Vietnam to America: “You Lost, Get Over It”

We trounced Japan in World War II, and several decades later they got even with us. Japanese cars and electronic equipment accomplished what Japanese bombs couldn’t.

In the early 1970s we got our asses kicked in Vietnam (might as well call a spade a spade), and now it’s payback time.

Multinational corporations are waging an aggressive multimillion dollar advertising binge to sell baby formula in Vietnam. Shades of the early 1980s when Nestle wreaked havoc all over the Third World, pushing their baby formula on impoverished families who couldn’t afford it.

The formula would be mixed with water, and since the local water supply was apt to be contaminated, a lot of babies died. There was a lot of global outcry at the time, but it was OK with American conservatives since those dead infants had already been born.

One of Nestle’s most famous advertising billboards showed a picture of a woman breastfeeding her baby, and a big red X was drawn through the picture.

Vietnam has strict laws promoting breastfeeding. The companies pushing their baby formula are either breaking these laws, or (more likely) they have lawyers who know exactly how close to the edge they can go and still be technically within the law.

These companies are paying doctors to promote their products, and these products are being pushed at health clinics. The baby formula industry spent more than $10 million on advertising last year, making it one of Vietnam’s top five advertisers.

Annelies Allain of the International Code Documentation Center said: “The companies have millions of dollars and dozens of lawyers, but the Vietnamese government has a tiny budget and just two people promoting breast-feeding.”

Yeong Joo Kean, an attorney with the same organization, said: “Just when you think you might have a watertight case, you'll get shot down on a technicality.”

Gee, why does the Third World have such deep resentment of the West?