Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Speech By
H.E. Standing Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung
at Johns Hopkins University (Washington D.C)
(December 10th, 2001)

Distinguished Members of the Management,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Friends and Students,

I am deeply grateful to the Board of Management of Johns Hopkins University for inviting me to visit this outstanding educational institution and giving me the opportunity to address the young students here.

I always find it interesting to talk to students, no matter when and where. The young generation is the master of the future. Whether coming from the United States or any other country, you all represent the future of your country. On this occasion, I would like to convey to you the warmest regards and best wishes from the remote country of Vietnam, especially from her younger generation.

For quite a long time in the United States, Vietnam was merely associated with a war that should not have happened at all; a war with painful memories. Today, Vietnam is no longer thought of and talked about just as memories of a war, but as a country, a people and a culture.

This is a positive change in the mindset of the American people. On that basis I hope that you, as young people, will look at Vietnam with a broader, more in-depth and farther-sighted vision.

Vietnam is a nation of 4000-year history. That nation was dominated by foreign forces for as long as most of the first millennium AD, yet lived on without having been assimilated. After regaining independence for the first time in 939, the nation had to fight 16 other wars of resistance against foreign invaders. In the 20th century, she was forced to take up arms to fight against foreign invasions for her independence, freedom, national unification, survival and development. We hope that those were the last wars in our history to safeguard our national independence, unity and territorial integrity.

The history of national defense and building with untold sweat and bloods has forged a Vietnam's vitality, a distinct cultural identity, a resilient internal strength for development, and a capability to adapt herself to the times and harmoniously co-exist with other nations in the world.

Friends,

Having endured enormous pains and losses of wars, the Vietnamese nation understands profoundly and treasures the sanctity of peace, democracy, independence and freedom, as our President Ho Chi Minh has affirmed,