IF, as expected, United States President Bill Clinton lifts the 19-year-old trade embargo against Vietnam it will simply validate what a growing number of critics have been expounding recently.
The embargo's original intention to punish the Vietnamese and force them to account for the US soldiers missing in action (MIA) has simply lost its connection with the new economic realities.
Asia has become the world's economic engine and the US cannot afford to stand on the sidelines while foreign rivals capitalise on the opportunities now emerging in all countries, including Vietnam.
Perhaps the most damning criticism about the embargo is the fact it has lost its bite by failing to stop US products from being sold in Vietnam or enhancing a resolution to the MIA issue.
You only have to walk down streets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to find a wide variety of US goods ranging from Marlboro cigarettes to Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola and Levi's jeans - many of them smuggled into the country or legitimately imported by Singapore wholesalers.
Perhaps the best indication of effective foreign strategy adopted by the US is its policy of engagement with China.
