May 18--REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON -- President Obama is considering broadly expanding weapons sales to Vietnam in a move aimed at strengthening ties with Hanoi and boosting regional defenses against China's growing clout.
As Obama prepares to visit Vietnam this weekend, U.S. officials say he is leaning toward a partial lift -- but has not ruled out a full suspension -- of the ban on arms sales begun during the U.S. war in Vietnam and eased slightly in 2014.
At the same time, the Vietnamese government is examining a request to grant the U.S. Navy greater access to Cam Ranh Bay, a major supply point for the U.S. military during the Vietnam conflict, and a port with direct access to the increasingly contested islands in the South China Sea.
Obama has not made a final decision, administration officials say. But the changes, if approved, would mark a dramatic upgrade in U.S. relations with an authoritarian Communist government that the State Department considers a routine abuser of human rights.
White House concerns about Vietnam's lack of progress on civil liberties and political freedoms have held up a decision to end the ban on arms sales -- first imposed on North Vietnam in 1964 and later extended it to cover the entire country after the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government fell in 1975.
In the 1990s, President Clinton lifted the trade embargo with an executive directive to his agencies but left in place restrictions imposed by Congress to prohibit sales of weapons and certain high-technology material. The two countries restored diplomatic relations in 1995.
In 2014, Obama eased restrictions on lethal arms to Vietnam, with his State Department insisting the change only affected maritime surveillance and security-related systems. That change has allowed the sale of patrol boats with mounted machine guns, for example.
Obama now is looking at wiping out other parts of the ban, according to senior defense officials and others briefed on the deliberations.
Closer military ties between the two former enemies dovetail with Obama's steady push since 2011 for a strategic U.S. "rebalance" toward Asia and the Pacific.
In recent months, the administration has refreshed its defense treaty with Japan and has sought congressional support for a 12-nation free trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a priority for the White House.
It also has urged China to settle territorial disputes with Vietnam and other countries in the resource-rich South China Sea. The Pentagon has sent U.S. warships and surveillance planes close to several contested islands and reefs where China has built airstrips and other facilities.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Vietnam veteran and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he expects Obama to lift the embargo and that the Vietnamese government will grant the U.S. Navy greater access to Cam Ranh Bay.
McCain, who long has called for greater normalization of relations, supports the effort.
"Given the Chinese aggressive behavior in the region, it should not be inappropriate to allow [Vietnam] to have weapons with which to defend themselves particularly in the maritime area ... where the potential for confrontation exists," McCain said in an interview.
Vietnamese officials would like Obama to eliminate the arms ban and open the way to greater normalization of relations.
In recent weeks, Obama administration officials have pushed Vietnam to improve its treatment of political opponents and allow other human rights reforms before Obama departs Saturday on a weeklong trip to Vietnam and Japan.
The State Department's annual report on human rights for 2015 said Vietnam had continued to enforce "severe government restrictions of citizens' political rights, particularly their right to change their government through free and fair elections," among other abuses.
The issue is closely watched on Capitol Hill, and the House could vote as early as Wednesday on an amendment urging the White House to make any expansion of arms sales to Vietnam contingent on human rights progress.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who has expressed concern about lifting the embargo, said doing so would "send a not-too-subtle message to China at a time when it is threatening regional stability in the South China Sea."
"But it should not open the floodgates for sales of lethal equipment," Leahy said. "Those decisions are made on a case-by-case basis ... [and] should reflect an assessment of the relevant factors including progress by the Vietnamese government in protecting human rights."
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