'Plowman' on the BTA 'field'
“I was born in Nam Dan. Since I was 10 years old, I started to go through the Lam River to collect grass and firewood. My father taught me how to plow, and I plowed very well. My father often told me: The plowed path must be plowed straight. If you want a straight path, you must look far ahead.” With that simple philosophy, “plowman” Nguyen Dinh Luong persistently and tenaciously entered into a battle of wits for more than 5 years with America’s leading speakers.
Le Xuan /Technique:Hong Toai• September 16, 2025
.png)
Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong grew up with a difficult childhood, but full of memories of bowls of rice mixed with potatoes when coming home from school with his family, of times with his friends going to Trang Den to cut firewood. In 1960, after graduating from high school, he took the entrance exam to the Polytechnic University with the dream of becoming a mechanical engineer. However, a month after enrolling, the head of the department called him up to inform him that he had been selected to study abroad in the Soviet Union. After taking a basic Russian course at Gia Lam University of Foreign Languages, Hanoi, the mechanical engineering student was assigned to study foreign trade at the Moscow School of International Relations.
At that time, foreign trade was still a new field, not many people understood it. Curious, Nguyen Dinh Luong asked about the major and received the answer, it was the major of... "treating skin diseases". At that moment, he understood that he was a countryman, no one supported him, no organization assigned him to go wherever he wanted, he only had one determination to rise up, study hard and study really well.
However, when he went to Moscow, Nguyen Dinh Luong learned that the school he was studying at was a place that trained the children of high-ranking diplomatic leaders of Eastern European countries, and that graduates from this school could become international negotiators. That ignited a new dream in the poor young man from Nghe An.
Returning to Vietnam, Nguyen Dinh Luong was assigned to the Foreign Trade University. Here, he worked hard to become the Secretary of the School Youth Union and Head of the Party Committee's Inspection Board.
In 1978, Vietnam was preparing to negotiate to join the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance - Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SEV). As a person who was well-trained in foreign trade and fluent in Russian, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong was asked to transfer to Department 1, Ministry of Trade. Since then, he has traveled to socialist countries around the world, made friends, and built friendly relationships. He became the Director of Department 1 and continued his work with capitalist countries such as Singapore, Canada and some non-EU European countries such as Norway, Switzerland, etc.
On November 5, 1996, at a meeting to discuss preparations for economic and trade negotiations with the United States, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Duc Luong, in charge of foreign economic relations, decided to establish an “Inter-ministerial Working Group on the Economic and Trade Agreement with the United States”. Right at the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister decided to “appoint comrade Nguyen Dinh Luong as team leader” to the surprise of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong, who seemed unable to react.
.png)
Entering the negotiations, the relationship between Vietnam and the US still had a deep gap, encapsulated by the two words "former enemies".
Vietnam has gone through many wars against invaders, but perhaps, no war has seen such a huge amount of weapons and bombs rained down like the war the US waged in Vietnam. There is almost no village left intact, no family that has not suffered loss and pain... Even though the war has ended, the haunting, mental pain left behind still lingers.
On the US side, as Ms. Virginia Foote, President of the US-Vietnam Trade Council said, “the war in Vietnam was a political headache for the US”. In history, the US with its state-of-the-art military equipment has never lost to anyone. The failure in Vietnam has become “a writhing pain in the heart of US politics”.
From the haunting pain of war, an atmosphere of suspicion covered the entire negotiating table. Although bilateral diplomatic relations had been normalized, people still found it difficult to accept doing business with the enemy. Former Secretary of State Kissinger's words still lingered in the minds of many people with a worry: "If the Americans do not win the war, they will win in peacetime." All that pressure weighed heavily on the shoulders of negotiators from both sides.
That is why, the 5 years of negotiation were 5 years that Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong walked on the fragile line between merit and crime. Negotiating with the US was a fierce battle of wits, an effort to surpass oneself in knowledge and work intensity, but more difficult was the effort to persuade and find consensus within the country on the benefits of the Agreement. During those 5 years, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong experienced many difficulties, at times he seemed to collapse, but the extremely strong light of national interests and ethnic interests illuminated in his heart a determination: "Whatever needs to be done must be done, and done to the end". "If I have to die at the negotiating table, I must sign it". He longed that with the pressure from the agreement, Vietnam would break the "ask - give" mechanism, "monopoly", and the cumbersome and ineffective way of doing business, thereby creating a legal framework in line with international standards, creating momentum for the Vietnamese economy to integrate with the world economy.
Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong said that if the Geneva negotiations had allowed us to have the Dien Bien Phu victory that would have been resounding throughout the world, shaking the world. If the Paris negotiations had allowed us to have consecutive victories on the battlefields, and the US was in a weak position and wanted to withdraw, then with the BTA negotiations, we would be in a completely different situation, with nothing to lose. With 20 years of experience negotiating bilateral trade agreements, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong mainly negotiated with socialist countries, on the same political and economic regime. In this negotiation, the two sides understood almost nothing about each other. On the Vietnamese side, when accepting the WTO rules as the common rules for the Vietnam-US BTA negotiations, everything was strange to the negotiators.
On the US side, due to differences in economic systems, they also did not understand anything about Vietnam’s trade system and laws. Therefore, the first rounds of negotiations were essentially a struggle for understanding between the two sides, asking questions about the trade systems, trade laws and trade policies of the two countries.
With the belief that “if you don’t understand your partner, you won’t succeed”, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong and the members of the delegation learned about the United States, about the WTO… He read the book “American Culture” to pieces, and traveled everywhere to “seek out a teacher and learn from him”. He went to Ho Chi Minh City to meet Professor Nguyen Xuan Oanh, who had served two terms at the IMF, and met experts from China, Poland, Russia, and Hungary. During that time, for him, there were almost no Sundays or holidays. He rarely went home. His life revolved around chapters, terms, and countless documents on international trade law. Once, after working too hard, he fell face down from the table onto the tiled floor right in his office at the Ministry of Trade headquarters. He was immediately taken to Hospital 108 for a CT scan. The doctor breathed a sigh of relief, luckily, the fall did not affect his brain, he just needed to rest and regain his strength…
In 1997, while struggling to find a way to reach the Agreement, the US government allowed the invitation of American consultants and Ms. Virginia Foote, president of the US-Vietnam Trade Council, appeared. She introduced experts and professors to lecture to the negotiating team, and Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong chose lawyer Dan Price, who used to work for the US Trade Representative, who negotiated the BTA with the Soviet Union and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).
Under the consultation of Dan Price, everything gradually became clear. The Vietnamese negotiating team designed and adjusted the Draft Agreement on each area of Intellectual Property, Investment, Services... to best suit Vietnam's conditions. The 350-page submission was completed and sent to the superior agencies, but not everyone supported it. A colleague at the Ministry of Commerce told him: the responsibility of the negotiators is to design a legal framework that does not conflict with the current legal framework. But, if there is no amendment, how can Vietnam export to the US market? Society needs benefits to develop. China, Singapore, Japan... have entered the US market, why not Vietnam?
Therefore, in parallel with the negotiation process, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong decided to seek help from Ms. Virginia Foote. Through Ms. Foote, he sought funding from the US Agency for International Development, inviting American professors to Vietnam to talk to ministries and sectors about the benefits of international economic integration, globalization and the WTO. This was an important preparation step: finding consensus in the country before finding consensus from partners at the negotiating table.
And by May 1998, at the 5th round of negotiations in Washington, the negotiations had entered into substance. The completed blueprint, compared to the version the US side had proposed 8 months earlier, had been changed quite a bit. In particular, the Trade in Services chapter was completely rewritten. After receiving the blueprint, Joe Damond, head of the US BTA negotiating delegation, was surprised and exclaimed: "We are so surprised at Vietnam's progress. Negotiating with a partner like you, I am also happy." The US side completely accepted our adjustments and thanked Vietnam for providing a roadmap that the US could apply to countries with similar conditions that had never had a model before.
On July 25, 1999, after four years of negotiations, the two sides issued a press release, confirming that negotiators from both sides had reached an agreement in principle on the terms of the Bilateral Trade Agreement. Both sides hoped and agreed that the signing ceremony would take place in Auckland, New Zealand in September 1999, on the occasion of the APEC Conference. But the signing did not take place. The US side was disappointed. Ms. Virginia Foote recalled: “Near the end, we missed the opportunity and wasted time for a reason that was not worthy of its importance to the Vietnamese economy as well as to the US business community.”
Mr. Joe Damond said: “Clearly, Vietnam believed that you needed more time to study and review that agreement. We wasted several months.”
Later, it was the efforts of Ms. Virginia Foote in her role as shuttle diplomat that brought the two sides closer together and helped them understand each other better. And the expected signing day arrived.
In his memoir “Give Trade a Chance”, Joseph Damond recounted: “At 3:00 p.m. on July 13, 2000, I checked the preparations for the signing ceremony. The room was ready. Rhonda had finished printing. But no one could see Mr. Luong and his team. Nancy Leamond, the White House liaison, became impatient. She said it was time to sign. I conveyed the message to Minister Vu Khoan, but he still did not move. He wanted to wait for Mr. Luong, who had done all the work, and wait for the printed copy from the Vietnamese delegation. Finally, Charlene (US Secretary of State) had to solve the problem by suggesting to Mr. Vu Khoan that the two Ministers would officially sign the following day. However, a record still needed to be signed right away so that the President could declare the signing ceremony had taken place. The two Ministers sat down at the table and signed the document in English only. When finished, Nancy urged us to hurry to the White House.
But Mr. Luong was still nowhere to be seen and was in danger of missing the ceremony at the White House. Mr. Vu Khoan was clearly disappointed, and I felt pain. We moved slowly towards the White House. As we were about to enter, Mr. Luong’s car rushed down Highway 17. Just a few seconds, just one red light and he would have been missed…”.
Where did Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong actually go at that crucial moment? In fact, before leaving, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had very carefully prepared for the delegation the Agreement Cover, several hundred sheets of bordered paper, the paper used for the Agreement of Vietnam. However, in the US there was no printer for hard paper. After much struggling, the Vietnamese negotiating delegation finally printed the Agreement from a disc onto blank American paper and then took photos of it, printing and taking photos of nearly 300 sheets for the two ministries of Vietnam and the US. The work took nearly a day to complete.
Fortunately, in the last seconds, he was present, with the Vietnamese negotiating team entering the White House, witnessing the historic moment, when the US President read the speech announcing the signing ceremony of the Agreement, opening a new page in the history of the two nations.
This agreement is yet another reminder that former enemies can come together and find common ground in a way that benefits their peoples, letting go of the past, embracing the future, forgiving and reconciling.
Excerpt from President Bill Clinton's speech at the press conference after the Vietnam - United States signing ceremony
After 5 years and 11 rounds of negotiations, on July 13, 2000, the Vietnam - US Bilateral Trade Agreement was signed. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong and his colleagues recorded a significant historical milestone in Vietnam's integration process. Like a farmer who had finished plowing a field, he lit incense and reported to his late father: "The most difficult thing in my life, I have done. I have paid my debt to life. I am worthy of my father."
BTA opened the door for Vietnam to truly integrate into the global economy, changed old ways of thinking, shattered the stagnant iceberg of the subsidized economy, toppled the bronze pillar supporting the "begging-giving" economy, and dismantled the legal box of monopoly and discrimination... The desire of the farmer Nguyen Dinh Luong reached its destination, opening a new path, bringing Vietnam up, standing shoulder to shoulder with the world powers.
Mr. Joe Damond was very young when he was appointed as the head of the US BTA negotiating delegation, only 30-35 years old. His memories were not burdened by war stories. On the contrary, with the mindset of a young person, he saw that Vietnam had the potential of an emerging market, and Vietnam needed the US market to develop, that is why he put his faith in the Agreement.
.jpg)
However, when he learned that Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong, who played an important role in the negotiations, was trained in Russia and spoke Russian fluently, Mr. Joe feared the worst.
But it turned out not to be as Joe feared. Despite his extensive experience at the negotiating table, Nguyen Dinh Luong never imposed. He knew how to let the members at the negotiating table express their own views, speak out the difficult points and together find a solution. With his straightforward and honest manner, he knew how to "pick up each pebble to fill the gap, or take care of each needle to gradually untangle the tangled thread".
Business negotiations are negotiations to build long-term partnerships. To have partnerships, there must be trust. To have trust, there must be frankness and honesty.
Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong
It was this honesty that built trust through each round of negotiations, towards a common goal of mutual benefit. Later, Mr. Joe himself affirmed that one of the most important reasons why Vietnam and the United States were able to sign the BTA was that the negotiators of both sides were able to build trust and mutual understanding.
Twenty years after the successful signing of the agreement, Mr. Joe Damond wrote to his friend: “Dear my friend, Nguyen Dinh Luong!
I do not know if the two sides could have understood each other, if Vietnam had not chosen someone with intelligence, perseverance, endurance and a sense of humor as the head of the negotiating team. It was a completely unexpected experience for me, that in the end we did not become opponents at the negotiating table but almost became partners with the same mission. That mission is to build mutual understanding to draft an agreement that is beneficial to both sides.".
Not only Damond, but also his American friends have shown Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong good feelings and admiration for his will, courage and sharp, erudite intelligence. Mr. Dan Price wrote a letter expressing his feelings: “It has been a great honor to have worked with him and his talented colleagues. He has been a role model for us all, dedicating himself to the common cause. His country and all those he inspired are deeply grateful to him.".
Over the past 30 years, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong has always maintained a close friendship with his American friends, especially Joe Damond. Whenever they had the chance, they would sit down and talk to each other, sharing about their lives, their families and their children. After signing the Agreement, Mr. Joe Damond left his job at the US Government. He is currently the Vice President in charge of finance at BIO - the largest pharmaceutical alliance in the United States. He has returned to Vietnam for many projects, with a burning desire to contribute to making Vietnam a world leader in the global biopharmaceutical industry. And in the stories, when talking about his Vietnamese friends, about Vietnam, Mr. Joe Damond often puts his hand on his left chest as an affirmation: "Vietnam - my heart has chosen".
Looking back on the journey he has gone through, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong always believes that if he had not been born in the sunny and windy land of Nghe An, and had not been trained in the steadfastness and hardship of his childhood, he would have had difficulty overcoming many difficulties to reach the end of the road.
In his room on Dang Tien Dong Street (Hanoi), there is still a photo of the historic moment when he met US President Bill Clinton, and two poems written about him by his friends. The poems are very short, but enough to express his noble spirit, strong character and a wholehearted devotion to the country.
A person who is not a Buddha but very Buddhist
Don't bathe in the Yellow River, bathe in the Lam River
A very Marxist, but not Marxist
Poor as soy sauce, sweet as orange
A person transformed into a citizen
One heart, one soul, one country
Life is ever changing but never changing
A complete person only Vietnam.Tran Viet Phuong - former Secretary of Prime Minister Pham Van Dong
dedicated to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Luong
