They'll have to purge themselves first ~ could take 3, maybe 400 years.
No one needs them.
Until the communist party in Vietnam resigns from all government positions, allows full citizenship participation in the selection of a two-year interim government, to be followed by the independent formation of political parties, to be followed by internationally monitored elections for a new government - NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL SHOULD CHANGE OR ADVANCE between the U.S. and communist Vietnam.
This article is a waste of time. It is very apparent these countries can do anything they want anymore and the are still welcome into our new global community. All it takes is a large business to show interest in the area...
Had Kerry been elected it would already have taken place, and with absolutely no preconditions. The Vietnamese people may look to his wing of the Democratic party for sympathy and help no more than they could thirty years ago. Nor may they look to international organizations for pressure on the autocrats to democratize - is such pressure likely to come from the likes of Iran, Zimbabwe, or the Sudan? Russia or China? Is it even likely to come from the unquestioned beneficiaries of democracy, the EU? Anyone old enough to remember the policies of France with respect to the U.S. effort in Vietnam will dissolve in bitter laughter at the idea.
The Vietnamese are not entirely on their own, of course. But democratization will have to come from within, because it's a cold, fat, self-centered and frightened world without.