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JMU PROFESSOR TAUGHT VIETNAMESE THE BUSINESS OF NEGOTIATION | |
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From: Media Relations November 15, 2000HARRISONBURG, Va. – As President Clinton heads to Vietnam as the first American president to visit there since the end of the war 25 years ago, a James Madison University professor who has taught business negotiation in Hanoi says the biggest conflict for Vietnam in recent years has been re-establishing ties with the one nation that could do it the most good. "While countries like Australia and Korea have significant business interests in Vietnam, it is America the Vietnamese most want to do business with," said Dr. Bruce C. McKinney, who completed his second teaching trip to Vietnam last summer. "And, of course, it is America that has been the least responsive." The United States is finally responding, McKinney said, thanks in part to a recent bilateral trade agreement between the two countries. He noted, however, that JMU has been ahead of the official diplomatic curve for several years thanks to collaborative programs in business education with the Vietnamese. McKinney, an assistant professor of speech communication at JMU, said America's former enemy stands in a peculiar economic position. On one hand, they must adhere to communist ideology, while, on the other hand, they have received official sanction to enter the profitable world of capitalism. There are, said McKinney, inevitable conflicts. McKinney's own involvement was through the auspices of Vietnam National University in Hanoi. In May and June, he conducted seminars in business communication, focusing on public relations and how to negotiate in a business setting. The seminars, which he conducted without pay, attracted businessmen from throughout Vietnam. "Americans need to realize that, to the Vietnamese, the war is ancient history," said McKinney, who plans to return to Vietnam soon. "They don't have any grievances against us, and don't want us to have any against them." # # #Writer: Charles Culbertson, Media Relations |
 
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Publisher: Media Relations For Information Contact: JMU News Bureau |
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