Amoco of the United Kingdom, Conoco of the United States, and ONGC of India. [xx] Standard Oil (Rockefeller) bought out British Petroleum (BP) on January 27, 1988 and renamed the newly merged company BP-America. Almost immediately, BP-America bought and merged with smaller companies and is now known as BP-AMOCO. [xxi] Standard Oil also owns Mobil (Exxon-Mobil).

 

Vietnam, through the 1980s failed to produce sufficient grain to feed its citizens. Years of war had created major agricultural problems. Catastrophic contamination and deforestation of 16% of the land by “approximately 72 million liters of herbicides” affected food production and “Vietnam's timber industry. In addition to the chemical warfare, large tracts of land in Vietnam were bulldozed during the war, destroying both vegetation and topsoil. Finally, the nearly 25 million deep craters left behind from the war have left many rice paddies unusable.” [xxii]

 

In 1991, the Soviet Union conveniently collapsed – a calamity to the already unstable Viet Nam economy. This cost Viet Nam almost $2 billion in trade and aid from their Soviet ally. Desperately, Viet Nam's leaders attempted to arrange trade agreements with their neighbors – China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore. In addition, they looked to America. [xxiii]

 

In late 1992, George H. W. Bush allowed U.S. companies to open offices in Vietnam to conduct feasibility studies, but they were prohibited from doing business. [xxiv] Despite opposition from groups such as the National League of POW/MIA Families, the Viet Nam sanctions were lifted by Clinton in 1994 after Viet Nam abandoned all claims for the promised war reparations or any future compensation, including damages for the horrific health consequences resulting from America’s chemical warfare. [xxv] Article 21 of the 1973 peace agreement promised reconstruction aid after the end of the war. President Nixon defined it further “with a list of $3.25 billion worth of projects.” [xxvi] Watergate happened! Rather than the U.S. paying for the willful obliteration of their infrastructure, Viet Nam had to borrow money from the World Bank. [xxvii] The morning after Clinton lifted the sanctions, samples of Pepsi were handed out at street stands in Ho Chi Minh City. [xxviii]

 

Additionally, the POW/MIA emotional argument was challenging for draft-dodger Clinton. Interestingly, the Senate resolution to lift the sanctions was sponsored by Democrat John Kerry and Republican John McCain, both Viet Nam veterans. “That gave Clinton political cover. Kerry gained prominence as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, while McCain spent seven years as a prisoner of war.” [xxix] Standard Oil money had backed the anti-war movement. Most dissenters probably never recognized that fact with the possible exception of Skull and Bones loyalist, John Kerry. Many citizens believe that “the war ended because of strong U.S. sentiment against the war” and antagonism for the profitable military/industrial complex. [xxx]

 

The vanquished Vietnamese had finally conceded! They were receptive to “foreign investment,” newspeak for pillaging. American businesses had paid millions of lobby dollars to compromised congressional leaders to “normalize relations,” [xxxi] a euphemism for access to cheap labor which means bigger profits for multinational companies. By 1994, BankAmerica, Caterpillar, Citibank and General Electric had offices in Hanoi and Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City. [xxxii]

 

After the oil and gas companies infested Viet Nam, opportunists from all areas of commerce, followed. They came “from banking and tourism, to consumer goods and heavy machinery.” [xxxiii] It may be similar to the Halliburton bonanza in the Iraq feeding frenzy. In 1996, the U.S. government made an energy study of every country, like Herbert Hoover’s original study. You may see it here or as a PDF file. Privatization, sanctioned by the corporate-controlled U.S. government, puts the people’s resources into the hands of a few – the Power Elite! 

“In 1994, oil made up 27% of Vietnams total exports of US$3.6 billion. In 1993, annual production of crude oil was 6.3 million tons and reached 7 million tons in 1994. This ranked Vietnam fourth amongst crude oil exporting countries in South East Asia, after Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Since 1988, PetroVietnam has signed 26 PSCs, including a contract to develop and operate the Big Bear field with a consortium of foreign companies led by BP Petroleum (Rockefeller) and a contract with another consortium, which includes Mobil Corporation (Rockefeller).” [xxxiv] As of 2004, “Vietnam was the third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia with output of 400,000 barrels per day. Indonesia is the region's number one producer, followed by Malaysia.” [xxxv]

 

By 1995, about 70% of the population was employed in agriculture which generated 50% of GDP with rice as the top product. At that time “Vietnam was the world's third-largest rice exporter, with 1.7 million tons exported in 1993.” Other major exports were rubber (80,000 tons exported in 1993), coffee (more than 100,000 tons), and tea (20,000 tons).” [xxxvi]

 

Viet Nam was required to join the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) [xxxvii] organized on January 1, 1995 as the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Viet Nam, who applied on January 4, 1995, finally met the rigid requirements and became the WTO's 150th member on 11 January 2007. [xxxviii] The goal of the WTO is the incremental destruction of sovereignty wherein corporations are identified as sovereign entities while legitimate countries are relegated to a subservient status upon which the organization imposes laws. Regulations are unconstitutionally imposed in all “free trade” agreements including the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between Viet Nam and the U.S., which was formalized on December 10, 2001. [xxxix]

 

Despite rich natural resources – oil, natural gas, coal, minerals, agricultural land, forests and marine resources, Viet Nam is one of the world’s poorest countries. It is the 13^th largest country in the world. In 1995, Viet Nam’s GDP (gross domestic product) was 14.86 billion but their per capita income was only $220. [xl] [xli] Currently, there are approximately 85.2 million people in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam with a literacy rate of 90.3% and a per capita income in 2006 of $720. [xlii] The GDP in 2006 was $61 billion. The principle exports are: garments/textiles, crude oil, footwear, rice (now the second-largest exporter in world), sea products, coffee, rubber, and handicrafts. [xliii] Unprotected by inadequate environmental laws, Viet Nam, like China, endures serious pollution emanating from all of those new factories. Due to the economic boom, Viet Nam suffers from overcrowded cities, traffic jams, hard drugs, prostitution and the inevitable disintegration of families. [xliv]

 

At least 270 ships pass through the South China Sea region per day, including more than half the world’s tanker traffic. Tanker traffic through the South China Sea is over three times greater than through the Suez Canal and five times more than through the Panama Canal; twenty five percent of the world’s crude oil passes through the South China Sea. “Oil deposits have been found in most of the adjacent countries of the South China Sea. The South China Sea region has proven oil reserves estimated at about 7.0 billion barrels, and estimated oil production of around 2.5 million barrels per day.” [xlv]

 

In 2002, Viet Nam was the fifth largest producer of anthracite in the world, the sixth largest producer of crude petroleum, and one of the top producers of limonite and zirconium in Asia and the Pacific region. [xlvi]

 

“BP and its partners, ConocoPhillips, ONGC Videsh Limited of India, and PetroVietnam, brought the first phase of the $1.3 billion Nam Con Son project on stream and delivered the first gas in November 2002. The project included development of an off shore gas field; construction of a 399-km pipeline to carry the gas ashore; development of onshore gas-processing facilities; and construction of the 716-megawatt Phu My 3 power plant, which was expected to come on stream in late 2003.” [xlvii]

 

BP Magazine said in 2006: “After more than 15 years in Vietnam, BP can fairly claim to have a stake in the country’s progress. Only a handful of other large foreign companies can boast the continuity of BP’s presence since Hanoi took the first steps towards re-opening Vietnam to foreign investment in 1986 – 11 years after reunification of north and south in 1975 and the end of three decades of war and conflict. Vietnam’s current president, Tran Duc Luong, has described BP as a ‘strategic partner’ in the country’s economic development.” [xlviii]

 

That’s war and U.S. foreign policy. Empower third world countries by selling or giving them armaments. If those country’s leaders prove uncooperative, vilify and invade them under false pretenses; give no-bid contracts to “friends” to build permanent military bases to protect the energy resources in the surrounding area. [xlix] There are 702 American military bases worldwide which are justifiably the target of a growing anti-war movement. [l] This full-spectrum dominance strategy (total control of any situation), used for decades, was formally laid out in Joint Vision 2020, released May 30, 2000 and signed by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Henry Shelton. [li] That is what “America’s War in Viet Nam” was all about!